This year’s two-day Southern New England Honors Band Festival, being hosted at the University of Rhode Island, gets underway on Friday, January 19, combining the talents of URI’s music department faculty, guest artist/conductor Anthony Maiello from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and a representative collection of southern New England’s finest high school student instrumentalists.

The festival will include a “collage” concert by URI faculty at 6:30pm on Friday, January 19, and a concert featuring the student musicians conducted by Maiello at 7pm on Saturday, January 20. Both concerts are open to the public with free admission, and will be held in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall off Upper College Road on URI’s Kingston campus.

The Southern New England Honors Band Festival is an annual event and is coordinated by URI’s Assistant Director of Bands and Head Coach and Director of Athletic Bands, Brian Cardany. Students chosen to represent schools from all over RI and nearby Massachusetts are introduced to nationally and internationally-recognized performers and teachers, get a taste of a college-level music environment and experience, and meet and share their talents with fellow musicians from other schools in a cooperative effort.

This year’s special guest conductor, Anthony Maiello, is Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. His academic career includes public school teaching and service as Professor of Music and Chairman of Performance at the Crane School of Music, SUNY, Potsdam.

Under his direction, the ensembles at Crane and George Mason University have commissioned many new works, made numerous recordings and CDs, and have appeared at regional, state, and national conferences in the Western Hemisphere. Maiello currently travels widely presenting clinics, lectures, and workshops, as well as guest conducting and adjudicating numerous music festivals. He has served as Associate Conductor of the McLean Orchestra, McLean, Virginia, and he conducted musical activities for the Gold Medal Ceremonies of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. His travels as conductor, clinician, and adjudicator have taken him to Europe, Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas, as well as throughout the United States.

Maiello holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music, both earned at Ithaca College, New York. Last year he received his alma mater’s 2005 Professional Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to conducting and music education.

For more information about the festival or concerts, call the URI Music Department at 874-2431.