Dr. Brian Casey

Assistant Professor of Conducting and Horn; Director of Instrumental Activities

E-mail: Brian.Casey@houghton.edu
Phone: 585.567.9404

Brian Casey was appointed in 2007 as Assistant Professor of Conducting and Horn and Director of Instrumental Activities at Houghton College in Houghton, New York.  He conducts Symphonic Winds and Philharmonia and advocates for and coordinates chamber music.  Previously, after having spent a substantial portion of his life in the historically and culturally rich state of Delaware, he had held faculty positions at two-year colleges in the Kansas City area and had served as Music Director and Conductor of the Atchison (KS) Community Orchestra and the Northern Colorado Concert Band.

Casey holds the Doctor of Arts degree in conducting from the University of Northern Colorado.  His doctoral dissertation treated funeral music styles historically and theoretically—and practically, in that it offered new transcriptions of landmark funeral pieces for use by various instrumental ensembles.  At UNC, he performed with the UNC Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and chamber groups; he also founded and was principal conductor of the Foundation Brass, an ensemble composed of premier student brass and percussion players.  Casey also holds the B.A. in Music Education from Harding University (AR) and the M.M. in Performance/Conducting from the University of Delaware.  His principal conducting teachers have been Robert Streckfuss, Kenneth Singleton, Richard Mayne, Russell Guyver; he has participated in conducting symposia with Allan McMurray, Stanley DeRusha, Gary Hill, Craig Kirchoff, Robert Reynolds, Patrick Casey, John Lynch, Sarah McKoin, and Eric Whitacre, Stephen Peterson, and Anthony Maiello.  His principal horn teachers have been Wallace Easter (MM, Eastman), Cynthia Carr (MM, Eastman), and Marian Hesse (MM, Yale).

Casey was Principal Horn and Associate Conductor with the Kansas City Wind Symphony and the Kansas City Brass Project; he also appeared with the Liberty (MO) Symphony, the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, and the Kansas City Civic Orchestra.  A well-rounded musician, while performing with the Newark (DE) Symphony Orchestra and serving as Music Director of the Newark Community Band, he led and sang with the Christian a cappella octet Lights for eight years and continues to be active in arranging and composing Christian music as well as music for instrumental ensembles.  He has also published articles on worship and congregational singing in Image and Worship Leader and for three years reviewed new worship CDs for Worship Leader.  For several years he self-published Principally Proskuneo, a digest of worship material in newsletter format, and his unpublished, short book On Leading in the Assembly is poised for distribution.

Currently performing with the Southern Tier Symphony and with the Alle-Catt Brass Quintet, he has also performed with the Hornell Area Wind Ensemble, as well as with the Houghton Brass Ensemble, Casey has had compositions and transcriptions performed by various Houghton College ensembles, the Southern Tier Symphony, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Heart of America Wind Symphony Brass, the Kansas City Brass Project, Offutt Air Force Base's Winds of Freedom, and the Grad Brass Quintet and Foundation Brass at UNC.  In his free time, he enjoys racquetball, bicycling, motorcycling, his German Shepherd-Yellow Lab Tessa, and day hikes. Casey is married to Karly, and they have a son, Jedd, born in the spring of 2009. Together, they host a “simple church” exegetical Bible study and worship group in their home.

Professional Memberships:  CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association), CODA (College Orchestra Directors Association), and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers). Board member, Southern Tier Symphony. Member, CBDNA Small College National Task Force.

Courses:  Philharmonia, Symphonic Winds, Instrumental Conducting, Basic Conducting, Advanced/Graduate Conducting, Horn