Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Strings
Keyboard
Jazz Studies
Music Education
Musicology
Theory and Composition
Choral, Voice, and Opera
Conducting
Music Technology
The Alard String Quartet
Susan Boardman, voice and opera
Michael Broyles, musicology
Ned Deihl, Blue Band
Marylène Dosse, piano
Norene Ferris, music education
Donald Hopkins, strings
Lyle Merriman, Director
Douglas Miller, choral studies
June Miller, organ/harpsichord
Suzanne Roy, voice
Keith Thompson, music education
Smith Toulson, clarinet
Bruce Trinkley, choral conducting, theory/composition
Robert Trehy, voice
Edward Williams, musicology
Left to right:
Leonard Feldman - cello
Joanne Zagst - violin
Raymond Page - viola
Donald Hopkins - violin
Included among the outstanding quartets of the twentieth century by Joseph Wechsberg in his book The Glory of the Violin, the Alard Quartet was one of the earliest quartets to emerge from the Juilliard School, having been inspired by the performances of the Juilliard Quartet. The Quartet was formed in 1954 under the guidance of Hans Letz, a former member of the Kneisel and Letz quartets. The following year it was the recipient of the Young Artist Award of the National Federation of Music Clubs, the only chamber group to be so honored.
The Quartet maintained a continuity of personnel from 1960 until it retired from active performance in 1997. During its long history it premiered many works by American composers and introduced to this country important works by Penderecki and Shostakovich. It also commissioned works by Vincent Persichetti, Ezra Laderman and Richard Willis. One of the Laderman works was the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, which it premiered with the Pittsburgh and Denver Symphony Orchestras.
The quartet concertized throughout North America, Mexico and Europe, and performed in many of the famous concert halls of the world, including the Brahmssaal in the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Wigmore Hall in London. It was quartet in residence at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand at various times between 1963 and 1982 and concertized throughout that country. For many years the Alard Quartet was a regular participant on the American Music Festival of the National Gallery in Washington DC and the AKI Festival of Contemporary Music at the Cleveland Museum.
The quartet was the recipient of grants from the Lincoln Center Foundation and others, which enabled it to bring music to countless numbers of junior and senior high school students. It appeared on radio and television in the US and abroad, including National Public Radio, National Education Television, Radio New Zealand and Radio Free Berlin. The Alard Quartet recorded for Golden Crest, Leonarda, Orion and CRI.
Susan Boardman was associate professor of music at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus through Spring 2008, where she taught voice and directed the Penn State Opera Theatre. Before joining the Penn State music faculty in 1993, she spent seventeen years teaching voice, vocal pedagogy, and opera at the University of Miami in Florida. Dr. Boardman, a lyric soprano, has appeared with the Florida Family Opera of the Greater Miami Opera Association, the Gold Coast Theater, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Gusman Hall Chamber Players, Festival Miami, the Dranoff Double Piano Symposium, the Miami Bach Society, the Nittany Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra, the State College Choral Society, and Penn State's Centre Stage, among other musical organizations. She has presented solo recitals in Europe and Australia, as well as the United States, achieved renown as a singer of new music, and premiered a number of vocal works.
Dr. Boardman earned a bachelor of music and a master of music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a doctor of musical arts in vocal performance from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her research on art song settings of folksongs and vocal training for a career in musical theatre has been published in the Music Educators Journal, the Journal of Singing, and Australian Voice. She sits on the board of directors of the National Opera Association.
Michael Broyles is Distinguished Professor Music, Professor of American History, and Fellow of the Institute for Arts and Humanities at Penn State. He is the author of six books, Mavericks and Other Traditions in American Music (Yale University Press, 2004)“Music of the Highest Class”: Elitism and Populism in Antebellum Boston (Yale University Press, 1992), A Yankee Musician in Europe: the 1837 Journals of Lowell Mason (UMI Research Press, 1990), The Emergence and Evolution of Beethoven’s Heroic Style (Excelsior Press [Gordon and Breach], 1987), and, with Denise Von Glahn of Florida State University, a critical edition of Leo Ornstein's Quintette for Piano and Strings, for the series Music in the United States of America, (MUSA, 2005) and a biography, Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices (Indiana University Press, 2007). He has published many articles, in journals such as Musical Quarterly, American Music, Nineteenth-Century Music, Music Review, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Journal of the Society for American Music,as well as four in The Journal of the American Musicological Society, and has contributed chapters to several other books. His primary research interests are the classic era, particularly Beethoven, and American music. He is active in professional societies and is currently President of the Society for American Music. His current scholarly work focuses on the role of music in American culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Broyles has an M. M. in music theory and a Ph. D. in musicology from the University of Texas at Austin, and he has received numerous awards, including two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.
Click here for more on Michael Broyles' publications
Dr. Ned C. Deihl, Professor of Music Education and Director of Bands, joined the Penn State faculty in 1963. He has degrees from Indiana University, University of Michigan, and Penn State University.
Following graduation from Indiana University, he served in the U.S. Army and played clarinet with the Ninth Division Band and Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Europe. He directed school bands in Michigan and Indiana where his concert groups won superior ratings in state contests.
In addition to his band duties at Penn State, Dr. Deihl taught graduate courses in Music Education and published numerous articles. He was a pioneer researcher in computer assisted instruction in music and is a former member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Research in Music Education. He played clarinet as a member of the Altoona Symphonic Orchestra, and was an elected member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, receiving the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association. Other memberships included Pi Kappa Lamda, Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu, College Band Directors National Association (past president Eastern Division), National Band Association (State Chairman), and Music Educators National Conference.
He was selected as one of ten Outstanding Music Educators in the United States by School Musician journal 1986. He has been guest conductor of the U.S. Air Force Band and the U.S. Army Band in concerts at Washington, D.C., and at the American Bandmasters Association Conference in Oregon.
The band programs under his direction included the Symphonic Band, the renowned Marching Blue Band, two other concert bands, and two basketball bands. Under his direction, the Marching Blue Band, 285 strong, was considered among the very best in the nation. Keeping up with the Nittany Lions, they performed in over 20 major bowl games and appeared before countless millions on national television.
Marylène Dosse taught studio piano through Spring 2008 and was pianist with the Castalia Trio. In 1992, she was elected a Fellow of the University's Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies. In 2003 she was given the rank of Distinguished Professor. Prior to her appointment, she served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin and Indiana University. Professor Dosse has performed extensively throughout Europe, South America, and North Africa, Japan, and China, as well as the United States. She has published more than twenty recordings under the Vox and Pantheon labels, now being reissued on compact disc. Her recording of the complete works of Granados piano music won the Critic's Choice of High Fidelity magazine.
A graduate of the Paris Conservatory with first prizes in piano and chamber music, she was the prize winner of two international competitions in Naples, Italy, and Salzburg, Austria. She studied with Paul Badura Skoda and Alfred Brendel.
For more on Marylène Dosse's recordings, see Solo Recordings, Castalia Trio, Marylène Dosse and James Lyon
Donald Hopkins came to Penn State in 1962 as a member of the Alard String Quartet. He was a member of the Quartet at its inception in 1954 and served as either the first or second violinist for over 40 years. He was appointed to the Penn State faculty in 1964 and retired in 1997 as Associate Professor of Music Emeritus. During the intervening years he taught violin, viola, chamber music, conducting, music theory, and literature courses in chamber, orchestral, and twentieth century music. He was active in the development of the Master of Music programs, and the development of the curriculum for the applied music programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He was also Graduate Officer and the chair of the graduate committee for many years. For over 25 years he coordinated the highly successful Chamber Music Workshop at Penn State.
Lyle Merriman served as Director of the School of Music from 1984 to 1998, a period that saw music enrollments triple and the construction of Music Building II. Prior to this time, he held positions of Dean of the School of Music at Louisiana State University and professor of clarinet and Assistant Director of the School of Music at the University of Iowa. His degrees are from the University of Kansas (B.M.E.) and the University of Iowa (M.A., Ph.D.).
Merriman chaired the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music for eight years and has been a program evaluator and consultant for many institutions around the country. He was vice-president of Pi Kappa Lambda and was active on various committees of the Music Educators National Conference. He has authored or co-authored five books and almost a dozen articles on various aspects of woodwind music and instruments. He is the arranger of more than forty publications of wind music.
Professor Emeritus Dr. Douglas Miller served as Director of Orchestral Studies at Penn State from 1969-1982, and then as Director of Choral Studies in the School of Music until his retirement in 2001. For twenty years he conducted the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, taught conducting and choral literature, oversaw the graduate program in choral conducting, and coordinated the choral program of eight choirs and over 400 singers. He has also conducted the Penn State Philharmonic and Musica da Camera Chamber Orchestra.
Dr. Miller received two degrees from Drake University in Music Education and Composition, and his Doctorate in choral conducting at Indiana University (Bloomington) where his major professor was Julius Herford. He taught in Indiana and Maine before coming to Penn State in 1969.
During his forty-year conducting career, Douglas Miller conducted over one thousand concerts and a repertoire of over two thousand choral and/or orchestral works, featuring most of the major choral/orchestral repertoire.
Dr. Miller's choirs (Musica da Camera Chamber Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Chorale, and the Penn State Concert Choir and orchestras) have performed extensively within Pennsylvania, in the Eastern United States and Canada, and in nineteen foreign countries including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and in sixteen different European countries. International venues included as Thomaskirche in Leipzig; Basilica di San Marco in Venice, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Stephansdom in Vienna, the Cathedrals of Milan, Strasbourg, Sydney, and Toronto, and dozens of other significant historic venues.
In addition to his work at Penn State, Miller served for twenty-eight years as Music Director of the 160-voice State College Choral Society, and was the Founder/Director of the Society's Madrigal Singers. He was also the founder and Music Director of the Pennsylvania Chamber Chorale (a twenty-voice professional ensemble) and of the Pennsylvania Chorale, an international touring ensemble. Among his publications is an award-winning book on the works of the seventeenth-century German composer Heinrich Schutz. He is currently writing comprehensive books on choral literature.
Dr. Miller served as President of Pennsylvania ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) from 1993-1995 and 1996-1997, and as President of ACDA's Eastern Division, representing twelve northeastern states, from 2000-2002.
June Miller taught organ, harpsichord, organ literature, and courses in figured bass.
Miller received her undergraduate degree with high honors from Hood College, Maryland, and her master of music degree from Yale University. Her teachers included William Sprigg, Charles Krigbaum, Robert Conant, and David Craighead.
An active recitalist, continuo player, and clinician, Miller presented workshops and lecture recitals for the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and has served as judge for numerous organ competitions at the local and regional levels. She served as educational coordinator for Region III of the AGO from 1991 to 1997.
Suzanne Roy taught studio voice as well as undergraduate and graduate vocal literature courses until her retirement in December 2004. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan and her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to her appointment to the Penn State faculty in 1978, Roy served on the faculties of Radford University and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In the Oshkosh position, she also served as director of both the Study Abroad in France program and the Chamber Arts Series.
Roy has sung opera and oratorio roles throughout the United States and France, working with conductors Josef Blatt, Boris Goldovsky, Gustav Meier, Robert Fountain and others. Her extensive recital career includes an emphasis on the French vocal repertoire and twentieth-century vocal music. As a researcher and author, she has received grants from numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities for her research on the relationship of words and music. She received a Wingspread grant for her creative work in developing music in general studies courses.
Roy serves as a regular reviewer of song-related books and electronic media for the American Library Association. She is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and National Pastoral Musicians. She has also held administrative posts in the College Music Society.
Keith Thompson taught graduate and undergraduate courses in music education, coordinates the master's and doctoral programs in music education, and served on the School of Music Graduate Committee. Thompson earned degrees in music education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Duquesne University, and Case-Western Reserve University. He served on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Valdosta State University, as well as public elementary schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania, prior to his appointment to the Penn State faculty. His research included guided music listening in general music classrooms and music for learners with disabilities. His publications include Working Toward Solutions in Mainstreaming and Adolescents and Media Music. Dr. Thompson has written articles in Music Educators Journal, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and General Music Today. He was a member of the Music Educators National Conference and the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association.
Smith Toulson taught studio clarinet through Spring 2008 and was clarinetist with The Pennsylvania Quintet. Toulson received his degrees from the University of Illinois and Yale University. He served as principal clarinetist of the Music at Penn's Woods Festival Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra, and the Nittany Valley Symphony. In addition to his appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the New Haven Symphony, he also has appeared in concerts at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Waterloo Festival (N.J.), and New York's 92nd Street YMCA Concert Series. Professor Toulson can be heard on recordings by Crystal and CRI records.
Click here for more on Smith Toulson's recordings
Bruce Trinkley taught composition and orchestration and conducted the Penn State Glee Club from 1970 to 2006, and was music director for Penn State's Centre Stage from 1970 until 1995. He received degrees in composition from Columbia University where he studied with Otto Luening, Jack Beeson and Charles Wuorinen.
Professor Trinkley's music has been performed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and China. He has composed incidental music, songs and choruses for theatre and dance productions and has written extensively for choral ensembles, including more than 200 arrangements of folk songs, spirituals and popular songs for various ensembles. In 1976 he collaborated on The Wagon Train Show, which played more than 2000 performances during the Bicentennial. Santa Rosalia, a cantata inspired by paintings of Fernando Botero, was filmed for PBS. Mountain Laurels, a choral symphony using texts by Pennsylvania poets, was written to celebrate the centenary of State College, Pennsylvania, in 1996. Cold Mountain, a piano trio, was commissioned by the Castalia Trio for their concert tour of China in May 1998. His opera Eve's Odds won the National Opera Association's 1999 Chamber Opera Competition. Cleo, a comic opera about the making of the movie epic Cleopatra, won the competition in 2001.
Recent works include The Last Voyage of Captain Meriwether Lewis, a cantata for men's voices; One Life: The Rachel Carson Project, a multi-media work for women’s chorus, soloists, and instrumental ensemble; and York: the Voice of Freedom, a music drama about the life of the only African American on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His operas for young people include The Prairie Dog That Met the President and Chicken Little.
He has had composer residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Hambidge Center, the Ucross Foundation, and the Patrick Allan-Fraser Trust in Scotland. His works are published by Alliance, Alfred Music, Oxford University Press, Augsburg Fortress, Lawson-Gould, GIA, Hinshaw, Hal Leonard and Yelton Rhodes.
Opera, Music Theatre, and Vocal works
Choral Works
Published Choral and Vocal Works
Instrumental Music
Choral Arrangements
Robert Trehy studied in New York City and Vienna and received his training in Europe. As an eminently successful young baritone, he sang in leading opera houses of Germany for four years and concertized extensively throughout Austria. He appeared in major roles at the International festivals of Berlin, Holland, Wiesbaden, and Belgrade. When he returned to the United States, he sang with the New York City Center Opera, as well as the Boston, Washington, Santa Fe and Central City opera companies. He also appeared in various musical events at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, as well as on ABC television in several operas and in the world premiere of Earl Wild's Oratorio Revelations.
Mr. Trehy taught concert and opera vocal repertoire at Penn State from 1969 to 1983. He was also a fellow at the Institute for Arts and Humanistic Studies. As a retired emeritus professor, he continues to reside in State College.
Edward Williams has focused his research on bells and bell ringing in Russian culture. The author of The Bells of Russia: History and Technology (Princeton University Press, 1985), he recently completed the manuscript of a second study, which examines and interprets sacred and secular roles of bells in Muscovy and Imperial Russia. In addition, he has written articles on Byzantine chant. In support of his work, he has received fellowships and grants from the Fulbright program, Dumbarton Oaks, American Council of Learned Societies, National Humanities Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and International Indiana University. He holds an M.A. in music history and Ph.D. in medieval studies from Yale University. In the College of Arts and Architecture, he serves as associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies. He retired in July 2005.