   School of Music
MU 203 Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306 Phone: (765) 285-5400 Fax: (765) 285-5401 music@bsu.edu |
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  Leonard Atherton Professor of Music Performance View e-mail address | Log in to view e-mail w/your BSU Username MU 304 (765) 285-5413 Fax: 285-5401 School of Music Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306 Add Contact Info to Outlook Biography Leonard Atherton, professor of music, joined the School of Music Faculty in 1982. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Muncie Symphony Orchestra and former director of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra. Atherton, an Associate of the Royal College of Music and a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, holds a doctoral equivalency from Ball State University and the Master of Arts degree from the University of Oxford. He held the Holroyd Music Scholarship at Keble College, Oxford University, and studied conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center. He received the Ricordi Prize for conducting while at the Guildhall School of Music. With the Watney-Sargent Award, Atherton spent a year observing the Philadelphia Orchestra and other professional organizations. Atherton has held several music director positions including those of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Young Artists Choral Program of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He was music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Bolivia where he has returned on two recent occasions. He was director of the University of Pennsylvania Choruses. He has recorded with the Canadian Broadcasting Company and has been guest conductor with a number of Canadian orchestras. He also has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and conducted the National Anthem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the third game of the 1970 World Series between Baltimore and Cincinnati. Atherton made his debut in Japan with the Sakai Opera Company, Osaka, and continues to conduct in Japan with various organizations. He has also guest conducted in London, Mexico, Thailand and Taiwan. His textbook on Conducting is used in Taiwan. Maestro Atherton has served on many occasions as the Cover Conductor for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and in June 2003, he was honored as a ‘Sagamore of the Wabash’, Indiana’s civilian award granted by the State’s Governor, for his service in music to the Muncie area community and to the State. He currently gives masterclasses, workshops, adjudications and presentations for orchestras, conductors and at conferences for such bodies as the American String Teachers’ Association, the Conductor’s Guild, the Indiana Music Educators Association and the Collegiate Orchestra Directors Association. He is a National Board member of the Conductors’ Guild and also the Collegiate Orchestra Directors Association of which he is Treasurer. |
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