April 17, 2019

Hello Professor Kenney!

I just want to take a minute to thank you for all that I learned from my MME in Conducting degree at CSU. My community orchestra, the Cherokee Symphony, performed their season closer on Sunday. It was our annual student concerto concert, which included several solo works plus an overture which was a world premiere.

If it wasn't for the score study method that you taught me in my first summer, I think we would have had major troubles in this performance. My confidence in my conducting was higher because of it. It also helped me find all the layering effects the composer put in the overture and was able to identify a couple errors for him to correct (minor ones such as removing mute and arco markings).

As it was, following these student soloists was a breeze compared to the Mozart recitative I had to conduct in my third summer — ha! Also, through the rehearsals and the performance, I kept hearing your voice say "too big" and "get rid of the hitch."

All that said, I thank you for pointing out my weaknesses and failures while I was in the program. I had to hire in a couple professionals to fill in the viola section. One of them came up to me at the end and complimented me on my conducting. That type of praise never happened before I took the degree from you and the rest of the conducting faculty.

Thank you again — and good luck to you in the future!

Ted Hallberg, M.M. 2012
Orchestra Director/Music Coordinator, Le Mars Community Schools, Le Mars, Iowa
Conductor, Cherokee Symphony

March 4, 2019

Dear Ms. Stewart, Maestro Kenney, and Dr. Kim, 

Matt Cody, 2014, M.M. Music won first place in the American Prize for conducting at the community orchestra level. According to the organization's website, the American Prize in Conducting recognizes and rewards the best orchestral, choral, band/wind ensemble, opera and musical theater conductors in America, based on submitted recordings.

Matt entered CSU's Summer Conducting Program in 2012 as a middle school band director from Decorah, Iowa. By the time he graduated in 2014, he knew he wanted to conduct an orchestra but there wasn't one where he lived. Maestro Kenney suggested that Matt start a community orchestra made up of his music teacher colleagues, high school, and adult musicians from Decorah, as well as students and faculty from nearby Luther College. Within a few weeks of returning to Iowa, the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra held their first rehearsal, and in just three years since it's inception, has won this prestigious prize!

Feb. 19, 2017

Good Evening Professor Kenney,

I hope you are well and living life to its fullest. This evening I find myself looking over a score and getting into vivid details on individual part tuning. In speaking with a colleague, I admitted how much I truly love getting this much in touch with what I am to be teaching next quarter.  I thought to myself how much I have you to thank for that.

Sincerely, thank you for how much you have added focus and direction to my personal understanding of music. The impact of the summer master's program had immediate results, however the long lasting dedication to truly knowing the music I am to conduct is where I am finding the most success. The philosophy you have instilled within me of pre- study, dedication to the music, and total mastery of the craft make my students far more successful than I could have realized. The skills of efficiently picking apart a score through application of what, how, and when to teach students each concept continues to be a strength of mine, largely thanks to you.

Thank you for all you do, and all you have done for me.

Best,
Evan Dixon, M.M., 2012

Dear Professor Kenney,

I wanted to thank you again for your instruction and influence during my time in the master's program at CSU. I have recently accepted a position as the director of the Symphonic Band and Chamber Orchestra at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond, Oklahoma. I am very excited about this opportunity and know that I would not have been prepared for this without the experiences I had at CSU.

I really enjoyed conducting orchestral music at CSU and look forward to working with an orchestra at the collegiate level. Thank you for instilling that love of orchestral music and providing those experiences.

Sincerely,
Eric Colgrove
Instructor of Music; Director of the Symphonic Band and Chamber Orchestra
Oklahoma Christian University

Eric was formerly the band director at Widefield High School in Colorado Springs, and graduated from the program in 2012.

Feb. 14, 2017

Good afternoon Professors Kenney and Stewart,

I hope you are both doing well!

I wanted to take a minute and say thank you for the quality of the summer program at CSU. In the past couple of months, I have had some great conducting experiences. My time at CSU was a huge factor the performances going well.

In Dec., my high school band hosted a local brass band for a joint concert. Their music director cancelled a few days before the performance and I was asked to conduct on short notice. Thanks to the score study methods I learned at CSU, the performance went very well!

In Jan., I had the opportunity to conduct the Symphony Band at the University of Iowa with the directors from Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Drake University looking on. Again, the workshop went very well thanks to the tools I learned in my time at CSU.

Thank you both for the time and energy you put into making that program a success. I would not be able to do what I can today without it.

Charles Oldenkamp, M.M., 2014