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Frank L. Battisti, guest clinician

2nd Annual Wind Conducting Symposium for Music Educators

            Frank L. Battisti is Conductor Emeritus of the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble.  He founded and conducted the ensemble for 30 years (1969-99).  Today the NEC Wind Ensemble is recognized as one of the premiere ensembles of its kind in the United States and throughout the world.  It’s performances and recordings for Centaur, Albany and Golden Crest records have earned high critical praise and accolades.  Performances by the NEC Wind Ensemble have been broadcast over National Public Radio (NPR) and other classical music radio stations throughout the United States and world .  Since 2000 Battisti has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Longy School of Music Chamber Winds.  Dr. Battisti was the founder and Music Director of the Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Wind Ensemble from 2000 - 2004.  In 2005 he became the ensemble’s Conductor Emeritus.
           Dr.Battisti is responsible for commissioning and premiering over 60 works for wind ensemble by distinguished American and world composers including Warren Benson, Leslie Bassett, Robert Ceely, John Harbison, Robin Holloway, Witold Lutoslawski,  William Thomas McKinley, Vincent Persichetti, Michael Colgrass, Daniel Pinkham, Gunther Schuller, Robert Selig, Ivan Tcheripnin, Sir Michael Tippett, William Kraft, Robert Ward and Alec Wilder.  Critics, composers and colleagues have praised Battisti for his commitment to contemporary music and his outstanding performances.
             Dr.Battisti has guest conducted numerous university, college, military, professional and high school bands and wind ensembles and served as a visiting teacher/clinician throughout the United States, England, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Scandinavia, Australia, China, Taiwan, Canada, South America, South Korea, Iceland and the former U.S.S.R. 
            Past President of the U.S. College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Battisti is also a member of the American Bandmasters Association (ABA) and founder of the National Wind Ensemble Conference, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble (MYWE) and New England College Band Association (NECBA).  He has also served on the Standard Award Panel of American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and been a member of the Music Panel for the Arts Recognition and Talent Search (ARTS) for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts.  Battisti has been an editor for various music publishing companies and is currently a consulting editor for The Instrumentalist magazine.
             Considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on wind music literature, Battisti has written many articles on wind ensemble/band literature, conducting and music education for numerous national and international  professional journals and magazines (The Instrumentalist, WASBE Journal, WINDS, MENC Music Journal, etec.).  He is also the author of The 20th Century American Wind Band/Ensemble  (1995), The Winds of Change (2002), On Becoming a Conductor (2007) and co-author of Score Study for the Wind Band Conductor  (1990) and Lead and Inspire (2007).
            In 1986 and 1993, Dr. Battisti was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England.  He has received many awards and honors including an Honorary Doctor of Music degree  from Ithaca College in 1992, Ithaca College Alumni Association and New England Conservatory Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2003 and 2008, respectively, the first Louis and Adrienne Krasner Excellence in Teaching Award from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1997, the Lowell Mason Award from the Massachusetts Music Educators Association in 1998, the New England College Band Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic's Medal of Honor in 2001 and the National Band Directors AWAPA in 2006. 
            In June 2001 Ithaca (NY) High School and presented the first  "Frank L. Battisti Instrumental Music Award."  This award is presented annually to an Ithaca High School Band member "possessing high musicianship, a desire for excellence, creativity and enthusiasm." Dr. Battisti graduated from Ithaca High School and was its Director of Bands from 1955 – 67.  Under his leadership the band established a reputation for being one of the best and most unique in the United States.  Among its notable achievements was the commissioning and premiering of a series of 24 works by important American composers including Vincent Persichetti, Leslie Basset, Gunther Schuller, Karel Husa and Warren Benson. 

            Officially retired, Battisti maintains a very active guest conducting, teaching and writing career.  He lives in Leverett, Massachusetts with his wife of 54 years, Charlotte.

Battisti's Career As A Public School Music Teacher/Band Director at Ithaca High School, Ithaca, N.Y.

            Frank Battisti’s teaching career began as an instrumental teacher in the Ithaca (New York) City Public Schools in 1953.  He was appointed Director of Bands at Ithaca High School in 1955 and remained in this position until 1967.  He also served as chairperson of the Instrumental Music Department from 1961 - 67.
            The Ithaca High School Band, under Battisti’s direction, achieved national recognition as one of the finest and most unique high school bands in the nation.  The concert band performed at the Ithaca College School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Music Educators National Conference (MENC), Mid-West National Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago 1965), Rockefeller Center, the New York World’s Fair (1964) and at other music conferences.  In 1997 the John Philip Sousa Foundation selected Battisti’s Ithaca High School Concert Band for their Historic Roll of Honor of High School Concert Bands, 1920-1980.  This Roll of Honor identifies high school concert bands whose musical excellence at the national level exerted historically significant influence on high school band programs.   Eugene Corporon, Past President of the College Band Directors National Association and Director of Wind Studies at North Texas State University, hails the Ithaca High School Band under the leadership of Frank Battisti  “as one of the truly great achievements of instrumental music education in the twentieth century.”
            In 1958 Battisti inaugurated the Ithaca High School Band Commissioning Works Project.  From 1958 -67, the Ithaca High School Band commissioned 24 works for band.  Many of these works were published and have become part of the standard literature for wind band bands.  Composers commissioned by the band included  Pulitzer Prize in Music winners Leslie Bassett, Karel Husa, Robert Ward, Gunther Schuller and Warren Benson, David Borden, Carlos Chavez, Barney Childs, Walter Hartley, Vincent Persichetti, Armand Russell and Alec Wilder.
Guest soloists and conductors appearing with the Ithaca High School Band while Battisti was conductor included Benny Goodman, Carl “Doc” Severinson, Donald Sinta, Harvey Phiillips, The New York Brass Quintet, Jimmy Burke, Vincent Persichetti, Norman Dello Joio, Thomas Beversdorf, Clyde Roller, Frederick Fennell, William D. Revelli and Walter Beeler.
            In December 1993 Meredith Music Publications published Brain Norcross’ book, One Band That Took a Chance.  It is a detailed account of Mr. Battisti’s innovative high school band program from 1955 - 67.