Lois Ferrari
Professor of Music
Areas of expertise
Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Conducting
My mission at SU is to not only encourage my students to be excellent, uncompromising musicians, but to also contribute to the holistic enrichment of their intellectual, physical, and emotional well-being.
Education
Doctor of Musical Arts, Eastman School of Music 1993
Master of Music, Ithaca College School of Music 1989
Bachelor of Music, Ithaca College School of Music 1984
transferred , SUNY Albany 1980
Positions
Doctoral Fellow
Eastman School of Music
August 01, 1991 - May 01, 1993
HS Band Director
Marcus Whitman ISD
August 01, 1989 - June 01, 1991
Teaching Assistant
Ithaca College
August 01, 1987 - May 01, 1989
MS Orchestra and Band Director
Levittown ISD
August 01, 1984 - June 01, 1987
Teaching Philosophy
As I consider my mission as a professor at Southwestern University, I feel it is important to focus on what first drew me to this kind of institution. My bachelors and masters degrees were both earned at a college with a philosophy similar to that of SU, but at the time I don't think I was fully aware of what a liberal arts education was all about.
As a high school student, I had always been equally interested in many diverse subjects, from science and music to English and sports. Even as a first-year college student I couldn't decide what my ultimate career direction would be. I was majoring in biology and minoring in music but was also involved in a number of other curricular and extracurricular activities.
After deciding on music as a career, the focus of my curriculum narrowed somewhat but not enough to diminish my desire for a balanced education. In the liberal arts setting of Ithaca College, I happily juggled life in the music school with membership on the softball team and in anthropology and physics classes. In essence, I had always lived a liberal arts life without having made a conscious effort to do so.
Throughout my public school teaching career, I maintained my interest in diverse areas and incorporated them within my style of teaching. As music unites properties found in nearly all other disciplines (math, language, science, etc.), it can be considered a paramount example of a liberal art. Rarely a day passes when the opportunity to quote a classic writer to future music educators, discuss acoustics with the Solfege class, or excite the spirit of the Wind Ensemble with references to why the piece they're studying was written doesn't present itself. I cherish these opportunities as they enable me, as an educator, to help create, mold, and influence students who seek what I perceive to be the most important kind of education -- a well-balanced one.
This concept of being well-balanced is not only valuable as an educational ideal but as a spiritual and emotional one as well. Through a liberal arts education, a student acquires an appreciation for other academic and social disciplines as well as for their peers and mentors; thus, they emerge after four years a well-rounded individual, able to communicate intelligently with the outside, real world. From this solidly grounded beginning, a liberal arts graduate can pursue a meaningful life, rich from the many treasures of a diverse and balanced education.
Previous Courses
Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Beginning Conducting, Advanced Conducting, Woodwind Methods, Applied Flute, Solfege/Ear Training I & II, Music Education Seminar, Student Teaching supervision
Research
Ongoing research - score preparation and repertoire research for six Austin Civic Orchestra concerts per year.
Instrumental Music Programs and the Liberal Arts College - research conducted during Fall 2004 SU sabbatical.
Piece of Mind and Shakata: Two Wind Band Compositions by Dana Wilson - research conducted as part of 1997 doctoral dissertation project and concert; Eastman School of Music
Professional Work
Music Director - Austin Civic Orchestra - http://www.austincivicorchestra.org
Clinician Conductor - Washington All-State, Houston All-Region, Austin All-City, local HS bands and orchestras
Chair - Small College Intercollegiate Band (CBDNA)
Board Member - Journal of Band Research (CBDNA)
Publications
Instrumental Music Programs and the Liberal Arts College (in progress)
That's No Lady... That's the Conductor! - BD Guide (1995)
Stop Buying Junk - BD Guide (1992)
Performances
Please visit: http://www.austincivicorchestra.org
Recent highlights:
2012 - TX premiere - Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, by David Amram - Austin Civic Orchestra
2011 - sold out concert at the Rollins Theater at the Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX) - Austin Civic Orchestra
2010 - sold out concert at the Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, TX) - Austin Civic Orchestra
2010 - world premiere - {{{ The Answers are in the Arches }}}, by Travis Jeffords - Austin Civic Orchestra - winner of the 2009 ACO composition contest
2009 - world premiere - Lament, by Jason Hoogerhyde - Austin Civic Orchestra - Nominated for 2009 Austin Critics' Table award for Best Symphonic Performance
2009 - world premiere - The Color of Dissonance, by Jason Hoogerhyde - SU Orchestra (with Chorale and Music Faculty soloists)
2009 - world premiere - Fantaisie und Variations uber den Zigeunermarsch aus Weber's Preziosa, by Felix Mendelssohn and Ignatz Moscheles, edited and recreated by J. Michael Cooper and Jonathan Bellman - Austin Civic Orchestra
Creative Works
Screenplays - On the Fence (optioned) and Ruby's Quest (in progress)
Stage Play - On the Fence
Sitcom Teleplay - The Nanny: Wreck the Malls and Strokes of Luck
Drama Teleplay - Star Trek Voyager: Cogito Ergo Sum
Seminars & Presentations
Speaker - "Creating from the Void" - First United Methodist Church, Georgetown, TX
Moderator - Wind Orchestration Presentation - Donald Hunsberger and Mark Rogers - Eastman Wind Ensemble 50th Anniversary Celebration, Eastman School of Music
Conductor - Chosen Gems of the Wind Band Literature - CBDNA national conferences
Doctoral dissertation selected for presentation at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference, Hamamatsu, Japan
Honors & Awards
2012 1st Runner-Up - The American Prize in Orchestral Conducting (community orchestra division)
2012 Finalist - The American Prize in Orchestral Performance (Austin Civic Orchestra)
First woman to conduct at the Long Center for the Performing Arts - Austin, TX
Full Doctoral Fellowship - Eastman School of Music
Full Graduate Assistanship - Ithaca College School of Music
Finalist - Frederick Fennell Young Conductors' Competition (2x)
Conducting Fellowship - University of South Carolina Conductors Institute
Best Stage Play - Moondance International Film Festival
Best Sitcom Teleplay - Moondance International Film Festival
Best Screenplay runner-up - Moondance International Film Festival
Groups & Affiliations
CBDNA, CODA, Conductors' Guild, Pi Kappa Lambda, Sigma Alpha Iota, TMEA, WASBE
Interests
Flying, Baseball, Cats, Cooking, Golf, Playwriting/Screenwriting
