PRESS RELEASE
(310) 450-8338, ext. 287 March 2, 2007
SMMUSD Stairway of the
Stars Performance on March 22nd and 23rd
On March 22nd and 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm, the
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will present the 58th Annual
“Stairway of the Stars” at the Civic auditorium in Santa Monica. This event
remains one of the most popular annual events in the city as it spotlights the
talents of the district's music students, teachers and music curriculum. One of
the highlights of this year’s performance will be the addition of an Elementary
Honor Choir, which developed as a result of the district’s expansion of the
music program this year.
Each
year the band, orchestra or choir is featured at the Stairway of the Stars
concert. This year, the guest conductor will be Mr. Lawrence Stoffel. Lawrence
Stoffel returned to his native California when he assumed the position of
Director of Bands at California State University, Northridge in 2004. There he
serves as conductor of both the internationally recognized Wind Ensemble and
the Wind Symphony. As an associate professor of music, he also teaches courses
in music education and conducting, as well as being the coordinator of wind
studies.
Having most recently taught in the Midwest, Dr. Stoffel
served as Director of Huskie Bands at Northern Illinois University (where he
was honored in 2004 with the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award) and
Director of Bands at Eastern Illinois University. Earlier teaching assignments
also included Director of Bands at the University of California–San Diego, and
at the high school level in Pasadena and Buena Park.
Dr. Stoffel holds the degrees of Doctor of Music from
Indiana University, the Master of Music from the University of Colorado, and
both the Bachelor of Arts in Music and the Master of Education degrees from the
University of California–Los Angeles.
With a breadth of scholarly and artistic interests, Dr.
Stoffel has been published and lectured on topics wide-ranging—from musical
interpretation to copyright law, from the composer Leo Janáãek to the use of
religious music in the public schools, from band transcriptions to band
discography; his emerging interests include Classical Era band compositions,
mariachi music, and banda music from Sinaloa. His publications are found in
both books (Teaching Music Through
Performance in Band and Alta Musica)
and journals (Czech Music Bulletin and
the College Band Directors National Association Report). He frequently presents at California Music Educators
Association All-State Conferences, Illinois Music Educators Association
All-State Conferences, Southern California School Band and Orchestra
Association Conferences, as well as having presented at international
musicology conferences in Germany and Austria. Twice he has presented at the
Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra conference held each
December in Chicago.
As a clinician, Lawrence Stoffel has guest-conducted middle school,
high school, all-state, college, and community bands and orchestras throughout
California, the midwest, Canada, and Australia. His professional affiliations
include the College Band Directors National Association, the Music Educators
National Conference, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles,
and the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der
Blasmusik.
This year's honor award recipient is Mr. Zen Gesner. He was
drum major of the SAMOHI marching band for two years, 1987 & 1988, as well
as being in the Symphony Orchestra-under the guidance of Gary Horimoto and
Doug Hargis. He also served as the drum major during the same time that
Larry Stoffel completed his work as a student teacher at Samohi. In Zen’s own
words, “those were very exciting years”. While
attending Santa Monica High School, he became an aspiring actor after
landing a small part in the school's production of Hamlet, and went on to play
supportive roles in the school's rendition of "Nicholas Nickleby" and
"The Sound of Music".
Zen’s oldest son, Finn (9 yrs old), has started playing
trumpet at Webster Elementary under the caring and watchful eye of Allen Loyd,
who was his music teacher at Malibu Park Junior High in 1984. His 2
younger sons, Rory (6) and Tuck (3), have been showing interest, and have
started taking piano lessons. Zen has been working as a producer in the TV
and Film business for the last 5 years and has just wrapped production on a
romantic comedy feature film that will be coming out this Fall entitled BAGBOY
starring Dennis Farina, Brooke Shields, Richard Kind, Larry Miller, Marika
Dominczyk, and Paul Campbell. He is most recognized for his roles as
"Sinbad" in the syndicated television series The Adventures of Sinbad, and as a regular cast member on the ABC
daytime drama All My Children. He
also guest-starred on an episode of the popular sitcom Friends in which he played Rachel Green's boyfriend. A graduate of
the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Gesner has appeared
in several movies since his cinematic debut as an FBI agent in the 1994 comedy Dumb & Dumber, including Me, Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary. In 2005, he was featured in the
romantic comedy Fever Pitch starring
Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.
The
ensembles that will perform this year’s “Stairway of the Stars” concert are,
the All-District Honor Orchestra and Choir (Elementary), High School Jazz
Ensemble, Middle and High School orchestras, choirs and this year the middle
and high School bands will be spotlighted and featured. Some of the musical
selections this year will be: “Simple Gifts”, “Rodeo” and “Haitian Fight Song”.
Ticket cost is $10.00 and sales to the general public begin
on Friday, March 16th, and tickets
can be purchased at the Professional Development and Learning Center, (PDLC),
Formerly Washington West on 2802 Fourth Street, Santa Monica or call
310-450-8338 ext. 79538.
####
SANTA MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL
DISTRICT
1651 16TH Street, Santa
Monica, CA 90404
ph: 310.450.8338, fax: 310.581.1138
www.smmusd.org