
Colonel Arnald Gabriel
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall May 6, 2019
Col. Arnald D. Gabriel retired from the United States Air Force in 1985 following a distinguished 36 year military career, at which time he was awarded his third Legion of Merit for his service to the United States Air Force and to music education throughout the country.
He served as Commander/Conductor of the internationally renowned U.S. Air Force Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants from 1964 to 1985. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the USAF Band at a special concert held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. Col. Gabriel served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia,from 1985 to 1995, as Conductor of the GMU Symphony Orchestra and as Chairman, Department of Music for eight of those years. In recognition of his ten years service to the university, he was named Professor Emeritus of Music.
A combat machine gunner with the United States Army’s famed 29th Infantry Division in Europe during WW II, Gabriel received two awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the French Croix de Guerre. On November 10, 2016, Gabriel was awarded Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France's highest distinction.
Following his separation from the Army in 1946, Gabriel enrolled in Ithaca College, where he earned both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Music Education. In 1989, his alma mater conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree and in 1997, he was further honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012, the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic presented Col. Gabriel its first ever Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, he was elected Honorary Life Member of the American Bandmasters Association. In March 2017, he was named Honorary Life President of the American Bandmasters Association.
Col. Gabriel was inducted into the National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors, becoming the youngest person ever to have received this honor, and was an inaugural inductee to the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame of Cortland High School in Cortland, New York. He is also a Past President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. In 2008, the US Air Force Band dedicated the Arnald D. Gabriel Hall in his honor, and Bands of America inducted Col Gabriel into its Hall of Fame. Col. Gabriel has performed in all 50 of the United States and in 50 countries around the world.

Dr. Virginia Allen
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall May 6, 2018
Virginia Allen is a music educator, consultant, conductor and arranger in Charlotte, North Carolina. She previously served as the Associate Dean for Administration and the Assistant Dean for Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where she was the founding Artistic Director of the Conducting Workshop for Music Educators. At Juilliard she taught The Art of Teaching in the Music Studio and conducting, co-founded and conducted The Juilliard Trombone Choir, and served as Executive Director of the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies
Additionally, Virginia taught conducting and music history at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and conducting at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. She continues to teach conducting lessons online for Teachers College and is Artistic Director Emeritus of the Philadelphia Wind Symphony. She also served as Artistic Director of the Sun Valley Summer Music Workshops in Idaho, where she founded and conducted the Sun Valley Youth Orchestra.
Prior to teaching on the college level, Virginia enjoyed a 20-year career as a conductor and administrator in the U.S. Army Bands Program and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. As a pioneer for women in military bands she was the first woman to command and conduct an active duty military band that included women when she was appointed Principal Conductor of The U.S. Army Forces Command Band in Atlanta. As the Associate Conductor of The U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, she was the first woman conductor of that historic organization, as well as the Cadet Glee Club and Cadet Band. She also performed on stages from the Hollywood Bowl to Europe as the first woman conductor of the Army's premier touring ensembles from Washington, D.C., The U.S. Army Field Band and The Soldiers' Chorus. Her military career included an assignment as the Department of the Army Staff Bands Officer in Washington, D.C., where she managed over 100 Army bands and band activities worldwide.
Virginia frequently guest conducts, adjudicates and teaches master classes in the U.S. and internationally. She conducted Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, and The Juilliard Trombone Choir on a compact disc recording released by the International Trombone Association in 1999 and now available as Beyond the End of the Century through Summit Records. Virginia collaborated with Mr. Alessi again another Summit recording, Trombonastics.
As a composer and arranger, her music has been premiered, performed and recorded by members of the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Washington Opera Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, The Juilliard Trombone Choir, The U.S. Army Band, The U.S. Army Field Band, and The U.S. Military Academy Band. Her music has been published by Carl Fischer, Theodore Presser, Keyboard Percussion Publications, Alessi Publications, Southern Music, Ludwig Music, and TRN Music. A member of ASCAP, she is a former board member for the Conductors Guild and the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE).
Virginia studied French horn and conducting and earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Master of Music degree in Performance from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and a Diploma in Wind Conducting from the University of Calgary. She earned a Doctor of Education in the College Teaching of Music at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, where her dissertation topic was Developing Expertise in Professional American Orchestra Conductors. Virginia also completed an internship in Performance Activities at Juilliard.

Captain Lewis J. Buckley, U.S. Coast Guard (ret.)
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall May 14, 2017
Side-by-Side Concert, Schaeffer Auditorium, Kutztown University, May 21, 2017
Captain Lewis J. Buckley served as Director, U. S. Coast Guard Band, from June 1, 1975 through September 30, 2004. The Coast Guard Band’s fifth Director, he was the first to achieve the rank of Commander and then Captain, and he retired as the longest-tenured conductor of a major service band in American history. During his tenure, he and the Band’s dedicated senior leadership transformed the group from a local band that seldom performed far from the Coast Guard Academy into a major touring and broadcasting organization, representing the Coast Guard nationally and internationally through its live performances and media productions.
Captain Buckley guided the Coast Guard Band to a position of renown among the world’s most respected wind bands. During nearly 30 years under his baton, the Band established an international reputation for excellence through its superb recordings; by airing more live and recorded concert broadcasts on National Public Radio than any other U. S. wind band, military or civilian; and through hundreds of highly acclaimed live appearances, including those at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago. He led the Band in seven Presidential Inaugurations and dozens of performances in Washington D.C, including four White House National Christmas Tree lightings and a rare performance on the floor of the House of Representatives.
He conducted for every American president from Gerald Ford through George W. Bush and for numerous international heads of state; led the Band’s first Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center appearances; worked with such diverse stars as Jim Nabors, Placido Domingo, and Walter Cronkite, among a great many others; and conducted the first concerts ever presented by an American service band in the Soviet Union, when the Coast Guard Band journeyed to then-Leningrad in 1989.
Upon his retirement, the Coast Guard awarded Captain Buckley the Legion of Merit, and the Coast Guard Band named him Conductor Laureate and endowed an annual invitation to a renowned conductor, to be known as the Captain Lewis J. Buckley Guest Conductor.
During Captain’s Buckley appearance with The Allentown Band, he soloed on his on arrangement of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and conducted several of his own works and arrangements with the band, and with the combined band and students.

Johan de Meij
Carnegie Hall, April 12, 2016
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall May 15, 2016
Side-by-Side Concert, Schaeffer Auditorium, Kutztown University, May 22,2016
Johan de Meij studied trombone and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. He has earned international fame as a composer and arranger. His catalogue consists of orignial compositions, symphonic transcriptions and arrangements of scores and musicals. His Symphony No. 1, The Lord of the Rings, based on Tolkien’s best-selling novels was his first composition for wind orchestra. It received the prestigious Sudler Composition Award in 1989. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Besides composing and arranging, Johan is active as a performer, conductor, adjudicator and lecturer. As a trombone and euphonium player, he has performed with major orchestras and ensembles in the Netherlands, such as the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Dutch Brass Sextet, and the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra. In 2014, Johan became principal guest conductor of both the New York Wind Symphony and the Kyushu Wind Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan.
In 2015, The Allentown Band was very honored to have Johan de Meij as guest conductor for our second appearance at Carnegie Hall, and to inspire the outstanding area high school musicians who were invited to play “side-by-side” with The Allentown Band in two outstanding programs.
Johan conducted several movements of his “Symphony of Songs” at Carnegie Hall with our special guests Patricia Risely, mezzo soprano, and the Bel Canto Children’s Chorus of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, reprising these at the Side-by-Side concerts.
At the Side-by-Side concerts, Johan conducted the concluding movement “Hobbits” from his Symphony No. 1, based on the Tolkien “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He also conducted his “Downtown Divertimento”, scenes from around his home in New York City. In addition, Dr. Demkee conducted several movements of Johan’s wonderful adaptation of “Jazz Suite No. 2” by Dmitri Shostokovich.

Lt. Colonel Jason Fettig
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall, May 17, 2015
Lieutenant Colonel Jason K. Fettig is the 28th Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. He joined the Marine Band in 1997 as a clarinetist and soon became a frequently featured soloist with both the band and the Marine Chamber Orchestra. After serving four years in the organization, he was selected as an Assistant Director, and he conducted his first concert with the Marine Band Aug. 1, 2001. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in July 2002, promoted to captain in August 2003, and became the band’s Executive Officer the following year. He was promoted to major in August 2007 and to his present rank in July 2014 one week before assuming leadership of “The President’s Own.”
Lt. Col. Fettig is a 1993 graduate of Manchester Central High School in New Hampshire and holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (UMASS) in both clarinet performance (1997) and music education with an emphasis in conducting (1998). In 2005, he earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Maryland in College Park (UMD) where he served as assistant conductor for two productions of the Maryland Opera Studio.
During the 2015 Side-by-Side concert,
Lt. Colonel Fettig led The Allentown Band in Aaron Copland’s “Outdoor Overture” and Robert Jager’s spirited march “Esprit de Corps”. He led the combined band and students Norman Dello Joio’s comical “Satiric Dances for a Comedy by Aristophanes.”

Donald Hunsberger
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall, May 18, 2014
Donald Hunsberger is best known as the conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, a group he led from 1965-2002.
Mr. Hunsberger conducted this internationally famous student wind band in countless concerts, including 100 premieres, and made numerous recordings with them for Sony Classical, Mercury, CBS Masterworks, DG, Decca, and other major labels. Many consider Hunsberger one of the key figures in the development of wind band music and performance in the 20th century.
Donald Hunsberger was born in Souderton, PA, on August 2, 1932. He studied music at the Eastman School of Music, earning a doctorate in 1963. While a graduate student there, Hunsberger served as arranger and trombone soloist with the United States Marine Band (1954-1958).
In 2014, The Allentown Band was honored to have Mr. Hunsburger as Side-by-Side guest conductor. Among other works, he conducted the combined band and students in several movements of his own concert band arrangment of music from the first Star Wars movie trilogy.

Colonel Larry Lang, U.S. Air Force Band
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall, May 20, 2013
Colonel Larry H. Lang is commander and conductor of The United States Air Force Band. This premier musical unit inspires patriotism and military service in fellow citizens, honors those who serve, and represents the U.S. Air Force and United States of America to millions worldwide. Colonel Lang is responsible for all activities of this 184-member squadron including equipping, training, and deploying Airmen musicians to perform nearly 1,600 missions each year.
Born in El Paso, Texas, Lang began his musical career as a trombonist. He attended New Mexico State University in Las Cruces where he earned bachelor's degrees in music education and music performance in 1980. He went on to complete a master's degree in music education at the University of New Hampshire in Durham and was appointed to the faculty there in 1982.
Lang received his commission through Officer Training School in San Antonio, Texas in April 1990. His previous commands include the Air Force Band of the Pacific in Alaska, and the Air Force Heritage of America Band in Virginia. Under his leadership, the Heritage of America Band received four Air Force Organizational Excellence awards.
Colonel Lang joined The Allentown Band and students during the band’s year-long salute to Morton Gould. Mr. Lang conducted the combined band and students in several of Gould’s most iconic compositions, including “American Salute”, “Selections from Windjammer” and “Pavanne”.

Loras Schissel, Conductor, Virginia Grand Military Band
Side-by-Side Concert, Miller Symphony Hall, May 20, 2012
Loras John Schissel has served as conductor of the Blossom Festival Band since 1998. He also regularly conducts the Blossom Festival Orchestra. He is founder and music director of the Arlington-based Virginia Grand Military Band, an ensemble comprised of current and former members of the four U.S. service bands.
Loras Schissel has traveled throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia conducting orchestras, bands, and choral ensembles in a broad range of musical styles and varied programs. A native of New Hampton, Iowa, Loras John Schissel studied brass instruments and conducting with Carlton Stewart, Frederick Fennell, and John Paynter. In the years following his studies at the University of Northern Iowa, Mr. Schissel has distinguished himself as a prominent conductor, orchestrator, and musicologist.
Deeply committed to young musicians, he has appeared as conductor of All-State music festivals and of festival bands and orchestras in more than thirty states. In Northeast Ohio, he has conducted the Berea All-County Orchestra Festival and regularly visits Baldwin-Wallace College as conductor of the Summer Band Camp there.
As a composer and orchestrator, Mr. Schissel has created an extensive catalogue of over 500 works for orchestra, symphonic wind band, and jazz ensemble, published exclusively by Ludwig/Masters Music. His musical score for Bill Moyers: America’s First River, The Hudson, which first appeared on PBS in April 2002, received extensive coverage and critical acclaim. He also created musical scores for two films for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home in Hyde Park, New York. As a recording artist, Mr. Schissel has amassed a large discography with a wide variety of ensembles and various musical genres. A frequent guest conductor of the Allentown Band, Mr. Schissel recently collaborated with the band as Associate Producer of Our Band Heritage recording, “Pennsylvania Pioneers.”
Loras Schissel is a senior musicologist at the Library of Congress and a leading authority on the music of Percy Grainger, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Schissel and John Philip Sousa IV (great-grandson of the composer) have recently completed a book entitled John Philip Sousa’s America, a photo-biography of the March King. 20th Century Fox has recently reissued the Clifton Webb classic “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”