Session Proposals

John Ginocchio is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Southwest Minnesota State University where he conducts the Symphonic Chamber Winds, SMSU/Community Concert Band, and the SMSU Jazz Ensemble. He teaches conducting, orchestration, and instrumental music education courses and serves as chair of the Department of Fine Arts & Communication.
Dr. Ginocchio holds a Doctor of Arts degree in conducting and music education from Ball State University; a Master of Music degree in trombone performance from Ball State; and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He previously served as a doctoral assistant director in the band department at Ball State University, and he taught instrumental music for the Adams Central Community Schools in Monroe, Indiana for ten years.
Active as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, Dr. Ginocchio has worked with bands of all levels throughout the Midwest and in Spain and has served on the jury for the Certamen Internacional de Bandas de Musica in Valencia, Spain. Research and writing interests include the music of the Festival of Moors and Christians, conducting, ensemble seating, wind chamber music, popular music in the classroom, and composition in the classroom. His articles have appeared in publications such as The Instrumentalist, Contributions to Music Education, and the Music Educators Journal. He has also contributed to the popular Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. In addition, he regularly presents sessions at state, national, and international conferences.

Music teachers receive little instruction or guidance in the physical placement of instrumentalists in rehearsal and performance settings. Arrangement of the physical environment can significantly impact the collective sound of an ensemble. This session explores concepts of musician independence, compositional scoring, and acoustics and how they can be considered to find optimum seating arrangements for ensembles. Participants will leave the session with notions on how their ensembles may be configured to elicit the best musical results.

• Band - Middle School
• Band - Secondary
• Orchestra - Middle School
• Orchestra - Secondary
• Collegiate