Charles Frank
Director, Civic Band

Eric Gratz received his M.A. from the distinguished School of Music at the University of Northern Colorado and has a teaching, conducting and performing career spanning over 40 years. Gratz has been quite active as a conductor in California and Ohio, having directed the Kings County Symphony, the Merced Symphony and the Heights Chamber Orchestra. He has also conducted the Friday Philharmonic in over 200 concert performances, was Music Director of the Fresno Youth Symphony for 20 years, and conducted numerous honor orchestras and bands throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley. Under his direction, the Fresno Youth Symphony performed on five major European Concert Tours in fourteen different countries and was recognized as one of the finest youth orchestras in the Western United States. During summers when not touring, he was Assistant Conductor under Daniel Lewis at Hidden Valley Institute of the Arts, and has been horn coach and conductor at the Fresno Philharmonic Music Camp, University of the Pacific Summer Music Camp and the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts in Saskatchewan, Canada. As a performer he was a member of the Fresno Philharmonic for 28 years, holding the position of Principal Horn for 15 years until his retirement in 1997 due to facial injuries suffered in a bad fall. He also played in the celebrated Music from Bear Valley Orchestra for 15 years, and has performed on his horn with Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini, Andy Williams, Ben Vereen, Melissa Manchester, Roger Daltrey and others too numerous to mention. He is a former member of Moment Musical, Fresno Lyric Opera Orchestra and Opera San Joaquin. Mr. Gratz is the 1998 winner of the Fresno Arts Council’s prestigious Horizon Award, which is presented annually to “those who make major contributions to the enrichment of life in our community through the arts.” Currently, Mr. Gratz is the conductor of the Lakeland Civic Orchestra, the Euclid Orchestra, and occasionally serves as cover conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Ed Michaels
Director, Jazz Impact
(440) 525-7261
saxman716@att.net
www.EdMichaelsMusic.com

As a tenor saxophonist, ED MICHAELS regularly performs with the top musicians of Northeast Ohio, among them some of his former students. He has recorded a CD as leader, entitled Going Beyond on the Nice Jazz Label. His reputation as a jazz artist continues to grow, and he has recently led his trio/quartet in such venues as the Cleveland Museum of Art Summer Concert Series and the Cleveland State University Sundown Jazz Concerts. His most recent was a tribute to Stan Getz. His quartet recently played a year-long engagement at the Century Room of Cleveland's prestigious Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Ed feels a strong commitment to promoting jazz and American music; and this can especially be seen in Mr. Michaels love for teaching and playing.

Currently, Mr. Michaels is the director of Jazz Impact, an honors jazz ensemble of area high school musicians sponsored by Lakeland Community College. The band has earned recognition through yearly outstanding performances at the Lakeland Jazz Festival, the Tri-C Jazz Fest, and the Essentially Ellington Contest sponsored by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

On Chuck Frank’s recommendation, Ed was named Festival Director and Educational Co-Director of the annual Lakeland Jazz Festival. Building on the past success of the festival, Ed’s innovation is the addition of the Thursday night concert: “Tomorrow’s Stars”, which features the top area middle school bands. At the close of the school year, Ed serves as assistant director of the Lakeland Summer Jazz and Pop Music Camp.

Mr. Michaels is also on the faculty of the Willoughby-Eastlake School District where he teaches instrumental music. One of his latest achievements was receiving an honorarium and publication from the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his lesson plan “Timbre: Identifying the Tone Color of the Saxophone Using Pop/Rock Music Examples.”

Chris Robinson
Director, Civic Chorus

Chris Robinson graduated from Kent State University in May 2002 with a Master of Music in Orchestral and Choral Conducting. He studied conducting with Vance George, Frank Wiley, C.M. Shearer, Wayne Gorder, and the late Leopold Sipe. Chris also received his B.A. in Music from Kent State majoring in Theory, Voice Performance and General Music. He received scholarships
from Kent Blossom and the Canton Civic Opera and served as Graduate Assistant, Librarian and Orchestra Manager to the K.S.U. Orchestra. While at Kent, Chris played timpani in the K.S.U. Orchestra, recorder in the Collegium Musica, was a chorister in the Kent Chorus, Chorale and Ars Nova Singers, and served for three years as Music Director of the Kent Singers.
He was also actively involved in theatre at Kent and Porthouse. Previously he has sung with the Blossom Festival Chorus and the Jacksonville, Florida Masterworks Chorale.

From 1995-1996, Chris served as Director of Music and Drama at the Foundation Academy in Jacksonville, Florida. He is entering his second season as Music Director at First Baptist Church in Canton. He also served as Music Director at Trinity United Methodist in Massillon for three years. His ultimate ambitions are to teach at the university level and to conduct opera professionally.

The Dave Sterner Quintet - MySpace.com

Dave Sterner has been part of the Ohio music scene as a musician and educator since the early 1990s. Mr. Sterner is a 1992 graduate of Indiana University’s Jazz Studies program, where he studied under renowned jazz educator David Baker. In 1993, after working as a staff musician for Royal Caribbean Cruise lines and a stint in New York, Mr. Sterner returned to Ohio to focus on a career in performance and education.

In 1993, Sterner joined Ernie Krivda’s Fat Tuesday Big Band. He is a featured soloist on all three of the band’s CDs, released on the Koch Label and One Soul Records. As a member of the group, Sterner has performed with such nationally-known jazz artist as David Sanborn, Phil Woods, Louis Bellson, David “Fathead” Newman, Buddy DeFranco, and Terry Gibbs among others. As a free-lance musician, Sterner has also performed with Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Harry Connick Jr., Donny Osmond, The Manhattan Transfer, Bobby Caldwell, Frankie Valli, Steve and Eadie, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, The Four Tops, Tony Tennille, Ben Vereen, Olivia Newton John, Wayne Newton, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-star Big Band to name a few. In 2006, the Dave Sterner Quintet released the self-produced CD What’s What, which includes eight original pieces and reinterpretations of four classics. In 2007 the quintet won the “Best Jazz Band” music award from the Cleveland Free Times Magazine. Most recently Dave has recorded with the N. Glenn Davis Quartet, A Different View (Jazzed Media, 2008) and the N. Glenn Davis Quintet, featuring Phil Woods, for release in 2009.

Mr. Sterner is also a popular educator in Northeast Ohio, having taught regularly at a variety of institutions since 1993, including the Fine Arts Association (Willoughby), Western Reserve Fine Arts, and the Cleveland Music School Settlement. He is currently a part-time faculty member for the Cuyahoga Community College jazz program where he teaches advanced ear training, harmony, music seminar, and the jazz preparatory program, as well as, Lakeland Community College where he directs the Lakeland Civic Jazz Orchestra. He also participates annually in the Lakeland Summer Jazz Camp, the TRI-C “Summer with the Jazz Masters” camp and is a clinician and adjudicator for the Lakeland and TRI-C Jazz Festivals.