Music: Dr. Jeff Snedeker

Jeffrey Snedeker has taught in the Music Department of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, since 1991.  His duties include teaching horn, music history, and brass literature and pedagogy, performing with the CWU Faculty Wind Quintet, and directing the CWU Brass Choir and CWU Horn Ensemble.  The CWUHE maintains an active outreach program for public schools, and has been an invited performing ensemble at numerous horn and music educator conferences, including the 28th, 30th, 33rd and 40th international workshops of the International Horn Society. He has served as Associate Chair of the Music Department and Chair of CWU’s Faculty Senate, and was named CWU’s Faculty Member of the Year in 2006 and Phi Kappa Phi Scholar of the Year for 2008.

Jeff is active in several national and international organizations, serving on the Board of Directors of the Historic Brass Society, and the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society. He was elected President of IHS in 2006, re-elected in 2008, and has served the society in many other capacities, including as Publications Editor (1998-2003) and Book and Music Reviews Editor (2003-present).

As a performer, Jeff has received a number of honors, most notably First Place in the Natural Horn Division of the 1991 American Horn Competition. Jeff currently serves as Principal Horn with the Yakima Symphony.  Jeff has been a featured artist, clinician, lecturer, conductor, and host of regional, national, and international conferences for the International Horn Society, Historic Brass Society, Northwest Horn Society, Washington Music Educators Association, among others, and given concerto appearances, traditional recitals, natural horn performances, and jazz gigs all over the US, and in Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Taiwan, and South Africa. He has also organized and hosted a wide range of events, including early music, brass, and horn workshops. He has held positions and played extra horn with regional, metropolitan, and festival orchestras in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Utah (including the Utah Symphony Orchestra), Virginia, and Michigan. He has also performed with Early Music Vancouver and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of Vancouver, BC, and the Seattle Classical Players.

Jeff has published over 50 articles on a variety of musical topics in scholarly and popular journals, including seven entries in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary.  With pianist Marilyn Wilbanks, Jeff released his first solo recording in 1996, Musique de Salon: 19th-Century French Music for horn and piano, which includes music for natural and early valved horns with fortepiano, and has received much critical acclaim. A second successful recording devoted to jazz, First Times, was released in 1998, and features the horn in settings ranging from horn/bass duo to fronting a big band.  Jeff has also been featured on recordings of the works of Douglas Hill and Lowell Shaw.

Jeff completed a BA in music and mathematics at Heidelberg College (1980), a Master of Music in horn performance at the University of Michigan (1981), a Master of Arts in music history at The Ohio State University (1985), and a Doctor of Musical Arts in horn performance and historical musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991).  He lives in Ellensburg, Washington, with his extremely patient wife and two talented sons.

Jeffrey Snedeker (Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington) teaches horn, performs with Brass Central (CWU faculty ensemble), and directs the CWU Brass Choir and the CWU Horn Ensemble. The CWUHE maintains an active outreach program, and was an invited performing ensemble at the 28th, 30th, and 33rd IHS international workshops. Jeff also serves as Associate Chair of the Music Department. He received CWU’s Presidential Award for Faculty Member of the Year for 2005-2006. Jeff is current President of the International Horn Society and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Historic Brass Society. As a performer, Jeff has received a number of honors, most notably First Place in the Natural Horn Division of the 1991 American Horn Competition. Jeff currently serves as Principal Horn with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, and has been a featured artist, clinician, lecturer, and given concerto appearances, traditional recitals, natural horn performances, and jazz gigs all over the US, and in Canada, Germany, Finland, Taiwan, and South Africa. Jeff has released two solo recordings, one for natural horn and one jazz, and has also been featured on recordings of the works of Douglas Hill and Lowell Shaw (Fripperies, Volumes 1-8).

Send email to Jeff Snedeker at snedeker@cwu.edu

Last updated Sept.. 4, 2008