Professional Development

Gerald Elias is an acclaimed author and musician. A former violinist with the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, he has concertized on five continents as violinist and conductor, and his compositions have been performed throughout the United States. Since 2004 he has been music director of the Vivaldi by Candlelight concert series in Salt Lake City, and since 1989 a faculty member of the University of Utah. His award-winning Daniel Jacobus mystery series, based upon experiences gleaned from his lifelong musical career, takes place in the dark corners of the classical music world and has won extensive critical praise.

Dr. Ayden Adler became The Philadelphia Orchestra Association’s Director of Education and Community Partnerships in 2007, after serving as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Director for Learning Development. In her current position she oversees the Orchestra’s more than twenty education and community partnerships programs and concert series—programs that aim to create broader and more equitable access to the Orchestra and cultivate demand for the Orchestra’s artistic product through education, partnerships, and performance. Using traditional concert formats as well as new media technologies such as videoconferencing, Internet2, and image magnification, the programs are designed to engage current audiences, serve the Orchestra’s home community, and build global audiences for the future.

Previous to her administrative positions, Dr. Adler performed in the horn section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and taught horn, natural horn, and music history at the Eastman School of Music. While performing in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, she served as chair of the Orchestra Committee, on the Negotiating Committee, and as musician representative to the Education and Outreach Council. She regularly gives presentations at national and international conferences that address issues of civic relevance, diversity, and cultural values in the context of historic and current business practices at arts institutions. Her Ph.D. dissertation, titled, “‘Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music’: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, 1930-1950,” received the Society of American Music’s Wiley Housewright Award.
Dr. Adler holds degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), The Juilliard School (M.M.), and the Eastman School of Music (M.A., D.M.A., Ph.D.).

Jeremy S. Brown is Professor of Music and former Head of the Music Department at the University of Calgary. He was selected and recognized as one of five “Innovators of the University of Calgary” in 2008 for his work with the urban homeless. He has been awarded the University of Calgary Student’s Union Teaching Excellence Award. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Ohio State University and the Master of Music degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in woodwinds where he studied primarily with Ramon Ricker. He is a contributing editor to Canadian Winds and has commissioned more than thirty new works for saxophone by Canadian composers. He has also been artist-in-residence and a visiting lecturer at the Banff Centre. In 2007 he was awarded the David Peterkin Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Music Education Profession” in Alberta, Canada. In 2009 he will release a new recording of new Canadian works for saxophone through the Canadian Music Centre Centrediscs label. In 2007, his band Verismo performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival to considerable acclaim. As well, he is an active soloist, woodwind doubler and wind band conductor across Canada and internationally.