Community band has new director

Formerly known as the Bordeaux Community Band, the band will now be called the Chadron Community Symphonic Band and will be directed by Dr. Michael Stephens, who joined the music faculty at Chadron State College this fall.

Stephens replaces Carola Winkle, who founded the band in the fall of 1994 and had directed it since then until retiring last spring. To honor Winkle, it was decided to also retire the name of the band and give it a new one.

Rehearsals for the fall semester will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28 in the Band Room of Memorial Hall. They will continue each Tuesday evening leading to the concert on Nov. 27.

Stephens said he has seen programs from previous concerts and will continue the pattern he observed of playing a wide variety of music that is “fun, interesting and challenging.”

Stephens is originally from Geneva, Ohio, a community similar in size to Chadron located in northeastern Ohio.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, graduating with honors in 1990.

He also earned his master’s degree from Kent State in 2002 and was conferred a doctor of philosophy in music composition and theory from the University of Pittsburgh on Aug. 11.

“I am glad I was able to complete my doctorate prior to coming here,” Stephens said. “Now I can give all my attention to my duties here.”

Besides teaching and directing the community band, Stephens plans to compose music and play the saxophone on occasion.

Stephens has considerable teaching experience that he believes will serve him well at Chadron State.

For two years after earning his bachelor’s degree he taught music at four parochial elementary schools in Ohio. He then was the band director five years at Immaculate Conception School at Ravenna, Ohio. While earning his master’s degree he taught music theory courses at Kent State.

He also taught woodwinds for Woodsy’s Music, a private music firm in Kent, Ohio, for 10 years before beginning work on his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh.

At Pittsburgh, his teaching assignments included several levels of Music Theory, Musicianship, Music Since 1945, History of Jazz and Electronic and Computer Music.

Stephens said he definitely plans to do more composing. His composition dissertation, “Baptism,” an eight-minute piece for chamber orchestra, was commissioned by the Duquesne University Contemporary Ensemble and has been performed twice in Pittsburgh. Other numbers he wrote have been performed by the Kent State and University of Pittsburgh orchestras.

Stephens met his wife, Lauren, while both were teaching at Woodsy’s Music. She has a degree in music education from Kent State and taught several years in schools in the Youngstown, Ohio, area while he was working on his doctorate. The couple has a daughter, Alyssa, who will be 2 years old in October, and is expecting another child in November.