Position:
Professor Emeritus, Music TheoryEmail: dblack@berxwedan.net
Employed Since:
1968Teaching Area(s):
Music Theory
Conservatory Professional Highlights:
For twenty years, Donald Black was conductor of the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and opera productions and for 25 years was chair of the Instrumental Division. He taught aural skills and instrumentation, as well as conducting, music theory, woodwinds and music education classes.
He undertook clarinet study with Anthony Gigliotti, David Hite and Thomas Ayres; flute study with Donald McGinnis and Robert Cole; cello study with Frederick Zenone; conducting with Lloyd Geissler; and composition with Karl Ahrendt and Robert Shallenberg. He previously taught in the Newark, Ohio Public Schools, and at Ohio University, East Texas State University, Amarillo College, the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri.
He held positions as principal clarinetist with the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony on tour in Europe, the Amarillo Symphony and the University of Iowa Symphony. He also performed as principal flutist in both the Ohio University Symphony Orchestra and the Faculty Woodwind Quintet. He still plays jazz clarinet with The Professors, a combo of faculty colleagues.
Donald Black has conducted Shenandoah Conservatory groups in concerts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), and for five years was conductor of the Frederick (Maryland) Symphony Orchestra. Faculty honors include the Wilkins Faculty Award (1991), Shenandoah University Teacher of the Year (1994), Sigma Alpha Iota Friend of the Arts Award (1998) and Honorary Member of Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternity (2000).
Educational History:
B.S., Concord College; M.F.A., Ohio University