Choral Clinicians
Miriam Altman knew from the beginning of her career that her passion lay in working with young adolescents. She teaches middle school students at University School of Milwaukee in Milwaukee, WI. Her curricular offerings include six choruses, West African and Latin American drumming, and class guitar. CMP has been a significant influence in her teaching for over fifteen years. Her interests in non-Western musical traditions led her to study drumming and vocal music at the Dagbe Cultural Institute in Ghana, West Africa in 2010 and 2011. She is also a member of the Wisconsin Advocates for Music Education where she teams with other educators, school board members, and business owners to spearhead music education advocacy efforts throughout the state. Ms. Altman presents regularly at state and regional conferences, including the Wisconsin State Music Conference and American Choral Directors Association – North Central Division Conference. Her students have been invited to perform at a number of select venues, including the 2011 Wisconsin Choral Directors’ Association Convention.
Margaret Jenks has been teaching for twenty years at a variety of different schools and grade levels. She currently conducts elementary and middle school choirs for the Madison Youth Choirs and teaches K-5 in the Madison Metropolitan School District. She has served as a clinician and speaker at a number of state and regional conferences–especially in areas of repertoire selection and the changing boys’ voice. She has actively pursued CMP thinking and teaching since her college days at Lawrence University, where Rick Bjella was a major influence on her decision to become a music educator. Recent CMP highlights include leading workshops with teachers from across Asia in Korea and Hong Kong, as well as collaborating with colleagues from Illinois as they begin a statewide CMP initiative. Margaret has been a CMP committee member since 2000 and has served as chair of the CMP committee. If she suddenly were forced to choose another career, her vegetarian cooking-without-a-recipe skills are pretty sharp and her two sons, already have restaurant names chosen.
Randy Swiggum has enjoyed a diverse teaching career that has spanned elementary general music, high school choir, college orchestra, music theory and conducting. As composer, conductor, teacher, and advocate for young people in the arts, he has established a reputation for musical excellence and a commitment to music education through performance. A frequent guest conductor of orchestral and choral festivals, he recently conducted the first ever Pennsylvania ACDA/PMEA All-State Junior High Choir, the New York City InterSchool Festival, the Singapore American Schools Music Festival, the MENC All-Northwest Honor Choir in Portland, and American Mennonite Schools Orchestra Festival, the Northern Arizona Honors Orchestra, and both the Wisconsin Middle Level Honors Choir and Orchestra.
A passionate advocate for a richer learning experience in choir, band, and orchestra, he has served as Chair of the Wisconsin CMP (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance) Project, now in its 32nd year. A frequent presenter at MENC, ASTA, and ACDA conferences, he has addressed the Pennsylvania MENC on "The Art of Rehearsing," as well as the Maryland MENC, the ACDA North Central Division in Des Moines and Easter Division in Hartford, CT, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, and national conventions of the MENC in Phoenix and Kansas City. He has conducted successful performance tours to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Scotland, and throughout the U.S. His choirs performed throughout Italy under the auspices of UNESCO, in Brazil as guests of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Intercultura Brasil, and with the Icelandic National Symphony in Reykjavik under the direction of Lukas Foss. In 1998, he conducted the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. Well known to Wisconsin theatre audiences as a conductor of opera and musical theatre, he has music directed over thirty stage works including the 1991 premiere of the Theatre X opera, Liberace. He created the music for celebrated director Eric Simonsen's new production of Moby Dick for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, named by TIME magazine as one of the 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2002.
As a writer, Swiggum has served as music critic for the Milwaukee Journal, as author of the book Strategies for Teaching, published by MENC (1998), and as a co-author of Shaping Sound Musicians (GIA, 2003). He also serves on the American Symphony Orchestra League Board of Directors-Youth Orchestra Division. He was Artistic Director of the Madison Children's Choir from 1996-2000, and currently conducts the Madison Boychoir's top ensembles, Britten and Holst. He has taught at Whitefish Bay High School (Milwaukee), and at the University of Wisconsin and Lawrence University. His degrees are in music education (B.M.) and orchestral conducting (M.M.) and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In 2005, he became the Education Conductor for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, planning and conducting its youth concerts. His acclaimed young people's concerts with the ESO have prompted invitations to create and conduct similar concerts at the Aberdeen International Festival, and with the Boise Philharmonic and the Florida Orchestra. In the 2007, he made his subscription concert debut with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and "The Mambo Kings," and also conducted the APAC Orchestra Festival in Seoul, Korea, and the IMEA District IX Junior Orchestra. Last year, Swiggum was recognized by the Illinois Council of Orchestras as the 2008 Youth Orchestra Conductor of the Year.
A passionate advocate for a richer learning experience in choir, band, and orchestra, he has served as Chair of the Wisconsin CMP (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance) Project, now in its 32nd year. A frequent presenter at MENC, ASTA, and ACDA conferences, he has addressed the Pennsylvania MENC on "The Art of Rehearsing," as well as the Maryland MENC, the ACDA North Central Division in Des Moines and Easter Division in Hartford, CT, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, and national conventions of the MENC in Phoenix and Kansas City. He has conducted successful performance tours to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Scotland, and throughout the U.S. His choirs performed throughout Italy under the auspices of UNESCO, in Brazil as guests of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Intercultura Brasil, and with the Icelandic National Symphony in Reykjavik under the direction of Lukas Foss. In 1998, he conducted the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. Well known to Wisconsin theatre audiences as a conductor of opera and musical theatre, he has music directed over thirty stage works including the 1991 premiere of the Theatre X opera, Liberace. He created the music for celebrated director Eric Simonsen's new production of Moby Dick for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, named by TIME magazine as one of the 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2002.
As a writer, Swiggum has served as music critic for the Milwaukee Journal, as author of the book Strategies for Teaching, published by MENC (1998), and as a co-author of Shaping Sound Musicians (GIA, 2003). He also serves on the American Symphony Orchestra League Board of Directors-Youth Orchestra Division. He was Artistic Director of the Madison Children's Choir from 1996-2000, and currently conducts the Madison Boychoir's top ensembles, Britten and Holst. He has taught at Whitefish Bay High School (Milwaukee), and at the University of Wisconsin and Lawrence University. His degrees are in music education (B.M.) and orchestral conducting (M.M.) and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In 2005, he became the Education Conductor for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, planning and conducting its youth concerts. His acclaimed young people's concerts with the ESO have prompted invitations to create and conduct similar concerts at the Aberdeen International Festival, and with the Boise Philharmonic and the Florida Orchestra. In the 2007, he made his subscription concert debut with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and "The Mambo Kings," and also conducted the APAC Orchestra Festival in Seoul, Korea, and the IMEA District IX Junior Orchestra. Last year, Swiggum was recognized by the Illinois Council of Orchestras as the 2008 Youth Orchestra Conductor of the Year.