Authors: Adam F. Brennan, DMA Jeffrey R. Jacobsen, DME

 ISBN: 979-8-9860847-0-1   

Making Meaningful Music:  Building Techniques, Critical Thinking, Interpretation, & Leadership in Conductorsby Adam F. Brennan and Jeffrey R. Jacobsen is a comprehensive pedagogical text for university music programs where training conductors is requisite. Designed to be used with three to four courses in the training of music educators and performers, the text can be used in Conducting I and Conducting II courses, as well as courses intended for rehearsal techniques, ensemble management, and/or secondary instrumental methods courses. 

Dr. Stephen Gage writes in the forward of this book;  

                        “As stated in the last portion of their text, the model that Brennan/Jacobsen         provide is best utilized in three separate semester-long courses including basic           conducting, advanced conducting, and rehearsal and program techniques. This text is      extremely thorough and will provide a great short and long-term resource for            conducting students. Everything from the wonderful narrative, the great charts and                     diagrams, the relative extant band and orchestra excerpts, the terrific original music        written by Adam, and the assessment tools that are so uniquely designed and are all relevant and user-friendly and will be tremendous resources for conductors. Aside from    the wonderful basic and advanced conducting concepts that are included, this resource    has innovative and effective rehearsal technique ideas, lesson plan examples, jazz                   ensemble direction concepts, and an exemplary bibliography for the current and future    conductor. I am convinced that this text is a ‘must have’ for current and future conductors!

Excellent diagrams, unique music examples, a host of practical exercises inclusive of assessment rubrics, and a plethora of information regarding program development and management.  In short, everything the conductor/educator needs to know in order to be successful as a conductor/leader. Brennan and Jacobsen have created a new method that goes beyond the great works of Elizabeth Green, Roy Ernst, and Donald Hunsberger and have charted the course for conducting pedagogy for years to come.

Meet the Authors

Dr. Adam F. Brennan has been director of bands and professor of percussion studies at Mansfield University since 1995.  Dr. Brennan has served as Chair of the Music Department for six years and has held other administrative responsibilities while at Mansfield University involving assessment and strategic planning.  In addition, he is the founder and conductor of The Great Lakes Wind Symphony, a professional wind-band and is co-founder and co-owner of AllThingsBand.com, a web-based publishing company.  

Dr. Brennan received his Bachelor of Arts degree in music education and a Master of Arts degree in theory and composition, with an emphasis in composition, from Western Illinois University.  He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting from the University of Oklahoma where he studied with Dr. William K. Wakefield.  

Dr. Brennan has recorded numerous compact discs with the Mansfield University Bands including Strike Up the Bands!, This Could Be the Start of Something Big, Music From the Endless Mountains, Tenebrae, which features the world premiere of Dr. Brennan’s composition for band entitled Tenebrae (Dark Hours), American Portraits, North Central Winds, Concord!, Resonance, Sun and Shade, Critical Speed:  The Music Of Greg Danner, Volume II, The Music of David Holsinger, Vol. 12, Ecstatic Vision, High Upon the Eastern Hill,  Gusto!  Friends, Rhapsodies and Musical Relish, Amazing Wond on Symbol, Music of the Spheres, and The Music of Composer Adam F. Brennan.   Since 2013 Dr. Brennan’s recordings with the MU Wind Ensemble have yielded the status of Grammy Eligible for Nomination in twelve different categories.  Dr. Brennan can also be heard as a percussionist on Twilight Offering Music released by the University of Oklahoma Percussion Ensembles, and as a conductor on Western Illinois University’s Fantasy Variations.  His compositions and recordings can be found at B&P Music Publishers, www.allthingsbands.com.  

Dr. Brennan’s responsibilities include administrating the band program, coordinating the instrumental conducting program and conducting the Concert Wind Ensemble, the school’s top wind and percussion ensemble.  Dr. Brennan also directs the Marching Band, The Spirit and The Pride of Pennsylvania! where he writes all musical arrangements and coordinates the staff.  In addition to these ensembles, he teaches courses in percussion techniques and instrumental conducting, as well as two levels of music theory and composition lessons.  Dr. Brennan has also served as the percussion ensemble arranger and pit ensemble consultant for the World Champion Empire Statesmen Drum and Bugle Corps and was caption head of the DCI Class-A 60 Champion Northmen Drum and Bugle Corps and was the artistic director and arranger of the International Marine Tattoo of Rochester, New York.  He is four times a past president of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Bandmaster’s Association and has been involved in sixteen world premieres at Mansfield University, has received numerous invitations to state conventions to present papers, clinics and performing ensembles, and is actively involved in commissioning projects both locally and regionally.

From 1989-1995, Dr. Brennan was Associate Director of Bands and Percussion at Western Illinois University.   Prior to this, he served as Director of Bands at Kankakee Valley High School in Wheatfield, IN.  An active composer and clinician with over 150 arrangements and compositions and over 200 guest-conducting and clinical engagements, Dr. Brennan travels extensively serving as guest conductor and clinician at festivals and conventions.   In November of 2005 Dr. Brennan was awarded The Silver Baton from Kappa Kappa Psi for having maintained a record of excellence and continuous quality of service to bands band members, and instrumental music education.   In April of 2003, Dr. Brennan received Mansfield University’s Bertram Francis Award from Kappa Kappa Psi for outstanding contributions to the MU Band program.  In October of 2002 he was honored by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia with the Orpheus Award for significant and lasting contributions to the cause of music in America and in 2007 he was elected for membership in the prestigious American Bandmaster’s Association.  He was nominated for and received the Employee of the Year award from Mansfield University in 2010 and was presented with the Presidential Coin of Distinction at MU in 2016.

Dr. Brennan’s professional memberships include the College Band Director’s National Association, the Music Educator’s National Conference and the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity, Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternities (honorary member), and the Autism Society of America.  An advocate for autistic children, Dr. Brennan is actively engaged in promoting autism awareness and educational rights for special needs children and serves on the Board of Directors for the Tioga County Autism Coalition (TASC).  Dr. Brennan resides in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania with his wife and their six children.

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Dr. Jeffrey R. Jacobsen is a sought-after conductor and clinician who has been invited to lead orchestras at national and international music festivals and camps. The recipient of the Outstanding Orchestra Conductor Award for 2013 from the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, he currently serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mansfield University Symphony Orchestra and for two years was Conductor of the Binghamton (NY) Community Orchestra. He has conducted numerous All-District, All-Region, and All-State Honor Orchestras in the United States and Canada as well as professional orchestras in Europe. Dr. Jacobsen served for five seasons as the Conductor of the Orchestra of the Pines in Nacogdoches/Lufkin, Texas and Director of Orchestral Activities and Opera at Stephen F. Austin State University. He founded and served as Conductor of the Blue Valley Chamber Orchestra, a regional orchestra in the Kansas City area. Jacobsen was affiliated with the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, initially as the Conductor of the Symphonette and later as Conductor of the Philharmonic East Orchestra. He taught in the public schools of Boulder, Colorado, Overland Park, Kansas, and Williamsburg, Virginia.

Dr. Jacobsen's ensembles have performed at state music conventions, and national and international music festivals. These same ensembles consistently earned highest ratings at competitive festivals and, at several, Jacobsen was named outstanding director. He received the Mary Taylor Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at Boulder High School and was featured twice on the KCNC-TV's "Teachers Who Make a Difference" series. Jacobsen was the Boulder Valley School nominee for the Sallie Mae National Teachers Award, received the Teacher Recognition Award from the University of Kansas, and was named the Outstanding High School Orchestra Director for the Northeast District of the Kansas Music Educators Association. In 2018, Dr. Jacobsen was a Quarterfinalist for the Grammy Music Educator Award.

Dr. Jacobsen received a Master of Science degree in music education with a secondary emphasis in performance from the University of North Dakota and a Doctorate of Music Education degree with a secondary emphasis in jazz pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado. Jacobsen was selected for the American Symphony Orchestra League Donald Thulean conducting workshop with the Detroit Civic Orchestra. He was invited to the International Conducting Workshop in the Czech Republic and has taken post-doctoral studies in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the universities of Iowa, Illinois State and South Carolina. His instructors include William LaRue Jones, Kirk Trevor, Mariusz Smolij, Kirk Muspratt, Tsung Yeh, and Marvin Rabin.

As a professional musician, Dr. Jacobsen has served as principal bassist of numerous ensembles as well as opera companies and symphony orchestras. Jacobsen was most recently Principal Bassist of Millennium Orchestra and a recording artist for Naxos and ERM. He has performed in jazz clubs across the United States as well as overseas, and, along with other members of the ensemble, received a Grammy Award nomination for the jazz recording "Hot IV."