On Monday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m. Friends University Concert Band will perform its spring concert with Robert Buckley, including a special appearance by The Baker University Concert Band. The concert is sponsored by Senseney Music.
Robert Buckley is a renowned composer of wind band repertoire. He resides in Canada and has conducted his music throughout the world.
Selections will include The Ringmaster’s March by John Mackey, Refracted Moonlight by Zachary Cairns, Portraits of the North by Robert Buckley and many others.
The Friends University Concert Band is known for performances of outstanding literature at all difficulty levels and has been selected multiple times to perform for the Kansas Music Educators Association convention.
Tickets for adults are $6; students and seniors are $4. Tickets can be purchased by calling Friends University at 316-295-5677. The performance will take place in Sebits Auditorium on the Friends University campus at 2100 W. University Ave., Wichita, Kan.
For more information on this event or other Fine Arts events, please contact the Fine Arts Box Office at 316-295-5677 or finearts@friends.edu.
Friends University, a Christian University of Quaker heritage, equips students to honor God and serve others by integrating their intellectual, spiritual and professional lives.
Biography – Robert Buckley
Robert Buckley has a diverse career as a composer, arranger, performer, producer, recording artist and conductor. In the pop world, he created several albums and hit songs with labels such as CBS and A&M. The number one single Letting Go won him a gold record. He conducted and arranged for major artists such as Michael Bublé, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan and Aerosmith, to name a few. In the film and television world, he scored numerous award-winning shows for Disney, Alliance, ABC, FOX, CBS, PBS, CBC and the Cartoon Network. In the live stage world, he composed music for contemporary dance, musicals and large-scale worldwide television events including the Calgary Olympics, the Victoria Commonwealth Games, the Vancouver Olympics and the FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony with Cirque Du Soleil.
He composed This Is My Home for the Canadian Pavilion at the World Expo – a song that has been performed at every Canada Day since and has become a Canadian tradition. In the concert world, his symphonic wind band compositions have been performed worldwide. Robert was invited to be
composer-in-residence at the Pacific University in Oregon and Troy University in Alabama, where a CD of his symphonic wind music was recorded called Continuum. For several years he has been composer-in-residence at the Con Brio Whistler Music Festival and was commissioned to compose Where
Mountains Touch The Sky for a massed band of more than 1500 players.
Recently, he had the honor of recording a CD of his music, called Undercurrents, with the renowned Naden Band of the Canadian Navy. Robert has received numerous awards for his work and, as a frequently commissioned composer, he is always looking for interesting, new ways to express his music at all levels. He lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada with his wife, choreographer and director, Marlise McCormick. Robert is a proud member of the American Band Association and the Screen Composers Guild of Canada.
Biography – Dr. Frank Perez, Director of Bands, Baker University
Dr. Frank Perez is the director of bands at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, where he conducts the Baker Symphonic Winds and Pep Band, teaches applied trombone lessons, supervises student teachers and oversees all aspects of the university’s band program. Prior to Baker, he served as the director of bands and department chair at Graceland University, where he held the prestigious Vredenburg Endowed Chair; graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas and director of bands at Ganesha High School in Pomona, California. He enjoyed eight years of successful high school teaching in southern California, where his groups earned numerous awards and superior ratings at both district and state festivals.
Dr. Perez maintains an active national and international guest-conducting schedule. In 2012 he was invited as honored guest, clinician and guest conductor with the Minerva Marching Band of Benémerita Universidad Autónoma in the city of Puebla, in Puebla, Mexico. Dr. Perez has guest conducted several conference honor bands in Kansas, Iowa and Missouri.
As a clinician, he has presented trombone and technology clinics and workshops for state music conferences including Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and California. In addition to conducting, Dr. Perez remains active as a freelance trombonist. He performs regularly with the KC Bone Connection Trombone Quartet, Bones Midwest, Free State Brass Band, and De Soto Brass Band. He has performed with ensembles such as the La Jolla Symphony, L.A. Guild Opera, Golden State British Brass Band, Bones West, and the Des Moines Big Band. He has recorded CDs with Bones West and the USC Big Band and for the NAXOS label with the KU Wind Ensemble. Dr. Perez earned Bachelor of Music degrees in Trombone Performance and Music Education and a Master of Music Education degree from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He earned a Doctor of Music degree in wind band conducting from the University of Kansas School of Music.
Dr. Perez has been honored by Who’s Who Among American Teachers, Who’s Who in America, Phi Beta Mu, Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lamda honor fraternities and Blue Key National Honor Society. He is a member of the Kansas Bandmasters Association, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors Association, International Trombone Association and Lions Club International and was recently invited to become a clinician and artist for Conn–Selmer. Dr. Perez recently served as conductor of the 2016 Kansas State Lion’s Band.