COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT
"Ring Out, Wild Bells"
commissioned by Nathan Degner,
and the Flushing High School Choirs
|
A wonderful addition to the Holiday Season repertoire; this new setting of the Alfred Tennyson poem offers an exciting and inspiring alternative for holiday performances. Your ensemble members will enjoy its beautiful melody, complex rhythms, and shifts of texture and mood - an exciting piece! Written for either full orchestra, or concert band accompaniment - a perfect combined number for your music department.
Please feel free to email with questions or inquiries. Click here for a video of the Choral-Concert Band score. Click here for a video of the Choral-Full Orchestra score. |
|
Nathan Degner has been teaching for twenty-seven years. He began his career in Leland, IL, teaching K-12 band, choir, and elementary music. He moved to Michigan to marry his wife, Laura and taught K-12 vocal music in Imlay City before finally moving to Flushing, where he has taught for the past twenty-five years. During his tenure at Flushing, he has built the program from three 7-12 ensembles to eight, which includes two middle school choirs, three high school curricular choirs, and three extra-curricular ensembles. In addition to his choral responsibilities, he taught a music theory and a music history class via the distance-learning lab in Genesee County for fifteen years, as well as being the music director for twenty-three Flushing High School musicals. In 2005, the Flushing High School Music Department received the Michigan Association of School Boards’ Excellence in Education Award in Fine Arts for their Annual Holiday Collage Concert, which has been a community favorite for the past eighteen years. In 2008, he was selected as the Educator of the Year for Flushing Community Schools. His choir students have had great success in participating in every aspect of MSVMA, including State and District Choral Festival, State and District Solo and Ensemble, Honors Choir, and Michigan Youth Arts Festival. He credits the MSVMA organization and the many mentors, past and present, for any success he has had in this profession. Nathan has a BA in Music Education from Olivet Nazarene University and a Master in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University. For eleven years he was a member of the MSVMA State Board as a District Manager and has held the position of All-State Choir Supervisor for twelve years. In 2007, he was given the privilege of conducting the TTBB Men’s State Honors Choir, and he is an active adjudicator for MSVMA. Outside of his school duties, Nathan was an Assistant Director for the Interlochen All-State Choir for four years and the Junior Academy Choir Director for the University of Michigan-Flint Summer Program for two years. He is currently the Worship Arts Director at Flint Central Church of the Nazarene, where he was the orchestra director for the past twenty-five years. He and his wife Laura have raised two slightly above average children: Aaron, who is pursuing his degree in Music Education and Allie, who is currently majoring in English.
Please feel free to email with questions or inquiries. |
"A few years ago we were looking for a way to commemorate our 10th Holiday Collage Concert so we approached Jeff to compose a holiday piece for both the choir and orchestra. He worked within the budget we had and started the process. He came down on three occasions to work with the students. The first time was to explain his process and to get ideas from the students as to what the lyrics/poem should be. He was especially adept at engaging the students and showing them how each of them could become composers if they so choose. During the writing process, he was in constant contact with myself and the orchestra teacher and was always willing to discuss our ideas for instrumentation changes or part edits. He came in during the final process to listen and then again for the premiere of the piece. Jeff makes sure that the four things that every teacher is most concerned about, when commissioning a piece, are handled professionally and with care; budget, student engagement, will the composer listen to my ideas, and the final product. My students had a great time learning from Jeff because he knows how to engage students into his process and the final result was a piece called “Ring Out Wild Bells” for orchestra and chorus."
- Nathan Degner