Everything Band: Episode 35 - Joe Parisi

Joe Parisi is a professor of music education at UMKC and the director of the Fountain City Brass Band. He joins me to talk about music education, brass band, and how music gives us a sense of belonging.

Topics:

• Joe’s background and current position as a music professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City.
• Teaching students to love music through band and the importance of creating lifelong learning through music.
• The exceptional faculty, including Elliot Del Borgo and Tony Maiello at SUNY Potsdam during Joe’s undergraduate study there and the lessons that he learned from those great musicians.
• Increasing the number of great moments so that students want to come back and work harder.
• The program at UMKC including commissioning and premiering over 50 new works and stories of commissioning composers.
• The Fountain City Brass and brass banding and using competition as a way to build community.

Links:

• Joe Parisi
• University of Missouri - Kansas City
• Fountain City Brass
• Ben Zander "The Art of Possibility"
• Carol Dweck “Mindset”
• Gunther Schuller: Symphony for Brass and Percussion
• Hindemith: Symphony for Band
• Verdi: Ave Maria from Four Sacred Pieces

Biography:

Joseph Parisi is a professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance where he conducts the Conservatory Wind Ensemble and serves as a music education and conducting faculty member. During the 2017–18 academic year, he is serving UMKC as Director of the Interdisciplinary PhD Program. Recognized as one of the most well-rounded faculty members at UMKC, Parisi has amassed an impressive career as a conductor, performing artist, pedagogue, and scholar. He has made professional appearances both nationally and abroad conducting music festivals, adjudicating ensembles, presenting clinics, research, lectures and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom, and China.

As Parisi embarks on his 16th year at UMKC, he continues to collaborate with many outstanding artists and composers, commission new works, and perform throughout the world. Recognized as one of America’s outstanding brass conductors, Parisi is the principal conductor of Summit Brass at the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute (http://www.mendezbrassinstitute.com/) and Fountain City Brass Band (http://fcbb.net/). Both groups have a rich and distinguished history of outstanding brass playing, and under Parisi’s leadership, Fountain City Brass Band leads the United States as one of the world’s top brass bands. Parisi has been recognized numerous times with the Brass Band Conductor of the Year Award, and received the winning conductor award at the Scottish Open Championship. Fountain City will return to the U.K. in 2017 to perform at Brass in Concert in Gateshead and the Scottish Open Brass Band Championship in Perth. Fountain City Brass Band’s latest recording, Celtic Impressions, has received wide-spread praise for its ensemble precision, excitement, and musicality.