Conductors for the 2010-2011 ASO Season
Dr. Kirk D. Moss and Dr. Marilyn Seelman
In Fall 2010, Dr. Kirk D. Moss joined the faculty of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI, where he serves as an Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Education Department. Prior to his Lawrence appointment, he led orchestral activities and string education at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Under his baton, the MSU-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra tripled in size, and it performed for the 2009 Minnesota Music Educators Association Conference and 2007 North Dakota MEA Conference. He conducts on the summer faculties of the Lamar Stringfield Music Camp (NC) and Interlochen Music Camp (MI). He previously worked as Area Chair in Music Education at Valdosta State University and led the South Georgia String Project.
Moss has appeared as a guest conductor, clinician, or
adjudicator in over twenty-five states. He serves as President of the
10,000-member American String Teachers Association and has received three ASTA
National Citation for Leadership & Merit awards. He also completed a four-year
term on the Music Educators Journal Editorial Committee for MENC.
He has twelve years experience teaching elementary, middle, and high school orchestras. One of his former schools honors him by annually awarding a college string scholarship in his name. School orchestras under his direction performed for The Midwest Clinic (Chicago), Jubilee 2000 (Italy), earned the Gold Award at The San Francisco International Music Festival, the Grand Champion Award at The Orlando Festival of Music, and played three times for the Georgia MEA Conference (including a performance/clinic by the school’s thirty member viola choir).
Moss holds a PhD in Music Education, conducting emphasis, from the University of Florida (Gainesville). In 2008, the School of Music awarded him their Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award. He received a Master of Music degree, with a cognate in string pedagogy, from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a graduate teaching assistant for Gerald Doan and a Bachelor of Music degree, with high distinction, from the University of Michigan under the guidance of Robert Culver. Dr. Moss and his wife, Deb, have celebrated their twenty-third wedding anniversary. They have three children: Bethany, Luke, and Lydia.
Dr. Marilyn Seelman is currently Assistant Professor of String Education
at Georgia State University in Atlanta and Music Director/Conductor of the the
Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta. She received her Doctorate of
Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Miami-Coral Gables, Florida
and her Master of Music in Viola from Boston University. She has held the
position of Director of Orchestras and violist at Trinity University in San
Antonio, The University of New Mexico-Albuquerque and Georgia State University.
Dr Seelman has served as Georgia All-State Conductor, East Tennessee All-State
Conductor and in November, 2006 served as Alaska All-State Conductor. For the
last two summers she has been on the conducting faculty of the Interlochen Arts
Camp. She has presented viola master classes at Vanderbilt University and at the
2005 American String Teachers
Association with NSOA National Convention and presented a session on viola
pedagogy at 2004 ASTA National Convention. In addition, she has presented
sessions at the Georgia Music Educators' Conference in 2005 (From Alpha Beta
Alpha to Serenade for Strings: A Sequential Approach to Conducting Public School
Orchestra Works) and 2006 (Choosing Music for Your First School Orchestras). Her
article, From Technique-Driven Sound to Sound-Driven Technique was included in
the February, 2005 issue of the American String Teachers' Journal.. She
is a Past-President of the Georgia Chapter of The American String Teachers
Association and serves on the national board of ASTA as Publications Chair and
National Solo Competition Chair. Under her leadership, the Metropolitan Youth
Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta has performed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, New
York's Carnegie Hall, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, the Mid-West Band and
Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the Georgia Music Educators' Conference in
Savannah, Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, China at the invitation of the US-China
Cultural and Educational Foundation and in 2008, performed in Budapest, Vienna
and Prague. She maintains an active viola studio, adjudicates festivals,
conducts and gives clinics throughout the United States and abroad.