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Daniel Earl, Director
R.
Daniel Earl is recently retired from public school teaching after 40 years, the
final 28 years at Santa Rosa High School. While at Santa Rosa High his choirs
have been winners of numerous statewide and national honors, including multiple
winners at the Concord Pavilion and the Golden State Choral Competitions, with
both his Concert Choir and his Chamber Singers having been First Places
winners. Six of his choirs have been chosen to sing for the Divisional
Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and even more
recently his Chamber Singers performed at the 1999 National Convention of ACDA.
Mr. Earl’s choirs have toured Europe numerous times, concluding with a tour to
Prague in the Czech Republic, Wroclaw, Poland and Vienna, Austria. With a
teaching career that spans 5 decades, he was treated to a retirement gala which
included a choir of 450 former students and an audience of 900.
Mr. Earl was selected Teacher of the Year for Santa Rosa City Schools and Sonoma County in 1982 and
again in 1998. He
was honored as Alumnus of the Year
by Chapman University’s School of Music in 1994. In a high school that
recently celebrated its 130
year anniversary, Mr. Earl became only the seventeenth teacher to be chosen
for the Santa Rosa High
School’s Wall of Fame.
The Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce has honored Mr. Earl with the Spirit of
Santa Rosa award and in 2003 he was presented the Arts in Education
Award.
A 1965 graduate of
Chapman College/University, where he majored in music and studied with Dr.
William Hall., he began his teaching career in Southern California in the
Tustin City schools in 1966. He was selected as an Outstanding Young
Educator by the Tustin Jaycees in 1975. While teaching at Hewes
Intermediate he met his wife-to-be, Connie, who was teaching math at the same
school. After teaching music and drama for 11 years at Hewes, in 1977 he
accepted a teaching position at Santa Rosa High School. Besides teaching
choral music, from 1978 to 1990 he also taught the Symphonic and Marching
Bands, the Orchestra, and the Jazz Band. In 1987 he was a Graduate Assistant
with Dr. Charlene Archibeque at San Jose State University, where he assisted
Dr. Archibeque with the Concert Choir and the Choraliers.
For the past 7 years
Mr. Earl has been the conductor of the Santa Rosa Symphonic Chorus and its
chamber ensemble, Voci di Canto, which are community choirs supported
by Santa Rosa Junior College. He has been the conductor of the Redwood
Empire’s Sing-Along Messiah for the past 26 years. Mr. Earl has
directed numerous Honor Choirs and he has helped prepare choirs for Maestros
Corrick Brown, Jeffrey Kahane, Gabriel Sakakeeny, Asher Raboy and Dr. William
Hall.
Nicholas Xenelis, Orchestral Conductor
Mr. Xenelis has taught in Sonoma
County since 1980. During that time his school groups have performed at
festivals, parades, and numerous concerts. His main instrument is clarinet but
he minored in strings at Boston University where he developed a love of teaching all instruments
but especially
strings. He was a String Director for grades 4-12 in Massachusetts, a Band Director in Berkeley,
CA., and developed a Community Band and Chamber Music Program in Siskiyou
County before settling in Sonoma County where he has now resided for the last 26 years.
He directs the Chamber
Winds and teaches String Pedagogy at Sonoma State University as well as conducting
the Baroque Sinfonia at Santa Rosa Junior College. Mr. Xenelis has
long been an advocate and active voice in the community for music in the
schools. He maintains a private teaching studio.
Always balancing
education with performing, Mr. Xenelis plays regularly in various chamber
groups, orchestral settings, jazz ensembles, and quartets. As a previous
member of the Baroque Sinfonia, he soloed many times with works such as the
Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Weber Concerto No. 2, Rossini Theme and
Variations, and the Viola and Clarinet Concerto by Bruch. In 1992 he was the
guest conductor for the Baroque Sinfonia while performing a Mozart Concerto
for Woodwinds and Orchestra.
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