Directors
Dr. Kenneth Dye
Director of Bands, Professor of Music
e-mail: kdye@nd.edu
Kenneth W. Dye, is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, where he holds a Doctorate in Music Education and a Master's in Business Administration. He has also earned degrees of Master of Arts in Music from California State University and Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California.
As a composer/arranger, Ken Dye serves as a staff writer for several publishers and most recently served as composer/arranger for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band and pops arranger for the Dallas Symphony. His writing activities have produced over 800 works for Band and orchestra performed throughout the U.S. and overseas. The Concert Band has performed a “sold out” Concert in the Sydney Opera House and last spring celebrated Mozart's 250th birthday with a special performance in the Mozarteum, in Salzburg Austria. Most recently the Notre Dame Band performed with the Band “Chicago” at Notre Dame Stadium.
In addition Dye serves as a concurrent professor of Computer Applications. His course "Music through Technology” studies the historical influence of technology on the creative process of music. Dr. Dye also teaches music from a “business perspective” in a new course entitled “The Business of Music”, a synergistic history of music and business.
Prior to Notre Dame, Dr Dye served as Director of Bands at Rice University for 17 years and 14 years as conductor of the Houston Concert Band. In addition to his experience in Texas, he was Director of Bands at State University of West Georgia, Assistant Band Director for the 1984 Olympics, and taught public high school in Lakewood, California. He has also served as director of the Opening Ceremonies of the U.S. Olympic Festival and conductor of the All-American College Band at Disney World.
Ken Dye serves as a music director of numerous special events, and clinician /adjudicator throughout North America and the South Pacific.
Larry Dwyer
Assistant Director of Bands, Director of Jazz Studies
e-mail: ldwyer@nd.edu
Mr. Dwyer is a graduate of Notre
Dame, where he was Outstanding Bandsman (1966), trombone soloist all four
years with the concert band, and twice named "Best Trombonist" at
the Collegiate Jazz Festival. He earned his Masters degree in music
education and did doctoral studies at the University of Illinois.
Dwyer has been principal trombonist of the South Bend Symphony
Pops Orchestra, pianist with his own jazz trio, and has performed with
such jazz greats as Thad Jones, Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, and Sarah
Vaughan. Among his jazz band compositions are a religious trilogy:
The Old Beelzebub Blues, Lord Save the Sinner, and The Abha Kingdom.
His orchestral arrangements of the music of Duke Ellington, Count
Basie, Benny Goodman and others have been performed and recorded
by the South Bend Symphony, Houston Pops, Utah Symphony, and Rochester
Philharmonic. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Mr. Dwyer taught band
and jazz band in the South Bend public schools, and was director
of jazz studies at Concordia University in Montreal.
Sam Sanchez
Assistant Band Director
e-mail: sanchez.16@nd.edu
Sam Sanchez is an Assistant Director
with the Notre Dame Band Program. He became an assistant
director following four years of undergraduate study in Percussion
performance and 2 years of graduate study in Musicology.
Mr. Sanchez is responsible designing all of the halftime drills
for the Notre Dame Band. He also serves as the percussion
coordinator, shares the conducting responsibilities of the concert
bands and basketball bands, specializes in areas of music technology
and sound recording, and organizes the percussion ensembles
and winter drumline program. Mr. Sanchez is the recipient
of the 1997 Outstanding Band Member Award from the Notre Dame
Band.
Matt Merten
Assistant Band Director
e-mail: mmerten@nd.edu
Matt Merten is a graduate
of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota where he earned a degree
in Music Education and Trombone Performance. He recently earned a Master of
Music in Trombone Performance and Literature from the University of
Notre Dame. Matt has performed with the St. Cloud Amadeus Orchestra (MN), Minnesota
Center Chorale, and Regis Philbin's Pop Orchestra. At Notre Dame he directs
the New Orleans Brass Band, French Horn Choir, Trombone Choir, co-directs the
Brass Ensemble, Jazz Bands and teaches portions of the Music Through Technology
Course. He has served as a graduate assistant with the Notre Dame Bands and
previously taught in the public schools of Saint Cloud and Albany, Minnesota.
Alison Thigpen
Assistant Band Director
e-mail: athigpen@nd.edu
Alison Thigpen is a graduate of The University of Georgia where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree. She recently earned a Master of Music in Music Education degree with performance emphasis from the University of South Carolina. While at South Carolina, Alison served as a graduate assistant with the band program and co-conducted the University Band and Basketball Band, and assisted with the 270 member Carolina Marching Band. Alison has studied clarinet with D. Ray McClellan and Joseph Eller and conducting with James K. Copenhaver, William J. Moody, and Andrew Gowan. Her professional affiliations include Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Pi Kappa Lambda. The 2007-2008 school year will be Alison’s first as an Assistant Director with the Notre Dame Bands.
Emmett O'Leary
Assistant Band Director
e-mail: eoleary2@nd.edu
Emmett O'Leary earned
a Masters of Arts in Music degree from Washington State University and a Bachelor
of Music degree from the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of
Idaho. While at WSU Mr. O'Leary held a graduate assistantship at working with the Wind Symphony, Concert Band, and Cougar Marching Band as well as teaching the brass techniques course to Music Education Majors.
He has studied trombone and euphonium and his major teachers include Robert Spevacek, Torrey Lawrence, and Dr. L. Keating Johnson. He was chosen to participate in the "College All-Star Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble" at both the 1998 and 2000 Internation Tuba and Euphonium Conferences.
At Notre Dame, Mr. O'Leary co-directs the University Band, Symphonic Winds, Brass Ensemble, Varsity Band, and directs the Tuba-Euphonium Choir. He also teaches undergraduate courses in conducting and instrumental techniques, teaches tuba and euphonium lessons, and serves as the band's webmaster.
Prior to his appointment at Notre Dame, he served as a high school band director in the Meridian (ID) and Lake Havasu City (AZ) school districts.
Past Directors of the Notre Dame Band
