CONDUCTORS

Dr. Matthew Westgate

mwestgate@music.umass.edu
271 Bromery Center for the Arts
(413) 545-0839

Conductor Matthew Westgate “leads with a combination of expressivity and crispness” (San Francisco Chronicle). His performances are praised as “dramatic, incisive, and passionate” (Audiophile Audition) and full of “verve and swagger” (MusicWeb International). Dr. Westgate has appeared on major concert stages throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia and has guest conducted some of the nation’s top wind bands and chamber ensembles, including “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band and the U.S. Coast Guard Chamber Players. In September of 2019 he was a featured guest conductor with the Banda Sinfonica Metropolitana de Quito (Ecuador), and in 2020 he will travel to China to conduct in Beijing. During the summer of 2019 he led the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Twin Lake, MI) International Northern Winds on a European concert tour of France, Germany, Austria, and Denmark, and he will return to conduct the band for another European tour in 2021.

Dr. Westgate is the Director of Wind Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, MA), the Commonwealth’s flagship campus, where he conducts the UMass Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band and oversees the graduate and undergraduate conducting programs. In 2016, he was nominated for the UMass “Distinguished Teaching Award,” the only student-driven recognition of teaching on campus. University of Massachusetts ensembles under his direction have been invited to perform at multiple College Band Director National Association Conferences (Yale University, 2018; U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 2016) and on a concert tour of Ireland (Dublin, Galway, Cork, Killarney) in summer of 2017. The Massachusetts Chamber Players, a professional chamber ensemble under his baton, recently released a recording of chamber wind music by Swiss composer Frank Martin [Frank Martin: Music for Winds} on MSR Classics, and the UMass Wind Ensemble will debut three newly-commissioned pieces for winds on a CD entitled Quicksilver in Fall 2019. Prior to his appointment at UMass Amherst, Matthew was the Director of Instrumental Activities at Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH), where he conducted the symphonic band, jazz ensemble, Xavier Pep Bands, and chamber orchestra.

A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Matthew began his musical career as a jazz/classical trombonist and public school educator in southwest Michigan. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Music Education degree from Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), then eventually went on to earn his Master’s Degree in instrumental conducting from WMU in 2006. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (Cincinnati, OH) in 2009. His primary conducting teachers and mentors are Dr. Robert Spradling, Rodney Winther, Terence Milligan, Frank Battisti, and Malcolm Rowell.

In 2007, Matthew was chosen as one of eight conductors to conduct the Eastman Wind Ensemble as part of the first Frederick Fennell Conducting Masterclass, and in 2009 he was billed as one of the West Point Band's "Bernsteins of Tomorrow." He has also served as a conducting assistant in the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, in Lucca, Italy.  In spring of 2013, Dr. Westgate was awarded Cincy Magazine's "Outstanding Educator" Award for his work as a teacher and conductor in Cincinnati.  

His current research addresses "Real vs. Virtual Communication: The Increasing Importance of Building Community through Music Ensembles in the Age of Technology,” the wind chamber music of Swiss composer Frank Martin, and the influence of Anton Stadler on Mozart’s clarinet writing in the late 18th century in Vienna. He is also working to bring a Full Score Edition of Rossini-Respighi's La Boutique Fantasque for wind band to publication.  His professional affiliations include: the College Band Directors National Association (State Chair for Massachusetts), National Association for Music Education, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association, and Massachusetts Music Educators Association.

In his spare time, Matthew is an avid ultra-marathon and marathon runner and hiker. He is married to Erica Drake, a percussionist and freelancer, and together they have a creative and curious daughter named Juniper.

Dr. Timothy T. Anderson

George N. Parks Minuteman Marching Band Building, Rm. 207 
tanderson@music.umass.edu
(413) 545-6061

Dr. Timothy Todd Anderson became director of the Minuteman Marching Band in the summer of 2011.  He had previously served as the Associate Director of Bands at California State University, Fresno.  In addition to his UMMB responsibilities, Dr. Anderson also directs the UMass Hoop Band, the Concert Band, teaches Marching Band Techniques and works with student teachers.  In the summer of 2014, Dr. Anderson became conductor of the Amherst Community Band.  He is a frequent clinician and guest conductor with school band programs throughout New England.  Dr. Anderson holds the Bachelor of Music from the University of Iowa, the Master of Music in Wind Conducting from the University of Florida, and the Doctorate of Education in Music Education from the University of Illinois.  His career began as an instrumental music teacher in the West Marshall Community School District of State Center, Iowa.  Dr. Anderson resides in Amherst with his wife Jennifer and their cat Gatsby.

DR. LINDSAY BRONNENKANT

lbronnenkant@music.umass.edu
257 Bromery Center for the Arts
(413) 545-6056

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dr. Lindsay Bronnenkant directs the Symphony Band, teaches conducting classes, and leads a graduate conducting seminar.

Prior to her appointment at UMass Amherst, Bronnenkant taught basic conducting at Nazareth College and led the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Community Wind Ensemble as she completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting degree at the Eastman School of Music. In her time at Eastman, she served as Assistant/Associate Conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensembles, Assistant Conductor and Teaching Assistant for the University of Rochester Wind Symphony, and Teaching Assistant for basic conducting classes. She was a Frederick Fennell Conducting Fellow and a finalist for the Eastman School of Music Teaching Assistant Prize.

Prior to her graduate studies, Bronnenkant was the Director of Bands at the Aquinas Institute of Rochester, Director of the University of Rochester Pep Band, Director of the Newark High School Parade Band, and Interim Conductor of the Brighton Symphony Orchestra. She has additionally assistant directed the Eastman Community Music School Summer High School Wind Ensemble Workshop each summer since 2010.

Bronnenkant has had the opportunity to conduct premier ensembles such as the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the University of Michigan Symphony Band, and the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” at their 2017 Conductor Showcase Concert. A recipient of the American Prize Career Encouragement Certificate in wind conducting, she has also been invited to work with school, youth, and community ensembles on original and classic works.

As a composer, Bronnenkant wrote her first work for wind ensemble, Symphony for Singer, self-taught at 18 years old. Her first published work, Tarot (2021), was designated the runner-up to the 2021 National Band Association/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest. The piece is based on original research on Gustav Holst and was presented as part of Bronnenkant’s doctoral conducting recital and lecture presentation.

Bronnenkant holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (D.M.A. Wind Conducting, ’22), the University of Michigan (M.M. Wind Conducting, ‘19), Nazareth College (B.M. Music Education, ’14), and the University of Rochester (B.S. Brain and Cognitive Sciences, ’10). Her conducting mentors include Mark Scatterday, Michael Haithcock, Jared Chase, and Nancy Strelau, and she has taken composition lessons with Keane Southard, Nancy Strelau, Christopher Winders, David Liptak, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez. Bronnenkant is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi, and she is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. Additional professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the National Band Association (NBA), the College Music Society (CMS), and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).