Faculty - Conducting

To Alphabetical Listing
Back to Faculty Home



Heather Buchanan
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Choral Activities

Music Education
973-655-7913
buchananh@mail.montclair.edu

Australian born choral conductor Heather J. Buchanan is a vibrant performer and dynamic pedagogue, having earned widespread recognition and respect for her work in the USA and abroad.  She conducts the 150-voice MSU Chorale and 50-voice University Singers in a wide range of concert settings including MSU Peak Performances, main stage professional collaborations with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, choral festivals in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and European venues such as the Ferenc Liszt Zeneakadémia in Budapest, Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, and the Tsarskoe Selo in St. Petersburg.  She is highly sought after as a guest conductor and teacher for organizations in the USA, Europe and Australia.  Prior to Montclair she was on the conducting faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University for five years, where she conducted Westminster Schola Cantorum and taught graduate and undergraduate conducting. A certified Andover Educator, Ms. Buchanan specializes in the applications of Body Mapping (somatic pedagogy) for musicians and is a passionate advocate for promoting awareness of issues relating to musicians’ health.  She is also a Ph.D. candidate with the University of New England (Australia) researching the impact of Body Mapping on student musicians’ perceptions of their performance and development. Ms. Buchanan consistently receives glowing reviews of her performances, most recently for her work with the Elmer Gantry opera chorus, which garnered accolades from both the New York Times and the New Jersey Star Ledger critics (January 2008) for its “heartfelt conviction,” “new-minted enthusiasm, vibrancy,” and being “a marvel of diction, tuning and rhythm.” Choirs under her direction have won critical acclaim for their “impeccable dynamics and diction,” “vibrant sound,” and singing with the “crispness and dexterity of a professional choir.” Ms. Buchanan is co-editor and compiler of the GIA choral series Teaching Music through Performance in Choir (Vol. 2, 2007; Vol. 1, 2005), has published a DVD-video Evoking Sound:  Body Mapping & Gesture Fundamentals (GIA Publications: 2004 &2002), and two choral octavos in the Evoking Sound Choral Series (GIA). 


Mary Ann Craig
Professor of Music
Former Director of Bands
Euphonium
973-655-7779
craigm@mail.montclair.edu

Prof. Mary Ann Craig teaches conducting, brass classes, and applied euphonium. She is immediate Past President of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association, an organization of 2,000 members from over forty countries. As a conductor Prof. Craig conducted the leading professional, military, and conservatory concert bands in Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary, and the World Honors Ensemble in Finland. She was awarded the title of Honored Professor of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts in 2003 for the contributions she has made to the development of wind bands in Russia. Prof. Craig has been the New Jersey State Chair for the College Band Directors National Association and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors. She served on the Board of Directors of the International Women's Brass Conference and as Chair for the Society for Music Teacher Education-Eastern Division. Prof. Craig was the first woman to be invited to be guest conductor of the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band Festival since its founding. As a euphonium soloist and low brass clinician, Prof. Craig has appeared throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia, and Canada. She is the founder of the Colonial Euphonium and Tuba Institute and a member of the Colonial Tuba Quartet (CTQ). Prof. Craig has released two solo euphonium recordings as well as a CD with the CTQ. She is featured in Anne Gray's Women in Classical Music.


Paul Hostetter
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Orchestral Studies
973-655-7584
hostetterp@mail.montclair.edu

Conductor Paul Hostetter has extensive experience working with both professional and student orchestras. In addition to conducting at MSU, he is the music director for the Colonial Symphony and conducts Sequitur, a contemporary music ensemble. He is the former conductor of the High Mountain Symphony and New Jersey Youth Symphony. He has served as music director of the Winter Sun Music Festival (St. Petersburg, FL) and the Festival Orchestra at the Stony Brook Summer Festival (Long Island, NY). His appearances as guest conductor include performances with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Delaware Symphony, and opera companies including the New York City Opera and Genesis Opera. On Broadway, he was the Associate Conductor for Leonard Bernstein's Candide where he led over forty performances, as well as for The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. He has collaborated on recordings with jazz greats Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Joe Lovano, with strings from the Orchestra of St. Luke's in a recording for Telarc, and with Heidi Grant Murphy and members of the Metropolitan Opera for Koch. He has also recorded for the CRI, Zadick, Mode, Albany, and Milkin Archive labels.


Thomas McCauley
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of University Bands
973-655-7036
mccauleyt@mail.montclair.edu

Thomas McCauley is the conductor of the Montclair State University Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band. He came to the Cali School from the University of Indianapolis, where he was Director of Instrumental Music Activities and the founder of the University of Indianapolis Chamber (later Symphony) Orchestra. He earned a Doctor of Music degree in conducting from Northwestern University where his primary teacher was Mallory Thompson, and holds a Master and Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been mentored by such notable conductors as Larry Rachleff and Stanley DeRusha. At Montclair, he has initiated a workshop called the Weekend Wind Conducting Symposium held in November with special guest clinicians from around the world. This builds on his work as the host and teacher of University of Indianapolis Instrumental Conducting Workshop with such notable guest clinicians as Eugene Corporon, Jerry Junkin, Craig Kirchhoff, Felix Hauswirth, and Mallory Thompson. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Northshore Concert Band, as associate conductor of the Indianapolis Brass Choir at the 15th International Congress of the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Band Music in Italy, and he has led the University of Indianapolis Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra on a tour of the major cities of Austria. He was the creator and host of Music Education Matters, a 30-minute radio talk show heard weekly on WICR in Indianapolis. In 1995, the Nevada Music Educator’s Association named Dr. McCauley Music Educator of the Year and in 2006, the Indiana Music Educators Association honored Dr. McCauley with an Outstanding University Music Educator Award.

 

 
top top