Miles Acts as Featured Conductor at the National Music Educator's Conference

April 28, 2008

DURANT, Okla. ­ Dr. Miles, Chair of the SOSU Department of Fine Arts, recently was a featured conductor at the National Music Educator's Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Miles was invited to conduct the world premiere of a new work commissioned by the National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors. Carl Shimmel, of Duke University, was chosen to compose the work by a panel of judges including Southeastern faculty member Dr. James Wintle. The new work, titled The Life of Towns, is a seven-movement work based on poems by Jay Parini. The work for six winds and percussion was performed by a collection of college professors of wind instruments who came from universities across the country to perform the piece. Dr. Miles states, "In this programmatic work the composer used the complete palette of sounds available to him on the different instruments involved. He also used a variety of complex tonal and rhythmic devices to create soundscapes that effectively projected the images of the different poems."

Working on only four hours of rehearsal time, Dr. Miles successfully guided the ensemble through a performance of the work for a large crowd attending the Music Educator's Conference. The performance was received well by both the audience and the composer. Miles added, "In interpreting, and conducting contemporary music you often feel more like a traffic cop than a conductor, but this work allowed for both technical and musical interpretation from the conductor, so it was an enjoyable musical experience."