Ira Shankman

Ira Shankman joined the NYU faculty after 38 years as an educator and professional musician. While working for the New York City Department of Education, Professor Shankman distinguished himself as a music teacher (JHS 271, Curtis High School), assistant principal (Seward Park High School, Stevenson High School) and principal (Talent Unlimited High School). He was the founder and director of the NY All-City High School Marching Band and conducted award winning bands, choruses and jazz choirs. He served on the faculties of Wagner, Passaic County Community and Hostos Community Colleges. An arts-in-education advocate, he contributed to the development of the DOE multicultural curriculum and the Chancellor’s Curriculum Frameworks . He was the New York City zone representative to the New York State School Music Association and still plays an active role in the organization by chairing adjudication festivals for over 2000 students, serving on association committees and as a choral and vocal jazz adjudicator.

As a clinician, he conducted workshops on Vocal Jazz Techniques and Integrated Software Usage. In September of 2001, he was the arts consultant to the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and worked with founder Tony Bennett and the principal to launch the school. In addition to his educational career, Ira Shankman founded and directed “Vocal Jazz Inc.”, a professional vocal jazz ensemble. He worked as a music director/conductor in regional theatre and theme parks and is a published arranger. His awards include a Grammy nomination for “Best Arrangement for Voices” (“High Clouds”, Grapevine Records), Music Educator of the Year (Black Music Caucus, MENC), Principal of Note (Music Educator’s Association of NYC) and New York State School Music Association’s 2005 Distinguished Service Award.

 

Nina Gilbert

Nina Gilbert is the Director of Choral Activities at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Her musical background ranges from Kenya, East Africa, where she translated Schubert's Mass in G into Swahili while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer (1978-80); to New York, where she served as associate conductor of the New York Choral Society, working in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (1995-96).

Recent guest appearances include conducting the Colorado Men's All-State Honor Chorus, touring Australia with performances and workshops in Melbourne (Monash University) and Brisbane; and headlining the 1999 Minnesota state chapter convention of the American Choral Directors Association. Her work with men's voices is unusually extensive, as she directed men's choirs at Wabash College for seven years and served as the first female board member for the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses.

Dr. Gilbert holds degrees from Stanford, Indiana, and Princeton Universities.

She has taught at Hamilton, Ferrum, and Wabash colleges and the University of California-Irvine School of the Arts, plus summer sessions at the Hartt School (University of Hartford, Connecticut) and Westminster Choir College (Rider University, New Jersey). She has about twenty-five choral arrangements and editions in print, and serves as Associate Editor of the Choral Journal and Official Music Historian for Answer Guy at ESPN Magazine.

 

Theodore Wiprud

Theodore Wiprud (born 1958, Washington, DC) is a composer and educator who currently serves as Director of Education at the New York Philharmonic. His music, noted for harmonic richness, innovative form, and intense expression, frequently deals with spiritual experience. Such works range from chamber and orchestral music responding to Dante's Divine Comedy, to choral music on a variety of texts, to scores like Dark Love, a spiritual journey expressed through percussion ensemble. Hosannas of the Second Heaven has been performed by a number of orchestras in the United States and Europe. Anima, for percussion ensemble, is played by groups across the country.

As an innovative concert producer, Mr. Wiprud has created many stimulating programs of recent music. He currently programs a variety of chamber concerts for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, including the acclaimed series Music Off The Walls at the Brooklyn Museum. As an educator, he has introduced thousands of students to living composers and their craft. Mr. Wiprud’s responsibilities at the New York Philharmonic include the famous Young People’s Concerts, the new Very Young People’s Concerts, the pioneering School Partnership Program, a growing array of adult education programs, and a close partnership with the New York City Department of Education to train music teachers throughout the city.

Theodore Wiprud’s music is published by Allemar Music. He earned his A.B. in Biochemistry at Harvard and his M.Mus. in Theory and Composition at Boston University. He studied at Cambridge University as a Visiting Scholar. His principal composition teachers have been David Del Tredici and Robin Holloway.

 

Barbara Baker

Barbara Wesley Baker, internationally noted conductor and educator, conducts the Chamber, Women’s, Men’s, Concert Chorale and Gospel Choirs at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Her choirs have won numerous first place trophies and superior ratings at state, national and international festivals. Dr. Baker frequently presents sessions at division and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She has conducted master classes at the Toronto International Music Festival and the Choral Music Experience/British Choral Institute, Hertfordshire, England for Dr. Doreen Rao. Dr. Baker conducted the ACDA 2000 Eastern Division High School Honor Choir, and her Chamber Choir performed with Dave Brubeck at the 2000 MENC National Convention in Washington, D.C. She has guest-conducted state and regional honor choirs in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia, as well as in Canada. Dr. Baker has taught and conducted secondary school students in Limerick and Dublin, Ireland, for the Royal Dublin Society. Dr. Baker has taught at the Hartt School of Music, Western Maryland College and at the Brightleaf Music Workshop at Duke University.

 

Emily Crocker

Emily Holt Crocker, Founder and Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Children's Choir, and Cantorei Choir Director, is recognized nationally as a leading expert in children's choirs.

As a composer, Ms. Crocker's works have been performed around the world and she has received ASCAP awards for concert music since 1986. She is well known for her work in developing choral instructional materials and is an author of Experiencing Choral Music, a choral textbook series for grades 6-12, published by McGraw-Hill/Glencoe. As a guest conductor, she led the Midwinter Children's Choral Festival in Carnegie Hall in 1999 and 2001 and has conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Pops Orchestra and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra in performances with the Milwaukee Children's Choir. In 2002 she was awarded the Excellence in Youth Music award from the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee.

After a 15 year teaching career in her native Texas, in 1989 she joined the music publishing industry and is now Vice President of Choral Publications for Hal Leonard Corporation in Milwaukee.