Music : Orchestra Festival Adjudicators

 Soo Han

Soo Han is the Director of Orchestras at Carmel High in Carmel, IN and also the music director of the New World Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, in Indianapolis, IN. Prior to Carmel and New World, he served as the Orchestra Director at North Central High School in Indianapolis, IN and in Munster, IN. Orchestras under his leadership experienced a great deal of success including 2006, 2007, and 2008 Indiana State Music Association (ISSMA) State Championship and 2003, 2005 Runner-up awards. Han has appeared as conductor for the ASTA All-Region festivals, Carmel Middle School Orchestra Festival, South Bend Youth Orchestra, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra (IL), Northwest Indiana Youth Orchestra, and various summer orchestras. He has also served on the staff with Bands of America – Orchestra Division Summer Symposium and is an active adjudicator and a clinician throughout the state. Han lectures frequently to beginning teachers and string education majors at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has served as the Indiana American String Teachers Association’s All-State Orchestra Coordinator, and is the current association’s state treasurer. He serves on committees and the advisory board for IMEA and ISSMA. In 2007, he was named a finalist for the Minority Leadership Achievement Award in the field of education by the Indiana Center for Leadership and Development.

His early teachers have included Alma West, Ann Hillegass, and Jeffery Hackenberger. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. While at IU, he studied piano with Christopher Harding and Edward Auer, and horn with Lisa Bergman. Han has studied conducting with Kenneth Keisler at the Conductors Summer Retreat at Camp Medomak in Maine.

His other interests includes playing board games, cooking, playing with dogs, and an avid fan of Food Network. Soo is also an active realtor with the F.C. Tucker Company as a member of the Lawless Team. Tuesday March 10th - Wednesday March 11th 2009

SOO HAN
Director of Orchestras
Carmel High in Carmel, IN

 Louie Labayen

Born and raised in the Philippines, Louie Labayen is a multi-talented conductor. At the very young age of ten, he organized his first church choir and made his conducting debut at sixteen with a youth group performing Handel's Halleluiah. After achieving second place in the National Music Competition for Young Artists, he was sought out by the Yamaha Music School at fifteen to teach classical guitar.

In his early twenties, he was co-founder and General Director of the Infanta Cultural Society, a performing arts organization encompassing instrumental and vocal music, drama, and dance. He earned his Master of Music degree in Orchestra Conducting and Literature from the University of Northern Colorado and undertook doctoral studies in conducting at the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Master Classes at the Rome Festival Orchestra Summer Institute in Italy.

In all of his fields of musical endeavor, he had the privilege of studying with mentors who are internationally acclaimed performers, including David Lockington (British conductor), Leonard Slatkin, William McGlaughlin, Eph Ely, Fritz Maraffi (American conductors), Paolo Pilia (Italian classical guitarist), Emmanuel Gregorio (Filipino baritone), Luis Valencia (Filipino violinist and conductor), and Fr. Manuel P. Maramba, OSB (Filipino composer). He has been actively involved with the Conductors Guild and the American Symphony Orchestra League both on the conducting and orchestra management areas. As a member of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, he has performed many large orchestral works, including the Verdi Requiem, Mahler Resurrection Symphony, and the Beethoven Choral Symphony.

Recently, as music director of the Kitsap Youth Symphony, he strengthened the organizational infrastructure, refined ensemble playing, and molded the sound of the orchestra. He is also an award-winning photographic artist, an internationally recognized database designer and is a database administrator at MultiCare Health System.. He is actively involved with the Knights of Columbus, Gig Harbor Fil-Am, and the Archdiocese of Seattle Asian Ministries. He is married to Rose Labayen. Their son Gus is an accompanist and choir director at St. Nicholas Church and piano performance major at Central Washington University, was principal bass with the Meistersingers and percussionist of the GHPSO, and their son Jim is a percussionist, violinist and violist.

 David Upham

David Upham currently serves as the Music Director of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra in Bainbridge Island, Washington. In his brief tenure with the orchestra, he has invigorated the ensemble with his musicality and variety of engaging programs. Audiences have responded to his leadership, resulting in complete sellouts of the final concerts of the 2007-2008 season.

David’s recent guest conducting engagements have included appearances with Ballet Bellevue, Marrowstone Summer Music, and the Northwest Mahler Festival. He will make his international debut in November, 2008 at the contemporary music festival, Aujourd’hui musiques in Perpignan, France. He is in demand across the region and country as a conductor and clinician, working at festivals in Washington, Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Kansas. David has a long and successful history as a music educator as well, serving for 10 years as the conductor of various student ensembles, including a long tenure with the prestigious Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras. His ensembles at Newport High School in Bellevue, WA, routinely won top prizes in both orchestral and chamber music competitions.

David has received degrees from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), the University of Northern Colorado, and most recently completed his doctoral degree at the University of Washington. His principle teachers include Maestro Peter Erös, Dr. David MacKenzie, Germán Augusto Gutiérrez, and Douglas Diamond. David has undertaken additional musical studies with Richard Rosenberg, Gunther Schuller, and Marin Alsop.

David Upham
Music Director- Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra

 Robert Boardman

Robert Boardman
Director - Ann Arbor Repertory Orchestra

Robert Boardman is founder and current Music Director of the Ann Arbor Repertory Orchestra (April 2008), a reading orchestra that meets once per week and performs on an TBA basis. Over 110 Players play with the orchestra, from which about 50 core players attend each week. The orchestra is comprised of University of Michigan music majors, non music major students, faculty, staff and community members in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The orchestra was created as a venue where players would be exposed to a vast variety of repertoire without the normal constraints of performance preparation.

In May 2006, Mr. Boardman he was appointed Assistant Conductor for "The Lord of the Rings Symphony", Howard Shore's six-movement, film score masterpiece for Orchestra, Chorus, & Visuals. In working with "The Lord of the Rings Symphony", Mr. Boardman has worked with some of the finest professional orchestras in the United States, as well as a touring Europe during the spring of 2007.

Mr. Boardman studied conducting and achieved the DMA (ABD) of Orchestral Conducting at the University of Michigan, consistently ranked #1 in conducting by USNEWS&WR. While there, he studied with acclaimed conducting pedagogue Kenneth Kielser and served as Music Director of the University of Michigan Campus Symphony & Campus Philharmonia Orchestras, Assistant Conductor of the University Symphony, University Philharmonia, and Opera Theatre. Mr. Boardman has also studied at festivals and workshops with many fine conductors which include Marin Alsop, Kurt Masur, Larry Rachleff, and Gustav Meier, and Harold Farberman.