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Genaro Cantu - President Band Director Wauconda High School 847-526-6611 x160 (office) 815-363-8171 (home)
Genaro Cantu received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Music Education from Western Illinois University and has been teaching middle and high school bands since 1989. He is currently the Band Director at Wauconda High School where he is responsible for all instrumental ensembles. Mr. Cantu has presented several clinics and performed in multiple concerts at the Illinois All-State Music Conference and is an active adjudicator for marching percussion, solo and ensemble and band organizational contests along with being a IMEA percussion judge since 1998.
His playing experiences include the Prairie Wind Ensemble, Rhythm City Percussion Ensemble, Peoria Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Municipal Band, Knox-Galesburg Symphony and the West Suburban Symphony Orchestra. His teaching experiences include self-published percussion solos and ensembles and writing/arranging for indoor and outdoor marching percussion ensembles for high school, drum corps the Western Illinois University Marching Leathernecks.
Genaro is a former member of the PAS Education Committee and an active member of the Illinois Music Educators Association and the Music Educators National Conference.
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ILPAS Officers |
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Rick Kurasz – Vice-President Assistant Professor of Percussion Studies Macomb, IL 309-298-1355 (office)
Rick Kurasz is currently Director of Percussion Studies at Western Illinois University. His duties include teaching applied percussion, directing the Western Illinois University Percussion Ensemble and the Western Illinois University Steel Bands. He received his B.M. in Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his M.M. from the University of Akron, and is currently pursuing his D.M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to teaching, Rick has performed in numerous orchestras including the Akron Symphony, Sinfonia da Camera, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Idaho State Civic Symphony, Knox-Galesburg Symphony and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Rick is also a performer of contemporary music and continues to commission and perform new works. As an active member of the Percussive Arts Society, Rick serves as a member of the New Music Research Committee and has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention as soloist and as an ensemble member. Rick is also a clinician and adjudicates throughout Illinois. Rick is an active composer/arranger in the genre of steel band and is published by Pan Ramajay productions and Panyard Publications. Before coming to Western Illinois University, Rick directed the University of Akron Steel Band, the University of Illinois Steel Band, I-Pan Steel Groove, the Idaho State University Steel Band, and his own combo, Panak. He has twice traveled to Trinidad to perform in the national Panorama festival with the bands Potential Symphony and Starlift. He has shared the stage with pan artists such as Ray Holman, Cliff Alexis, Liam Teague, Robert Grenidge, Ken ěProfessorî Phil more, Tom Miller, Andy Narell, Pan Ramajay and calypso legend, David Rudder. |
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Dr. Gregory Beyer - Secretary/Treasurer Assistant Professor of Percussion Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 815-753-7981 (office)
Greg Beyer specializes in repertoire that places non-Western instruments into the context of contemporary musical thought. He won Second Prize at the 2002 Geneva International Music Competition, has given solo performances and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and Europe, and has been featured at three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Beyer gave both the World and American premieres of Heinz Holliger's "Ma'mounia." He performs the works of Iannis Xenakis, Roger Reynolds, James Dillon, Javier Alvarez, and Elliott Carter, and also commissions new works for solo percussion. His project O BERIMBAU involves ethnomusicological research on the berimbau and other related musical bows in addition to composing and commissioning new works for this ancient instrument. In 2004, Beyer traveled to Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil as an invited Fellow of the Sacatar Foundation to spend two months creating new music for berimbau, furthering the intention and scope of his project. With earned degrees in Percussion Performance from Lawrence Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music, Greg has been an active performer in New York City appearing as percussionist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as a jazz drum set artist, and as a drummer/percussionist for many live performances and recordings. Greg is the recipient of a 2003 ASCAP award for his multi-media composition "Bahian Counterpoint." |