Episode 70 - Mark Scatterday

Jul 23, 2018

Just the fourth person to hold the position as conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Mark Scatterday joins the show to discuss that ensemble and his career, and to share advice about conducting and teaching.

Topics:

• Mark's early years growing up as a musician and his path to becoming a music educator and conductor. 
• The importance of being prepared and how, as a high school band director in Ohio, a chance meeting with Donald Hunsberger changed his life and his career.
• A lengthy discussion of the program at Eastman including the challenge of programming up to 85 pieces of music every year.
• Practical tips for score study.

Links:

• Mark Scatterday
• Eastman School of Music
• Husa: Music for Prague 1968

Biography:

Mark Davis Scatterday is professor of conducting and chair of the Conducting and Ensembles Department at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. As only the fourth conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Scatterday joined a prestigious line of conductors – Donald Hunsberger, Clyde Roller, and Frederick Fennell – in the past 65 years of the famed ensemble. Since his appointment, he has led the EWE on tour to Japan, Taiwan, and China and conducted the EWE in highly acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall, Canadian National Musicfest, and the Midwest Clinic. He has recorded five new CDs with the EWE, Eastman Virtuosi, and  Eastman Music Nova and led the Eastman Harmonie on a highly acclaimed tour of Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Having received a doctor of musical arts in conducting at the Eastman School of Music, Scatterday has directed wind ensembles and orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Previous to his appointment at Eastman, he was professor and chair of the Department of Music at Cornell University. Scatterday maintains an active guest conducting schedule as well as researching and writing articles involving score analysis, performance practices, and conducting. 

Scatterday has conducted the premiere recording of Roberto Sierra’s Cancionero Sefardi with members of the Milwaukee Symphony (2001), Judith Weir’s Consolations of Scholarship with Ensemble X (2005), Danzante with James Thompson and the EWE (2006), Barcelonazo with Musica Nova (nominated for a 2008 Latin Grammy), and Manhattan Music with the EWE and the Canadian Brass (2008, nominated for a 2009 JUNO). In 2012, he recorded with the EWE and the Eastman Virtuosi featuring Stravinsky’s music and celebrating the EWE’s 60th year (2013, AVIE, London) and most recently released a new live recording of Roberto Sierra’s music with the EWE (Summit, 2017).