 | John Bell, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, conducts the Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds, teaches conducting and music education courses, supervises all aspects of the wind/percussion program and serves as coordinator of Music Auditions and Scholarships. He earned Doctors and Masters degrees from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Louisiana State University where he served on the Golden Band From Tigerland staff. Prior to his present appointment Dr. Bell was Associate Director of Bands at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where he directed the Pride of the Rockies, UNC's 180-member marching band. Seven years of Dr. Bell's career were spent in the public schools of suburban Chicago, where he was Director of Bands and Chair of the Department of Music at Willowbrook High School. Between 1983 and 1988 he served as the brass caption head for both the Cavaliers and Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. Ensembles under his direction have toured the Midwest, England and Europe, have performed twice in New York City's Carnegie Hall and for national meetings of the Music Educators National Conference, state meetings of the Illinois and Colorado Music Educators Associations, and divisional conferences of the North Central and Southwest Divisions of the College Band Directors National Association. Bell's ensembles have premiered 12 works for band and he is a contributing author to the acclaimed series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. In November of 2000, he served a conducting residency in Taipei, Taiwan, presenting conducting master-classes to Taiwanese conductors under the auspices of the Sirens Band of Taipei. In addition he presented clinics at universities and high schools including the Taipei American School. The Southern Illinois Wind Symphony has recorded five CD projects including a disk for the Mark Custom Recording label series Distinguished Music for Young Band. Their latest recording project, Russian Portraits, includes a premiere of a new critical edition Carl Simpson wind orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky. All recordings are available on the Mark Custom Recording label. Dr. Bell is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, CBDNA, ASBDA, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. He is a judge for Drum Corps International and adjudicates concert and marching bands throughout the United States and Canada. In 1997 he was music director for the American Music Ambassadors Honors Band on their tour of Europe, and he has directed honors and all-state bands in the Republic of China, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Colorado and Nebraska. |
