Linda Danly, lecturer in the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Program, is an authority on film music history and film composers.James Decker, adjunct professor of horn, combines an active performing and teaching schedule. He has served as a judge for the outstanding finalists in the ARTS competition in Miami, Florida, which selects the Presidential Awards in the performing arts. During the summer, he also serves on the faculty of the Bowdoin Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine. He was principal horn under Neville Marriner in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for 10 years, played principal horn for Columbia Masterworks Recordings under Bruno Walter and Igor Stravinsky, was principal horn in the Kansas City Philharmonic and played with the Los Angeles and the National Symphony Orchestras. He has recorded more than 600 records and motion picture scores under various conductors. He served on the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and was a three-time clinician at the International Horn Workshops. He is currently developing an interactive video process and has just finished a horn method book including a two-hour videotape. The focus of this method is to help students in their preparation for auditions in symphony orchestras - a system that is currently in use at USC.
William Dehning has been professor and chairman in the Department of Choral and Church Music since 1992. Prior to his appointment at USC, he served as the director of choirs for 20 years at the University of the Pacific. The choruses performed to critical acclaim and won prizes in international competitions. Dehning was honored with the university's Distinguished Professor Award in 1991. Concurrent with his academic work, he was founder and conductor of the California Choral Company, a professional chamber chorus which acquired a reputation as an excellent ensemble in both Europe and the United States. He has done post-doctoral studies in England and Germany, lectured at Munich's Hochshule für Musik, and makes frequent appearances as a guest conductor and clinician both in the United States and abroad. In addition to a 1995 appearance as the first foreign guest conductor of the professional National Chorus of Korea, recent seasons have also included work as guest conductor of the Karlovy Vary Symphony in the Czech Republic. Under his direction, the USC Chamber Singers was among five ensembles from around the world selected to appear at the 1994 World Choral Festival in Seoul. The ensemble appears occasionally with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra which was most recently conducted by Helmuth Rilling. During the last decade, his work has been acknowledged on four separate occasions with invitations to conduct at national and divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, and with three different ensembles: the Pacific A Cappella Choir, the California Choral Company and the USC Chamber Singers.
Vincent DeRosa, adjunct professor of horn, has won the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "Most Valuable Player Emeritus Award." He has been a soloist-instrumentalist with major motion picture, television and recording studios.
Joe Diorio is currently on the teaching staff of the Guitar Institute of Technology (G.I.T.), a one-year vocational school for professional guitar players, as well as on the faculty at USC. He has taught guitar at the University of Miami and has studied drawing and painting. Mr. Diorio performs frequently in the United States and abroad. In 1977, he toured Europe playing the International Jazz Festival Laren in Holland and at the Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp, Belgium. Mr. Diorio has toured and/or recorded with such greats as Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Tony Castellano, Steve Bagby and Wally Cirillo. He has recorded with Concord, Cadet, VeeJay, Horizon, Spitball and Galaxy record companies.
Jazz composer and saxophonist, Bruce Eskovitz, was 11 years old when he fell in love with the sound of the tenor saxophone and, by age 13, began his professional playing career. Eskovitz began to compose music for "The Merv Griffin Show" when he was 20 years old. He remembers handing Plas Johnson and Ray Brown his tunes and was encouraged by their positive reaction. Eskovitz has produced three jazz albums and is in demand as a jazz artist on the Los Angeles jazz club scene. He has performed and recorded with many great artists including Natalie Cole, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Webb, Bill Watrous, The Fifth Dimension, Rita Moreno, Bobby Vinton, Shari Lewis, Ernie Watts and many others. He plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, flutes and clarinets. Some of his other compositional and performance credentials include the Los Angeles productions of "Beatlemania" and "Timbuktu," countless records and jingles, "The John Davidson Show," "The Danny Gans Show," "The Ebony/Jet Celebrity Showcase," the ABC-TV show "Santa Barbara," Ollie Mitchell's "Sunday Band" and "The New American Orchestra." Eskovitz is the director of the award-winning Jazz Music Studies Program at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California. He is a lecturer in saxophone and jazz improvisation at USC. Eskovitz received a bachelor of arts degree in music from California State University, Northridge and a master's degree in Jazz Studies from USC. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the music honor society.
Anne Farnsworth, lecturer in the Jazz Studies Department where she received a master's degree, is also on the faculty of Occidental College. She recently moved to Los Angeles from Boston where she obtained her undergraduate degree at New England Conservatory and taught at the John Payne School. In addition to her work in education, Farnsworth also spends time in Boston and abroad performing and working in the theatre. She was the musical director of Satch's Place and Requiem for a Bop Musician.
Gregg Field is one of the most versatile and sought after drummers on the music scene today. Voted one of the "world's greatest drummers" for the past two years in the Modern Drummer readers' poll, his work can be heard on countless recordings including the 1996 Grammy award winner Frank Sinatra Duets. Field's musical collaborators are representative of a veritable "who's who" of music including: Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Luther Vandross, U-2's Bono, Gloria Estefan, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Sample and Stevie Wonder. Additionally, Field is an artist representative for Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Drumsticks, Remo and Mackie.
Kevin Fitz-Gerald, assistant professor of keyboard collaborative arts, has established himself as a concert pianist of distinction. Winner of several important competitions including the Du Maurier Search for Stars, the Young Artists National Piano Competition and the CBC National Radio Auditions, he is currently performing throughout Canada, the United States, South America, the Orient and Europe. Following studies with Robin Wood and Alma Brock Smith, Mr. Fitz-Gerald received his degrees in performance and pedagogy from the Victoria Conservatory in British Columbia. He completed his post-graduate studies at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Marek Jablonski, and has regularly participated in the master classes of Leon Fleisher, John Perry, Gyorgy Sebok and Menahem Pressler. During the summer he is on the faculties of the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, Roundtop International Festival in Texas and Deer Valley International Festival in Utah. Originally from Kelowna, British Columbia, Mr. Fitz-Gerald has performed with numerous orchestras throughout Canada including the Calgary Philharmonic, the Victoria Symphony, the CBC Montreal Orchestra and the Canadian Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Fitz-Gerald has recorded for the Summit Label and has regularly been recorded and broadcast on national and international radio and television.
Erik Forrester is an assistant professor of percussion and the director of the USC Percussion Ensemble. Active as a soloist in chamber music, symphonic music and opera, Forrester plays with the Southwest Chamber Music Society, the chamber ensemble XTET, as principal percussionist with the Opera Pacific Orchestra and with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony and Monday Evening Concerts. He performed for several years as principal percussionist and assistant timpanist with the Mexico City Philharmonic and has also performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Dallas Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic as well as the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, American Ballet Theatre, Jeffrey Ballet and the Royal Ballet. In 1986 he created the Performance Potential Workshop, designed to help performers deal with performance anxiety and achieve their best performance. He is currently working on a book about creative practice techniques for all musicians and one about natural muscle development for percussionists.
Anthony W. Fox, arranger and assistant director of the USC Trojan Marching Band, is a specialist in compositions for wind instruments. Since 1970, he has composed and arranged more than 2,500 works for college and high school bands as well as special events for Disneyland, Walt Disney Productions, Knott's Berry Farm, the opening for the Los Angeles Dodgers and massed band ceremonies, the King Dome Stadium in Seattle, Washington, and the opening of the South Street Seaport in New York. Mr. Fox was the arranger for the 1984 Olympic Band, resident composer for the 1985 Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show and the 1986 Statue of Liberty Band. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from USC and is a jazz faculty member at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts.
