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Douglas
Akey began his musical training in the public schools of Elmhurst, Ill.
He went on to attend Arizona State University on a performance
scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Music
(1979) and a Master of Music in Solo Performance (1985). He also studied
brass performance at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts in
Alberta, Canada. He has studied horn with Carroll Simmons, Grant Park
Orchestra (Chicago); William Strickland, free-lance hornist (New York);
Ralph Lockwood, ASU; and Roland Pandolfi, Principal Horn, St. Louis
Symphony.
Since 1979, he has been teaching junior high school band in the Phoenix
area. His school ensembles have been invited to perform at numerous
education conferences, including the 1994 Midwest International Band and
Orchestra Clinic and the 1998 Music Educators National Conference. He is
often called upon to serve as a clinician, having di¬rected many junior
high and high school honor bands throughout the country as well as
presenting sessions for music educators in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas,
Ohio and Wyoming.
In 1985, Akey received the Stanbury Award of the American School Band
Directors Association as the outstanding young junior high school band
director in the United States. Since that time, he has become recognized
as an accomplished composer of music for winds and percussion. His works
appear on dozens of state contest lists and are performed by bands
throughout North America, Europe, Australia and the Far East. In 1996,
he was honored as the National Federation of Secondary Schools Music
Educator of the Year for Section 7 (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada
and Utah). He has composed 32 commissions for bands throughout the U.S.
and has 45 published works for band.
Akey is an active performer, having played with the Del Sol and Arizona
Brass Quintets, as well as the Phoenix and Tucson Symphony orchestras.
He was a member of the Tempe Symphony Orchestra horn section for more
than 30 years, most of those serving as principal horn. In addition to
his three decades on the podium, he has worked in the studios of Los
Angeles as both a conductor and producer. He is now in his second season
as Music Director of the Tempe Symphony Orchestra.
The city of Tempe Cultural Services
Department operates the Tempe Symphony
Orchestra. |
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