St. Olaf Festival of Bands

St. Olaf Festival of Bands

The St. Olaf Festival of Bands always promises to be a stimulating day for students and teachers alike. Culminating an exciting and intense day of rehearsals will be performances by the Festival Band, the St. Olaf Band, and the Norseman Band. The Festival of Bands enjoys a long, successful history of bringing together outstanding high school musicians to prepare and share a program with nationally known artists.

There is no Festival of Bands scheduled for the 2023-24 school year. Please check back here for more information about a potential 2024-25 date. If you have further questions, please email bandfestival@stolaf.edu.

2022 Guidelines:
The safety of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors remains our top priority at the St. Olaf Festival of Bands. This event will follow whatever current COVID-19 policies are in place for St. Olaf College campus visitors. As of August 2022, college policy does not require campus guests to show proof of vaccinations. As with everything related to COVID-19, this is subject to change as circumstances change, so we strongly encourage vaccinations for those planning to participate. We ask that participants test on the morning of the day you’ll arrive on campus. If you test positive, please do not attend the event. At this point, we anticipate the participants will be able to rehearse together as a full ensemble, without distancing or masking requirements. However, participants should bring a mask and be ready and willing to wear it when instructed by college staff. Participants will be notified as soon as possible of any changes to the campus policy and may be required to show vaccination cards depending on the St. Olaf College policy at that time. By participating in this event at St. Olaf College, you confirm that you will wear a mask when requested and/or if experiencing symptoms, will test before coming to campus, will comply with all campus standards related to COVID-19 at the time, and voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.

The 2022 St. Olaf Festival of Bands Concert will take place on November 12 at 4:00 p.m. CT in Skoglund Auditorium at St. Olaf College. General Admission (no tickets required). Audience members may park anywhere marked “visitor parking” or “faculty/staff/visitor parking.”

This event will be streamed live here.

COVID-19 guidelines as of 2022: This event will follow whatever current COVID-19 policies are in place for St. Olaf College campus visitors. As of August 2022, college policy does not require campus guests to show proof of vaccinations, but masks are required at some events. Please be prepared to wear a mask if asked to do so.

Students should wear nice clothes of their choice (no jeans, tennis shoes, or band uniforms please). We strongly urge participants to choose an outfit comfortable enough to wear all day. There simply isn’t enough time or space for changing before the concert.

Participants should bring a mask and be ready and willing to wear it if/when instructed by college staff. Please see the COVID-19 tab for more information on COVID-19 guidelines for this event.

Timothy Mahr holds a B.M. degree in composition and a B.A. degree in music education from St. Olaf College and a master’s degree in trombone performance and a D.M.A. in instrumental conducting from the University of Iowa.

An internationally acclaimed composer, Dr. Mahr received the 1991 Ostwald Award in the ABA Band Composition Contest for his composition The Soaring Hawk. He was elected to the American Bandmasters Association in 1993. Formerly director of bands at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and founding conductor of the Twin Ports Wind Ensemble, Dr. Mahr is the principal conductor of the Minnesota Symphonic Winds and is active as a clinician and guest conductor nationally and internationally. Recent commissions have come from the United States Air Force Band, the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association. Twenty-five of his works have been published, with many released on compact disc recordings and included on state contest lists.

Dr. Mahr is a past-president of the North Central Division of the College Band Directors National Association (1999-2001), has served on the Board of Directors of the National Band Association (1996-98) and was a founding board member of the Minnesota Band Directors Association.

Dr. Kaitlin Bove is director of bands and an assistant professor of music at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California. In addition, she serves as artistic director of the Diablo Wind Symphony, a youth wind ensemble within the Blue Devils Performing Arts organization. Prior to these appointments, she held the title of director of instrumental music at Pierce College in Puyallup, Washington where she taught ensemble, music theory, and elective music courses. Kaitlin earned a doctorate of musical arts in wind conducting from University of Kentucky where she was a student of Cody Birdwell, a teaching assistant, and premiered her wind transcription of Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices in 2019.

Dr. Bove is from Lafayette, California and earned her bachelor and master of music degrees in education from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where she studied with Eric Hammer. Prior to teaching in higher ed, she instructed instrumental music at the secondary level in Payson, Utah. In this setting, she taught courses in band, orchestra, marching band, jazz ensemble, AP music theory, guitar, folk music, musical theater, and mariachi.

Kaitlin is founder of the And We Were Heard initiative which matches underrepresented composers of wind band literature with volunteer ensembles in order to generate quality recordings of the music of diverse compositional voices. In the vein of this philosophy, Dr. Bove maintains a high commitment to commissioning and performing works by both living and underrepresented composers. She is also co-founder of Girls Who Conduct, a mentorship program that supports gender parity on the conducting podium.

Michael Buck, PhD is an adjunct associate professor of music and director of the Norseman Band at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Prior to St. Olaf, Dr. Buck held higher education posts serving multiple roles including coordinator of music education, director of nands, director of orchestra, jazz ensemble director, instrumental music education professor and chamber music coach at The College of St. Scholastica and Augsburg University.

Prior to entering higher education, Dr. Buck served over twenty years as a K-12 instrumental music educator in Minnesota and in two overseas American international schools in the Middle East and South Asia. His specialized areas of study include assessment/evaluation, teaching/learning pedagogy, brain research on music, and music technology.

Dr. Buck has presented peer-reviewed research projects and workshops in local, regional, national and international settings. His work includes appearances at the International Symposium of Assessment in Music Education (ISAME), the International Society for Music Education/European Association for Music in Schools (ISME/EAS), Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA), the South Asia International Schools Association (SAISA), the College Music Society/Association for Technology in Music Instruction (CMS/ATMI), the Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA), the Minnesota Band Directors Association (MBDA) and the Perpich Center for the Arts.

An active band and orchestra clinician throughout the upper midwest, Dr. Buck has led numerous festivals and workshops, and is a frequent guest conductor of regional and conference festivals.

Dr. Buck’s leadership roles include chair of the Minnesota chapter of the College Band Directors National Association (MN CBDNA), MMEA Band Vice President, MMEA All-State Band and Orchestra section coach and Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony section coach (GTCYS).

Dr. Buck holds degrees from The University of Southern Mississippi, VanderCook College of Music and St. Olaf College in music education and conducting.