Spend an evening with composer, conductor and Library of Congress senior musicologist Loras Schissel prior to his conducting The Blue and the Grey, a multimedia concert at Strings Music Festival on July 25 that celebrates the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

Schissel will talk about orchestrating, musicology and the musical connection to the Civil War.

About the speaker
Loras John Schissel has traveled throughout the United States, Europe and Asia conducting orchestras, bands and choral ensembles in a broad range of musical styles and varied programs. Mr. Schissel has served as conductor of the Blossom Festival Band since 1998 and regularly conducts the Blossom Festival Orchestra. He led The Cleveland Orchestra's free concert on Public Square in 2009 and led the special 9/11 tenth anniversary concert. In 2008, Mr. Schissel made his debut with "Pershing's Own," the United States Army Band, on the steps of the US Capitol. He was invited to program, produce and conduct the Dallas Symphony for the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s passing on November 22nd, 1963. 2014 marked Mr. Schissel’s return at the head of The Cleveland Orchestra for its downtown July 4 celebration. He has just completed his 20th season as founding music director of the Arlington-based Virginia Grand Military Band, an ensemble comprising current and former members of the four major US service bands. In 2005, Mr. Schissel was elected to membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

As a composer and orchestrator, Mr. Schissel has created an extensive catalog of over 500 works for orchestra, symphonic wind band and jazz ensemble, published exclusively by Ludwig/Masters Music. His musical score for “Bill Moyers: America's First River, The Hudson,” which first appeared on PBS in 2002, received extensive coverage and critical acclaim. He also created musical scores for two films for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home in Hyde Park, New York. As a recording artist, Mr. Schissel has amassed a large discography with a wide variety of ensembles and various musical genres. He is a senior musicologist at the Library of Congress and a leading authority on the music of Percy Aldridge Grainger, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Mr. Schissel and John Philip Sousa IV (great-grandson of the composer) recently co-authored a book titled The Stars and Stripes Forever. Mr. Schissel is currently writing a study of the famed impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

Deeply committed to young musicians, Mr. Schissel has appeared as conductor of All-State music festivals and of festival bands and orchestras in more than thirty states. He has conducted the Berea All-County Orchestra Festival and regularly visits Baldwin Wallace University as conductor of the Summer Band Camp.

This program is a presented by Strings Music Festival & Bud Werner Memorial Library.