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chris ritter

musician

Services

conductor   saxophonist   clinician   music educator

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Specs

Certified Educator

Pennsylvania Instructional II, Music K-12

Public School & University Teaching Experience

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Director of Bands

Waynesboro Area Senior High School, Waynesboro, PA

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Adjunct Professor

Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA

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Master of Music

Band and Wind Ensemble Conducting

The Pennsylvania State University, 2012

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Bachelor of Science

Music Education

The Pennsylvania State University, 2007

PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

Every person has inherent musical ability; it is my privilege as a music educator to nurture that ability and to promote a life of music appreciation through significant aesthetic experiences. A variety of solo, ensemble, compositional, and improvisational experiences are essential to ensure contact with the many facets of music making. I strive to achieve these benchmarks in my teaching through repertoire of lasting artistic worth--literature that provides cultural and historical perspective, extended student engagement, and aesthetic depth. Music, like all art, is rooted in deeply personal communication. The classroom environment must be one of safety, kindness, and respect to allow for creative expression. My goals as an educator are to stretch student understanding and energize the learning process through performance of, listening to, and critical response to music.

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BIO

Wind conductor and saxophonist Chris Ritter (b. 1985) has established himself as an active educator and musician in Pennsylvania and Southern New England.

 

Committed to the pursuit of great music for winds and percussion, he has programmed works by Gabrieli, Mendelssohn, Grainger, Ives, Colgrass, Ticheli and many others. Chris is currently the Director of Bands at Waynesboro Area Senior High School (PA; 2013-present) and an adjunct professor at Shippensburg University (PA; 2014-present), where he conducts/coaches single reed chamber ensembles. Prior to completing graduate study as assistant to his mentor, Dennis Glocke, Chris taught at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts (Bethlehem, PA), served as Interim Director of Bands at East Stroudsburg High School South (PA), and was a substitute music teacher in the greater Pittsburgh area. As a dedicated faculty member of the Honors Music Institute at Penn State (formerly, Summer Music at Penn State), he served as Head Counselor (2013), Academic Coordinator (2012), Saxophone Instructor (2007), Academic Elective Instructor (2006-2008), and Counselor (2005-2008). 

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Previous solo performances have featured the works of Desenclos, Yoshimatsu, Mobberley, Rogers, Noda, et al. Chris was a performing member of the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble (RIWE) and served on the RIWE Board of Directors (2012-2013). His university saxophone quartet, Reed Disorder, performed at the 2007 International Saxophone Symposium presented by the U.S. Navy Band at George Mason University. Past European appearances include Jazz à Vienne and the Montreux Jazz Festival as a member of the State College Area High School Jazz Band (’03). 

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He and a colleague served as session clinicians at the 2015 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Annual In-Service Conference under the title: "Google Apps for Music Education: Tracking Growth Through ePortfolios." Chris reprised the presentation at the 2015 PMEA Summer Conference by invitation of the professional development coordinator.

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Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from The Pennsylvania State University (’07) where he studied with Dr. David Stambler (saxophone), Dr. O. Richard Bundy and Dennis Glocke (conducting). He resumed study with Glocke in 2010 and earned a Master of Music degree in Band and Wind Ensemble Conducting (Penn State, ’12).

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