Department of Defense Dependents Schools - Europe musical instruction will celebrate an annual milestone with the convening of the DoDDS-E Honors Music Festival, April 1-6, in Oberwesel and Wiesbaden, Germany.

More than 160 high school students, representing 21 high schools around Europe, will converge on Oberwesel and Wiesbaden for four days of rehearsal and instruction. Students will rehearse at the Jungengästehaus in Auf dem Schönberg, Oberwesel. The event will culminate with a public performance in the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus on April 5, at 7 p.m. Tickets may be picked at the door one hour prior to performance or at the Wiesbaden Tourist Information Office. The contact number is 0611-1729-780. Tickets are free, but are required for admission. Reserved tickets not claimed by 6:50 will be given to the public.

Participants have been selected through an audition process that adjudicated the work of 400 young musicians. The training and performance will involve a band contingent of 75 and a choir of 86. Students have been prepared for the event by their music instructors.

The guest conductors for the final performances will be Dr. Thomas V. Fraschillo, University of Southern Mississippi, who will lead the band, and Dr. Edith A. Copley, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Northern Arizona University, who will conduct the chorus. Dr. Fraschillo wrote the arrangement for "Aria di Chiesa" a band piece that will be performed on the program.

Guest Conductors

Dr. Edith A. Copley

 Dr. Edith A. Copley joined the Northern Arizona University music faculty in 1990 and is Regents' Professor and Director of Choral Studies. She conducts the highly acclaimed Shrine of the Ages Choir and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and graduate choral literature.

NAU choral ensembles under her direction have toured internationally to Western Europe, Peoples Republic of China, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to her responsibilities at NAU, Dr. Copley conducts the Master Chorale of Flagstaff, an auditioned 100-voice community chorus that performs major choral/orchestral works each spring with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra (FSO).

Dr. Copley is a life member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and is currently past-president of the ACDA Western Division. She has received numerous honors, including NAU School of Performing Arts Centennial Teacher of the Year Award in 1999, Arizona Music Educator of the Year in 2004 and the Arizona ACDA Outstanding Choral Director Award in 2007.

Prior to her appointment at NAU, Dr. Copley served as the assistant and interim principal conductor of the May Festival Chorus that performs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Dr. Copley has her own series with Santa Barbara Music Publications and is in high demand as a festival clinician and guest conductor in the US. She has also conducted international choral festivals in Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Luxembourg, Tasmania, Australia, and China.

Thomas V. Fraschillo

Thomas V. Fraschillo has served as catalyst and mentor for the teaching profession for 43 years. His high standards of performance have had a sustained influence on ensembles at every level, and his performances serve as models in both the professional or academic arena throughout the world. Through his recording, publishing, conducting, and lecturing in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, he is considered an international musician/scholar.

Fluent in Italian, his publications, translations from the original Italian of Alessandro Vessella's Studi di strumentazione (Instrumentation Studies), and La Tecnica dell'orchestra contemporanea (The Technique of Contemporary Orchestration) by Alfredo Casella and Vittorio Mortari, have put his name in music libraries of the entire English speaking world.

Dr. Fraschillo has attained a significant level in the realm of international leadership in that has served as a past president of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association following a long line of distinguished conductors in that office. Other offices have been the presidency of the world's largest organization for band directors, the National Band Association, and President of the CBDNA Southern Division. Under his leadership the University of Southern Mississippi's Wind Ensemble has been featured on frequent public radio broadcasts in Mississippi, on Performance Today, a program of PRI (Public Radio International), and has performed for many regional and national conventions including two of the American Bandmasters Association and three of the College Band Director's National Association.

Dr. Fraschillo is constantly in demand as a conductor and lecturer throughout the world and attracts a steady stream of graduate students to the University of Southern Missippi to study in its doctoral programs.