Brian Casey

Assistant Professor of Conducting and Horn; Director of Orchestral Activities

E-mail: brian.casey@houghton.edu
Phone: 585.567.9400

Brian Casey was appointed in 2007 as Assistant Professor of Conducting and Horn at the Greatbatch School of Music. For three years the Music Director and Conductor of the Houghton Philharmonia, starting in 2010, he will enjoy musical leadership of both major instrumental ensembles, becoming Music Director and Conductor of the Symphonic Winds, as well. Casey also advocates for chamber music, and coordinates and arranges for various ensembles. A native of Delaware, he had previously held faculty positions at two-year colleges in the Kansas City area and has conducted and performed with several other community and semi-professional bands and orchestras.

Casey holds the Doctor of Arts degree in wind conducting from the University of Northern Colorado, where he founded and conducted the Foundation Brass, an ensemble composed of premier graduate and undergraduate student brass and percussion players. His secondary emphasis was in orchestral conducting. At UNC, he performed—both as conductor and on the horn—with the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and chamber groups. His dissertation treated funereal music styles historically, theoretically—and practically, in that it offered new transcriptions of landmark funeral pieces for use by various instrumental ensembles.

Casey holds the B.A. degree in Music Education from Harding University (AR) and the M.M. in wind conducting from the University of Delaware. He was graduated summa cum laude from all three institutions and is a member of Alpha Chi, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. His principal conducting teachers have been Robert Streckfuss, Kenneth Singleton, Richard Mayne, and Russell Guyver. He has also participated in conducting symposia with Allan McMurray, Stanley DeRusha, Gary Hill, Craig Kirchoff, Patrick Casey, Eric Whitacre, John Lynch, Sarah McKoin, Stephen Peterson, and Anthony Maiello.

While serving as principal horn and associate conductor with both the Kansas City Wind Symphony and the Kansas City Brass Project; Casey also appeared with the Liberty (MO) Symphony, the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, and the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. A well-rounded musician, he could once hold his own as a jazz pianist; he directed and sang with the Christian a cappella octet Lights for eight years; and he is active in transcribing, arranging, and composing both vocal and instrumental pieces, specializing in brass and Christian a cappella works. His hymn I Behold You was recently recorded by the Harding University Alumni Chorus.

Having taught in small academies for a few years, Casey also worked in banking and technology support but was overjoyed, when the opportunity presented itself, to move back into music, the vocation of his first love. He has published articles on worship and congregational singing in Image and Worship Leader and for three years also reviewed contemporary worship CDs for Worship Leader. For several years he self-published Principally Proskuneo, in which he wrote and digested worship material in newsletter format. Casey’s new book The Christian Assembly: Concepts, Trends, and Leadership With Purpose, is e-published through The Paperless Hymnal. Casey blogs regularly on worship, the Christian assembly, and the scripture-informed Christian life and practice in general.

Casey has had instrumental compositions and transcriptions performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony Brass, the Heart of America Wind Symphony Brass, the Kansas City Brass Project, Offutt Air Force Base’s Winds of Freedom Woodwind Quintet, the University of Northern Colorado’s Grad Brass Quintet and Foundation Brass, and Houghton College’s chamber and orchestral ensembles. A well-traveled contributor to musical life in the Southern Tier, Casey performs with the Houghton Brass Quintet and is second horn with the Southern Tier Symphony. He served as guest conductor for the Roberts Wesleyan College Wind Ensemble in the fall of 2009 and has also performed with the Hornell Area Wind Ensemble, serving as guest conductor in the spring of 2010. In the summer, he continues to serve as principal conductor of the Rushford Town Band and of the Town Theatre of Short Tract’s pit orchestra. He will guest-conduct the Amherst Chamber Ensembles in a varied program in June 2011. Casey typically conducts more than 20 performances and plays more than 15 as hornist each year.

In his free time, he enjoys racquetball, bicycling, motorcycling, his Shepherd-Lab Tessa, and hiking solo or with his wife Karly. The Caseys’ son Jedd Garrett arrived in May 2009.

Professional Memberships: CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association), College Orchestra Directors Association, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), and the Board of the Southern Tier Symphony.

For more information, visit Dr. Casey’s professional page on the College web, or his Encounter Music site.

Courses: Philharmonia, Symphonic Winds, Basic Conducting, Advanced/Graduate Conducting, Horn, Chamber Music, and Graduate Orchestral Literature.