Randal Swiggum - Music Director and Youth Symphony Conductor

RANDAL SWIGGUM, Music Director and Youth Symphony Conductor Now in his thirteenth season with the EYSO, Randal Swiggum has helped raise the profile of the EYSO as one of the premier regional youth orchestras in the country. Under his tenure, the EYSO has more than tripled in size, drawing students from a wide geographical range of over sixty communities in Illinois and Wisconsin, with five orchestras, a brass choir, a vibrant chamber music program and performances at Ravinia, on NPR's From the Top, and with superstars Midori and Yo Yo Ma, as well as headlining the Aberdeen Scotland International Festival. A frequent guest conductor of orchestral and choral festivals, he recently conducted the APAC Festival Orchestra in Seoul, Korea, the first ever Pennsylvania ACDA/PMEA All-State Junior High Choir, the New York City InterSchool Festival, the Singapore American Schools Music Festival, the MENC All-Northwest Honor Choir in Portland, and American Mennonite Schools Orchestra Festival, the Northern Arizona Honors Orchestra, and both the Wisconsin Middle Level Honors Choir and Orchestra. Last season, he conducted the Georgia All- State Orchestra, a new series of Family Concerts with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and made a return visit to Scotland to conduct the Scottish National Youth Symphony.

A passionate advocate for a richer learning experience in choir, band, and orchestra, he has served as Chair of the Wisconsin CMP (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance) Project, now in its 34th year. A frequent presenter at MENC, ASTA, and ACDA conferences, he has addressed the Pennsylvania MENC on "The Art of Rehearsing," as well as the Maryland MENC, the ACDA North Central Division in Des Moines and Eastern Division in Hartford, CT, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, and national conventions of the MENC in Phoenix and Kansas City. He has conducted successful performance tours to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Scotland, and throughout the U.S. His choirs performed throughout Italy under the auspices of UNESCO, in Brazil as guests of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Intercultura Brasil, and with the Icelandic National Symphony in Reykjavik under the direction of Lukas Foss. He conducted the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. Well known to Wisconsin theatre audiences as a conductor of opera and musical theatre, he has music directed over thirty stage works including the 1991 premiere of the Theatre X opera, Liberace. He created the music for celebrated director Eric Simonsen's new production of Moby Dick for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, named by TIME magazine as one of the 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2002.

As a writer, Swiggum has served as music critic for the Milwaukee Journal, as author of the book Strategies for Teaching, published by MENC (1998), and as a co-author of Shaping Sound Musicians (GIA, 2003). He has served on the League of American Orchestra's Board of Directors-Youth Orchestra Division. He was Artistic Director of the Madison Children's Choir from 1996-2000, and currently conducts the Madison Boychoir's top two choirs, Britten and Holst. He has taught at Whitefish Bay High School (Milwaukee), and at the University of Wisconsin and Lawrence University. His degrees are in music education (B.M.) and orchestral conducting (M.M.) and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2005, Swiggum was named Education Conductor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. His acclaimed young people's concerts with the ESO have prompted invitations to create and conduct similar concerts at the Aberdeen International Festival, and with the Boise Philharmonic and The Florida Orchestra in Tampa/St. Petersburg, where he designs and conducts twenty concerts a year aimed at introducing young people to the magic of symphonic music. In 2007, he made his subscription concert debut with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and "The Mambo Kings." In 2008 Swiggum was recognized by the Illinois Council of Orchestras with a Conductor of the Year award. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Besides travel, biking, reading, and trying new food, he likes to ponder things.

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David Anderson - Philharmonia Orchestra and The Chamber Music Institute Director

DAVID ANDERSON is in his fourth year as conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Director of the Chamber Music Institute. With the 2010-2011 season, he begins his tenure as Music Director of the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra. In addition, David is currently a member of the music faculty at Beloit College, where he teaches private and class piano, coaches piano ensembles, and accompanies the Chamber Singers. 

A native of Clovis, New Mexico, David received his initial musical instruction at the piano. He attended Baylor University, where he earned two degrees in piano performance (BM, summa cum laude and MM, with distinction). During his residence at Baylor, David performed extensively, receiving numerous awards. While at Baylor, David began conducting studies under the guidance of Stephen Heyde.

At the University of Illinois, David earned an MM in orchestral conducting with Donald Schleicher; while there he served as ensemble manager for the University of Illinois orchestra program and as Assistant Conductor for the Quad City Symphony. He was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship for the 2006-07 academic year, which funded travel throughout the country to study with master conducting teachers. In 2006, David was a finalist for the Conductor's Guild' prestigious Thelma A. Robinson award.

David has collaborated with soloists Midori, Timothy Ehlen, Rick Rowley, and the Chicago cast of the Jersey Boys. In addition to the ensembles of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, he has worked with the Quad City Symphony; the orchestras, opera, and new music ensemble of the University of Illinois; Baylor Symphony Orchestra; Beloit College Orchestra; and the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra. He has given clinics for the orchestras of Olivet Nazarene University, NCJC (a Northern Illinois junior high honors group), and numerous schools throughout the Chicago suburbs. David has received additional instruction through active participation at workshops under the guidance of Leonard Slatkin, Gustav Meier, Giancarlo Guerrero, Kenneth Kiesler, Victor Yampolsky, David Hoose, Christopher Zimmerman, Kenneth Woods, Emily Freeman Brown, and Peter Bay.

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Jason Flaks - Brass Choir

JASON FLAKS begins his thirteenth season as Associate Conductor of the EYSO and conductor of the EYSO Brass Choir. Flaks, a native of Elgin, began playing trumpet at age ten and has been involved with youth orchestras since his high school days as a trumpet player with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the McHenry County Youth Orchestra. In high school and college, Flaks toured the U.S. and Europe with groups ranging in musical style from classical to punk rock and ska. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and earned his Master’s Degree in music education at Northwestern University in the summer of 2003. Flaks serves as Director of Bands at both Geneva Middle Schools and continues to perform throughout the Chicago area as a free lance trumpet player, and as a member of the Illinois Brass Band. His previous teachers have included John Aley, Bruce Daugherty, William Scarlett, and James Thompson.

E-mail Jason Flaks

Daniel Beder - Sinfonia

DANIEL BEDER joined the EYSO staff in 2009 as the Prelude Orchestra conductor and will conduct Sinfonia this fall. Daniel currently teaches orchestra, plays cello in the Jan Sobieski String Quartet, and maintains a private cello studio. Originally from the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, Wisconsin, he played in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, the largest youth orchestra program in the country. Daniel is a graduate of Oberlin College, where his degrees are in music history and theory, and mathematics. At Oberlin, he studied cello with Catharina Meints and conducting with Steven Smith, and was a participant in a Conductor's Showcase. Later, as a graduate student in music education at New York University, he was named the Assistant Conductor for the NYU Symphony Orchestra. Daniel received his music education certification at UW-Milwaukee, where he also studied conducting with Margery Deutsch. Although no longer a Wisconsin resident, he remains a faithful follower of the Brewers and Packers. An avid baseball and softball player, he is first baseman for the Chiefs in the Midwest Suburban League and is an umpire for a number of youth baseball leagues. His other interests include reading, teaching himself website programming languages, baking, and working in his vegetable garden.

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Beth Mazur Wood - Prelude Orchestra

BETH MAZUR WOOD was welcomed as the conductor of the Prelude Orchestra in 2004. This fall, she returns to conduct Prelude Orchestra after leading Primo, EYSO’s string ensemble for beginning musicians. Beth is well known in the Elgin area – indeed, she herself is an alumna of the EYSO, having played under previous conductors Elizabeth Prielozny, Colin Holman, and Robert Hanson. Beth studied violin at the Betty Haag Suzuki Academy and was a student of Cyrus Forough. In addition to playing with the EYSO, she also sang with the Elgin Children's Chorus, and later was selected for the Elgin Community College Apprentice Program with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. She went on to receive degrees from ECC and Roosevelt University, where she was awarded the B.M. in Music Education. She recently completed a Master of Arts Degree in School Leadership. Beth’s passion is working with young string players, and she has served as Orchestra Director at Carpentersville Middle School and Lakewood School for the last seven years.

E-mail Beth Mazur Wood