Mr. Edwin Powell is the Assistant Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee. Mr. Powell directs the Symphonic Band, teaches undergraduate conducting, music education methods courses and assists with all aspect of the UT Band program.
Holding degrees from the University of the Pacific and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Mr. Powell is nearing completion of a Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from the University of North Texas. While in Cincinnati he served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and was responsible for teaching a variety of courses from Instrumental Methods to Music in Childhood Education. At North Texas, Mr. Powell was a Graduate Teaching Fellow studying conducting with Eugene Corporon while responsible for conducting courses, Chamber Winds, the UNT Concert Band and assisting with the Klaveir Wind Recording Project.
Prior to his appointment to the faculty at the University of Tennessee, Mr. Powell taught trumpet and conducted the McLennan Community College Wind Symphony, the Waco Community Band and the Waco Area Youth Wind Ensemble in Waco, Texas.
Mr. Powell maintains an active schedule as a clinician and adjudicator nation-wide, has served as an assistant producer for Arsis Audio and has been published in in the Journal of Band Research and the very popular educational series by GIA Publications, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.
GUEST CONDUCTOR: CHOIR
GUEST CONDUCTOR: CHOIR
Mrs. Darlene Elkins
Coming to us from the Dhahran School, Aramco, Darlene P. Elkins is a consummate musician. Whether teaching or performing, she has a unique gift of communication combined with a glorious mezzo-soprano voice. Mrs. Elkins has performed extensively as a soloist in the U.S. and Europe, and has won many accolades and honors.
In recent years Mrs. Elkins has been able to combine a successful international teaching career with vocal performance opportunities on four different continents. While teaching in Saudi Arabia the first time in the1980's, she was selected many times as the featured festival director/clinician for festivals throughout the Middle East. Broadening her cross-cultural experiences in Kinshasa, Zaire, Mrs. Elkins performed as a soloist at an African tribal wedding, and toured with her choirs into the bush, bringing music to the missionaries working there. Most recently she was guest clinician at the fourth annual Festival of Choirs at the Singapore American School.
Her humor, knowledge and understanding of both the human voice and the human spirit allow her to achieve magical results with young choirs. With regard to performance, Mrs. Elkins says, "Music is the tool we use to touch the human spirit. If we sing without a spiritual purpose, people hear only the notes. The connection is made by using the notes to tap the spirit!"