| Music Director -- John Saint Amour | Associate Director -- Joseph Denti | Composer in Residence -- Roger Firestone |
John A. Saint Amour
Music Director
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John A. Saint Amour earned
his bachelor’s of music degree in music education from the
Crane School of Music at Potsdam College (NY). While
still a student, he began his conducting and music directing career
when he was selected to serve as musical director for productions at
Potsdam
College and Clarkson University.
Mr. Saint Amour began his professional career as a musical theatre
actor in Syracuse, NY, performing in five main stage productions during
his first season. He later put his
education degree to use as the chorus teacher and drama director at
Union Springs Jr./Sr. High School. While there he directed
each
year’s
spring musical and a community theatre performance of Gian Carlo
Menotti’s operetta “Amahl and the Night
Visitors” (1996). He also
served
as a Guest Panelist for the program “Building Music Theatre
Programs in
Schools” at the 1995 NYSSMA State Conference.
In 1998 he moved to Greensboro, NC, and became the Director of Bands
and
Chorus at Thomasville City High School. His band earned
numerous awards
and superior music ratings and his students were selected to
participate
in all-county and all-state regional festivals. Two of his
conducting
students went on to become drum majors at Appalachian State University.
Mr. Saint Amour returned to the theatre once again in City Arts/CTG
production of “Forever Plaid” where he earned a
1999-2000 Harlequin Best
Actor Nomination.
In 2001, he moved to Washington, DC, to pursue a master’s
degree in
instrumental conducting at George Mason University, which he completed
in 2003. Linking his theatre experience with his conducting
experience,
Mr. Saint Amour’s graduate research focused on the use of
theatre games
as an aid in helping undergraduate students of conducting to become
more expressive conductors.
During those same years, Mr. Saint Amour served as the Assitant
Conductor of the Washington Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Kirk E.
Wilke for the 2002-2003 season, served as guest conductor of the 2002
Columbus (OH) Horn Day and as conductor for St Mark’s
Catholic Church’s
production of “Guys and Dolls” (2003) in Vienna,
Stonewall Jackson High
School’s production of “Anything Goes”
(2002) in Manassas, and George
Mason University’s Dance Company production of David
Parson’s “The
Envelope” (2002).
Mr. Saint Amour studied conducting with Maestro Anthony Maiello,
Director of Instrumental Studies at George Mason University, and with
Dr. Timothy Topolewski, conductor of the Crane School of Music Wind
Ensemble and former solo clarinetist with the U.S. Army Band,
“Pershing’s
Own.”
An avid (French) horn player and baritone singer, Mr. Saint Amour has
performed with the Library of Congress Chorale, Philharmonia of
Greensboro, Onondaga County MEA Wind Ensemble, Virginia Grand Military
Band, Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and most recently was selected to sing
with the National Philharmonic Chorale.
In addition to his duties with the Vienna Community Band, Mr. Saint
Amour is the Music
Director of Arts United of Washington, D.C., a growing performing arts
company
with the mission to unite music, dance, and theatre for unique
professional performances and to provide training for youths in each
art
form. He is also a Copyright Examiner in the Performing Arts
Section of
the U.S. Copyright Office.
Contact Mr. Saint Amour by clicking
here.
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Joseph R. Denti
Associate Director
Joseph
R. Denti
received his
bachelor’s degree in music
education in 1998 and master’s degree in music education with
an instrumental
conducting concentration in 2002 from
Mr.
Denti’s primary
conducting and tuba instructors include
Anthony Maiello, Robert Cameron, and Neal Tidwell. Joe serves as a
guest
conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for band and orchestra in the
northern
Roger M. Firestone
Composer in Residence
A Washington, DC native, Roger M. Firestone nevertheless grew up from the age of 1 year in St. Paul, Minnesota, and began his musical education there at the age of four, studying piano with Agnes Lisowsky in St. Paul, MN. Mrs. Lisowsky passed away in late 2005 at the age of 99, teaching voice and piano almost to the end.
Dr. Firestone selected the flute as his wind instrument in elementary
school, studying with Shirley Stettner Jackson and John Nyberg from the
fifth grade into high school. High school was also where he
first
studied composition and orchestration, under band director Fred
Daniels,
who also provided instruction on French horn, clarinet, and percussion
to Dr. Firestone. Peter Lisowsky, Agnes’ late
husband, also offered
advice and guidance in orchestration principles; Peter was the founder
and long-time conductor of the St. Paul Center Orchestra.
Dr. Firestone performed instrumental music through high school, in
college with the Brown University Band, in graduate school with two
orchestras and one band at New York University, and there after with
such groups as the St. Paul Center Orchestra (under Dr. James Sample,
Peter Lisowsky having passed away by that time), the Yu’val
Chamber
Orchestra in Minneapolis, the St. Thomas College Band (St. Paul), the
Ambler (Pa.) Symphony, The Philadelphia Doctors’ Symphony,
the Lower
Merion (Pa.) Symphony, the Merion Musical Society Band, and the
Philadelphia JYC Orchestra. While living in St. Paul, during
and after
graduate school, Dr. Firestone studied privately with Emil Opava,
principal flutist of the Minnesota Orchestra (1935-1944 and 1953-69).
After moving to Northern Virginia in 1987, Dr. Firestone served as a
temporary replacement with the Mclean Symphony under Dingwall Fleary,
and later that year joined the Vienna Community Band in a 3rd Flute
chair, playing that year’s Father’s Day concert
“cold.”
The development of music scoring software facilitated music arrangement
and composition even more than word processing software did for
writing,
and that led Dr. Firestone to take up composing and orchestration
again, in the late 1980s. Early software did not support the
number of
instruments in a concert band, so he concentrated on material for
chamber groups, particularly the wind quintet. Some of these
were
performed by members of the Vienna Community Band when a wind quintet
was organized for a brief period. Others were heard more
recently in
the form of duets for flute and oboe, also performed by Vienna
Community
Band musicians.
As later software with the capacity for handling large scores became
available, Dr. Firestone turned to works for band. The first
of these
to be performed by the Vienna Community Band was an arrangement of the
third movement of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s concerto for
trumpet. A
number of other works have followed in recent years, both arrangements
of works by other composers not commonly heard in the band setting
(such
as vocal pieces by Ludwig Lewandowski) and original compositions
(“Day
of Light, Day of Joy,” “Dawson Masonic
March,” “Hornpipe for Fat
Cats”).
Dr. Firestone holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees
from Brown
University, master’s and doctor’s degrees from New
York
University--Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and an MBA from
the University of St. Thomas.
Dr. Firestone has served as Musician of Henry Lodge No. 57, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia since 1990, and was appointed General Grand Musician of the General Grand Council of Cryptic Masons, International for the 2002-05 Triennium. He is the author of articles on the relationship between music and Freemasonry, notably "Mozart's Other Masonic Opera," discussing the Masonic elements of Mozart's "Abduction From the Seraglio", which has been widely reprinted.
Dr. Firestone has also performed in the “pit” for a
number of musical
theater productions (in the Twin Cities, Philadelphia area, and
northern
Virginia), while his vocal skills have seen him on the
“boards” for more
than three dozen musicals, dramas, comedies, and two films.
He is
listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America.