AMEA 2006
Clinicians and Performers Vanessa Watts
received both her BME and MME from the University of Mississippi. She was the band director at Good Hope High School in Cullman, Alabama for 23 years. She retired from teaching June 1, 2005. Her bands at Good Hope consistently received Superior ratings at both marching and concert compe- titions. Along with judging marching contests around the state, Vanessa has served the ABA as District Chairman and as host for the All-State Jr. High Band. She has also served as guest conductor for numerous honor bands and is on the staff of the Southeastern All-Star Summer Music Camp at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, AL. Mrs. Watts is a member of ABA, MENC, AMEA and the Association of American Educators.
James Kimmel, Associate Professor of Music, serves on the faculty of Belmont University's School of Music where he teaches conducting and music education classes in addition to conducting COMPANY and the Belmont POPS CHORALE. He is an active personality among music educators and a popular choral clinician, with a diverse background including church music, all levels of public school music education, more than a decade in educational music publishing and eighteen year in uni- versity teaching. Choirs under his direction have performed nationwide, and have been honored to perform for MENC and ACDA conventions, the most recent being the Southern Regional ACDA Convention in February of 2004 and the National ACDA Convention in February of 2005. Mr. Kimmel is Minister of Music at the 2500 member First United Methodist Church-Franklin, where he
conducts two adult choirs. He is currently a member of the writing team for MUSIC EXPRESSIONS, a Choral Music Method for Middle and High Schools published by Warner Brothers Publications Mr. Kimmel is Past President of both the Iowa and Illinois chapters of ACDA, and is currently serving as the show Choir Standards and Repertoire Chair for the southern Division of ACDA. He has authored articles in the Choral Journal and was a presenter at the National ACDA Convention in Phoenix, AZ. In July 1989, he received the distinguished Robert M. McCowen award from the Iowa Choral Directors Association. In 1997, The Illinois choral Directors commissioned Stephen Paulus to compose Musicquotes for Mr. Kimmel, in honor of his service to the state's choral directors.
He has received the Outstanding Music Educator of
the Year award form the Belmont University chapter of Phi Mu Alpha, and has also been the recipient of the Jaycees Outstanding Young Educator Award. Kimmel earned his BME at Hastings College, in Hastings, Nebraska, his MME from Northwest Missouri State University, and has completed additional studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
The Shades Valley High School Percussion Ensemble was formed in the spring of 1998 as an additional performance outlet for the percussion performers in the Shades Valley High School Band Program. It has been active since then and the ensemble's schedule is more active each year. The group has taken on different personalities and sizes through the years, even splitting into two and three different sub- groups from time to time. There are normally between twelve and twen- ty members in the Shades Valley Percussion Ensemble and the students gain membership by audition. The group performs music from many dif- ferent cultures, styles, and genre. In any given concert the Shades Valley Percussion Ensemble may perform orchestral transcriptions or arrange-
ments, original percussion ensemble literature, Latin music, calypso and soca music from the Caribbean, pop music arrangements, as well as traditional African drumming.
In 2001 the group was chosen to perform at the National
Convention of the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music. At the convention, the group performed a concert of exclusively African music and African inspired music. The music of several well-known composers such as Babatunde Olatunji, Carlos Santana and Phil Faini was performed as well as traditional drumming from Uganda and Ghana. The group also played the world premiere performance of Plains of Mozambique, composed by their conductor, Gregory L. Gumina for the occasion of the convention. The ensemble has received superior ratings and numer- ous Best in Class Awards at festivals and competitions throughout the southeast. Recently the ensemble was featured on NBC 13 as a featured group on their Morning Show. The Shades Valley Percussion Ensemble continues to offer students the ability to learn many styles of music while presenting opportunities for performance outside the standard school band repertoire.
ala breve - October 2005 27
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