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Christopher Morehouse

Christopher Morehouse, Director of Bands, Professor

Music

Dr. Christopher Morehouse is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University, where he serves as conductor of the SIU Wind Ensemble, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting, wind literature, and instrumental methods, and administers the entire SIU Bands program.

Morehouse made his Carnegie Hall debut with the SIU Wind Ensemble at the New York Band and Orchestra Festival in March 2008 and toured the People's Republic of China with the SIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir in May 2009. In 2011, the SIU Wind Ensemble hosted percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie for a four-day residency, culminating in a concert of Sean Beeson’s Prometheus Rapture: Seven Legends for Snare Drum (world premiere wind version) and Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto, and gave a concert, with the SIU Concert Choir, at Chicago Symphony Center Orchestra Hall. Morehouse has worked with several notable composers in the preparation and performance of their works and with guest artists as soloists with the SIU Wind Ensemble. Recent artistic collaborations include composers Augusta Read Thomas, Morten Lauridsen, Bernard Rands, Chen Yi, Susan Botti, and Dana Wilson, as well as soloists Third Coast Percussion, Demondrae Thurman, and numerous SIU School of Music faculty.

In May 2012, May 2016, and May 2023, members of the SIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir spent three weeks in Dublin, Ireland, in residence at the Gaiety School of Acting: The National Theater School of Ireland, developing and performing an original theater concert project.

Christopher Morehouse Office: Altgeld 118
Email: cmoreh@siu.edu

Prior to joining the faculty at Southern Illinois University, Morehouse taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in New York and Massachusetts for seven years. He has served as the conductor of the University of Dayton (Ohio) Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conductor and music director of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble, assistant conductor for the Concord (Massachusetts) Band, guest conductor of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and commissioned works project chairperson on the executive board of the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association. In addition to Carnegie Hall, his ensembles have been chosen to perform at the Illinois Music Education Conference (SIU Wind Ensemble) and the Massachusetts Music Educators Association All-State Conference (Belmont High School ensembles).

Morehouse is published in ten volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, an encyclopedia of band literature published by GIA Publications, and has contributed clinic reviews for the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles International Conferences held in Killarney, Ireland and Cincinnati, Ohio. He maintains an active schedule as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the United States, Canada, and Europe and is currently a member of the College Band Directors National Association, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, National Band Association, Illinois Music Education Association, and College Music Society.

Morehouse received his Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Ithaca College, Master of Music degree in wind ensemble conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music, as a student of Frank Battisti, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting, wind emphasis, from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as a student of Rodney Winther. He joined the School of Music faculty at Southern Illinois University in August 2005.

Courses

  • MUS 305: Instrumental Music in the Schools, 4–12
  • MUS 316: Introduction to Conducting
  • MUS 318: Instrumental Conducting
  • MUS 366B (014)/566C: Concert Wind Ensemble
  • MUS 440W: Applied Music Conducting
  • MUS 457: Conducting the Middle/High School Band
  • MUS 458: Survey of Wind Literature
  • MUS 483: Readings in Music Education: Advanced Conducting
  • MUS 540W: Applied Music Conducting
  • MUS 556: Advanced Conducting
  • MUS 565: Chamber Music–Brass
  • MUS 595: Research Paper
  • MUS 598: Graduate Recital