LAWRENCE DALE HARPER is Director of Bands and conductor of the Wind Symphony at Carroll University, a position he has held for the past 22 years. From 1986-97, he was the Music Director and Conductor of the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band and has been the conductor of the Wisconsin Wind Orchestra since its founding in 1995, one of the few professional wind ensembles in the world. He has brought these ensembles to local and regional prominence through innovative programming, CD releases, commissioning and premiering new works, performing at major concert halls and conferences throughout the state, and hosting internationally recognized composers and conductors. In a review of the Wisconsin Wind Orchestra’s CD, “Old Wine in New Bottles,” The American Record Guide said, “Listening to these readings of excellent wind band literature is a lovely listening experience,” and called the conductor “a stickler for detail, a motivator, and a first-rate musician who brings nuance and insight to a piece of music.”
Harper holds the doctor of musical arts degree in wind conducting from Michigan State University in East Lansing and has done post-graduate study in conducting at the University of Northern Colorado. He also earned a master of science degree in music education from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana and a bachelor of arts degree in music from California State University, Northridge. His conducting teachers include Harry Begian, Eugene Corporon, Ronald Johnson, and David Whitwell, and he has taken additional study with Frederick Fennell, Elizabeth Green, Allan McMurray, Larry Rachleff, and H. Robert Reynolds.
Dr. Harper is an active member of the College Band Directors National Association and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, a group for which he serves as the chair of the Professional Band Network. His national reputation has led to appearances as guest conductor and panelist at CBDNA regional and national conventions at Northwestern University, University of Colorado, and University of North Texas, as well as at the international conference of the WASBE in Stockholm, Sweden.
Harper has served as a clinician and guest conductor throughout the United States, as well as in Central America, Europe, and Israel. In 2004, Harper was an invited speaker and guest conductor at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Eastman Wind Ensemble where he presented his research on the West Point Military Academy Band Commissions of 1952 and guest conducted the West Point Military Band. He has twice appeared as conductor at the famed Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in concerts and radio broadcasts both with his own Wisconsin Wind Orchestra and with the Holland Wind Players, one of Europe’s leading professional wind ensembles. He has also served as a guest teacher of conducting at several universities around the world—from the University of Wisconsin to the University of Péc, Hungary—and by special invitation from the Minister of Culture of Costa Rica. He has appeared in concert with other distinguished college and university wind ensembles such as those at the University of Massachusetts and California State University—Northridge.
The Conductor
