Hartt School Wind Ensemble & Glen Adsit
Biography Hartt School Wind Ensemble & Glen Adsit
Glen Adsit
is the Director of Bands at The Hartt School where he conducts the Wind Ensemble. In addition, he co-directs Hartt’s new music ensemble (Foot in the Door) and the graduate instrumental conducting degrees with Edward Cumming, Director of Orchestras at Hartt. Professor Adsit was appointed the Director of Bands at The Hartt School in the fall of 2000 and was awarded the 2014 Larsen Award for outstanding teaching at the University of Hartford. In 2015 he was named one of the “Top 40 Educators Making a Difference” by Music For All. Prior to his appointment at The Hartt School, he served as the Associate Director of Bands at the University of New Mexico. From 1986 to 1992 he taught at both the junior high and high school levels in the Plymouth-Canton School District in Michigan.
In 2010 the Hartt Wind Ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in Stern Auditorium performing the world premiere performance of Dragon Rhyme by Chen Yi. The ensemble also performed at the 2007 (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and 2011 (Seattle, Washington) College Band Directors National Association Conference and three times at the Eastern Division CBDNA Conferences. Ensembles under his direction have performed at Hill Auditorium (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Musikverein (Vienna, Austria), Benroya Ilsley Hall (Seattle, Washington) Carnegie Hall’s Stern Hall (New York, New York) and the Central Conservatory (Beijing, China), Harpa (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater among others. Adsit’s performances have won praise from such notable composers as John Corigliano, Joseph Schwanter, Bright Sheng, Susan Botti, Joan Tower, Michael Colgrass and William Bolcom.
The Hartt Wind Ensemble has recorded two compact discs for the NAXOS label; Passaggi and Dragon Rhyme. In reviews, Gramophone Magazine describes The Hartt Wind Ensemble as “stellar” and Fanfare Magazine wrote “and on the evidence of his two Naxos CDs, Adsit is simply one of the finest conductors leading a wind ensemble today.” Referring to the most recent release, Terra Cruda, Fanfare Magazine wrote “The technical ability of young ensembles continue to amaze me, the Hartt School and their conductor, Glen Adsit, in the top league of American student groups, their performances having professionalism written all over them.”
An advocate of new music, Adsit is the founder of the National Wind Ensemble Consortium Group (NWECG) and the Institute for the Advancement of Secondary and Primary Instrumental Repertoire Excellence (ASPIRE). The mission of these groups is to commission the world’s finest composers to write music for primary, secondary and professional level ensembles.
His professional conducting includes performances with the United States Coast Guard Band, US Army Field Band, The New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, The Rochester Philharmonic and regular appearances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 he served as the Conductor in Residence for the Beijing International Composition Workshop held at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China. In addition to his professional orchestral experience, he also conducted the University of Michigan All-State Intermediate Orchestra for seven years at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan.
His professional affiliations include membership in Phi Beta Mu, Sigma Alpha Iota and he is currently the Vice-President of the College Band Directors National Association.
The Hartt Wind Ensemble
is nationally recognised as one of the premier collegiate wind ensembles in the US. In 2010 the ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in the Isaac Stern Auditorium, performing the world premiere of Dragon Rhyme by Chen Yi.
The Hartt Wind Ensemble has performed at national conferences of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan (2007), Seattle, Washington (2011), and Tempe, Arizona (2019). It has also performed four times at Eastern Division CBDNA regional conferences.
Critically acclaimed by Gramophone magazine, the ensemble has recorded three albums for Naxos: Passaggi (8.572109), Dragon Rhyme (8.572889) and Raw Earth (8.573342). A leader in commissioning new music, it has premiered over 40 works in the past 20 years and has hosted over 80 prominent guest performers and conductors.
