Guest Soloists

William Kellerman (2001)

William Kellerman was the Assistant Director of Bands at the Williamsport Area High School and the band director at Round Hills and Hepburn-Lycoming Elementary Schools at the time of this performance. Mr. Kellerman had been the director of the Rutgers University Marching Scarlet Knights from 1998-2000. His duties at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers included teaching euphonium, co-directing the concert bands and serving on the music education faculty. Kellerman has taught numerous high school bands and drum and bugle corps including the Golden Lancers, Sky Ryders, Cadets of Bergen County, Glassmen, and the Carolina Crown. In 1996 Mr. Kellerman was the music coordinator for the Northwestern Lehigh High School Marching Band, Bands of America Class A National Champions. Mr. Kellerman was the Director of Instrumental Music at the Bartle Elementary School in Highland Park, New Jersey from 1995-1999 in addition to his duties as assistant director of bands at Rutgers.

Bill Kellerman has degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. His euphonium and trombone teachers have included Fritz Kaenzig, H. Dennis Smith, Brian Bowman, Gary Bird, Christian Dickinson, Timothy Northcut, and Donald Stanley. Kellerman has performed with the Imperial Brass Band of Highland Park, New Jersey and records with the Keystone Winds as principal euphonium on the Citadel Records label.

David Bailey (2001)

Our trumpet soloist, David Bailey, received a B.S. in Music Education from Mansfield State College in 1970. He has taught music in the Bellefonte and Montoursville public schools for 31 years, while doing graduate study at Mansfield, Penn State, and Ithaca College. He is a trumpet student of Sidney Bailey and Bertram Francis, having graduated as solo cornet player with the Mansfield State College Concert Wind Ensemble. While at Mansfield he also served as student director of the College Jazz Band and Opera Workshop Orchestra.

Mr. Bailey studied trumpet in New York from 1972-74 with Louis Ranger. He has performed with the Repasz Band, the Imperial Teteques, the Williamsport Symphony, Williamsport Chamber Orchestra, Corning Philharmonic, the Rockwell Theater, Nittany Valley Symphony, and the Bobby McCreary and Rob Stoneback big bands. He has also been active in small group commercial and jazz playing in the area. He had the good fortune to be active with Walter Straiton's community orchestra in the Susquehanna Boom Festival years backing, such greats as Chuck Mangione, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, and Buddy Rich.

David is a member of Messiah Lutheran Church, and a charter member of the Lycoming County Band Directors Association, for which he serves as secretary. He is the proud father of four children: Clint, of Williamsport; Shane, of Harrisburg; Emily, of Baltimore; and Drake, at home. He and his wife, Diana, maintain a private woodwind and brass studio in Williamsport.

Mark Hartman (1999)

Professor of trombone at The Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, Dr. Hartman is a graduate of Williamsport Area High School (Pennsylvania) and holds degrees from Mansfield University and Arizona State University. He has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra and Summit Brass. He is currently principal trombone of The Orchestra of Northern New York and trombonist with the Potsdam Brass Quintet and the Skyline Brass Ensemble. Hartman is active as a soloist throughout the eastern United States and has presented clinics and recitals at the International Trombone Workshop, The Western Massachusetts Trombone Workshop, Skyline Brass Music Festival, the New York State School Music Association Festival, and has taught trombone at the Keystone Music Festival in Colorado. Dr. Hartman recently hosted the 1999 International Trombone Festival – the premiere annual event for trombonists – at The Crane School of Music. He has recorded most recently with the Potsdam Brass Quintet and is featured as a soloist on their CD entitled "La Rejouissance."

At The Crane School of Music, Hartman teaches studio trombone, trombone techniques, brass quintet and conducts the Crane Trombone Ensemble. While in the Williamsport area, Dr. Hartman studied trombone with Mr. Gary Steele, Mr. Donald A. Stanley, and Mr. Steve McEuen.

Dale Underwood (1998)

Dale Underwood had been the saxophone soloist with the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C. from 1968 until his retirement in May 1997. The Cortland, New York native began his early musical training at Ithaca College, where he studied with Donald Sinta, and he has also studied at Texas Tech University. His solo career has earned him the reputation of being one of the foremost classical saxophone virtuosos in the world. He is the most heard classical saxophonist in the history of the instrument, and was dubbed the "Heifetz of the Saxophone" by the Washington Post. Thousands of performances have taken him to all parts of the world, including England, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, every state in the continental U.S. and Alaska, and, most recently, Brazil.

Dale has been a guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Green Bay Symphony, McLean Orchestra, Cascade Music Festival Orchestra, the Australian Wind Orchestra, the Scots Guard, the Irish Guard, the Army Band of Brussels, and the Air Force Bands of the West and Pacific. He has played in the National Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and performed for every U. S. President since Lyndon Johnson. In May 1993, he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Texas Tech University Band. His repertoire includes over 30 pieces written especially for him by such American composers as Appledorn, Chattaway, Grundman, Hartley, Martino, Roccisano, Roumanis, Smith, Vizzutti, and Ward.

Inspired by his international performances, Dale organized the Navy Band’s International Saxophone Symposium in 1978. He received the Navy Achievement Medal for coordinating this event, which is now held annually at George Mason University. Dale is Professor of Saxophone at George Mason University and the University of Maryland. He has taught at Catholic University and, for over 25 years, has been a clinician for the Selmer Company. Dale resides in Maryland and is a past President of the North American Saxophone Alliance. He is an honorary life member of Tri-M Music Honor Society, Kappa Kappa Psi (honorary band fraternity), Missouri Music Educators, and is one of the original founders of the Saxophone Journal.

Dan Yoder (1997)

Dan Yoder is Professor of Saxophone at The Pennsylvania State University and has been Director of Jazz Activities there since 1985. He is a clinician for Leblanc Corporation's Yanigisawa saxophones. After earning his master's degree in performance at the University of Idaho, Mr. Yoder served as saxophone soloist with the U.S. Navy Band from 1968-71, and as lead sax player with the U.S. Army Band and performer with the Army Blues Big Jazz Ensemble from 1973-76.

Mark Murray (1995)

Dr. Mark Murray was the guest cornet soloist at a concert to commemorate John Hazel, a world famous cornet soloist from the 1891 to 1907, who, upon his retirement from a performing career returned to Williamsport and served as director of the Repasz Band for many years.

Mark began his musical training in the Montoursville, Pennsylvania school system and studied trumpet with Williamsport musician Wilma Finkbeiner. He earned his undergraduate degree at Duke University and holds master's and doctoral degrees from Indiana University at Bloomington. As a studio musician, he has performed with artists such as the "Temptations," Lou Rawls, Ann Jillian, and Carol Channing. He currently plays principal trumpet with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra and is Professor of Music at Anderson University in Indiana.¹

¹ "Cornetist Celebrated in Williamsport," Centre Daily Times, Tuesday, October 17, 1995