Glen Adsit

Education

MM, University of Michigan

BM, University of Michigan

Glen Adsit is the Director of Bands at The Hartt School where he conducts the Wind Ensemble. In addition, he co-directs Hartt’s new music ensemble (Foot in the Door) and the graduate instrumental conducting degrees with Edward Cumming, Director of Orchestras at Hartt. Professor Adsit was appointed the Director of Bands at The Hartt School in the fall of 2000 and was awarded the 2014 Larsen Award for outstanding teaching at the University of Hartford. Prior to his appointment at The Hartt School he served as the Associate Director of Bands at the University of New Mexico. From 1986 to 1992 he taught at both the junior high and high school levels in the Plymouth-Canton School District in Michigan.

In 2010 the Hartt Wind Ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in Stern Auditorium performing the world premiere performance of Dragon Rhyme by Chen Yi. The ensemble also performed at the 2007 (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and 2011 (Seattle, Washington) College Band Directors National Association Conference and three times at the Eastern Division CBDNA Conferences. Ensembles under his direction have performed at Hill Auditorium (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Musikverein (Vienna, Austria), Benroya Ilsley Hall (Seattle, Washington) Carnegie Hall’s Stern Hall (New York, New York) and the Central Conservatory (Beijing, China), Harpa (Reykjavik, Iceland) among others. Adsit’s performances have won praise from such notable composers as John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner, Bright Sheng, Susan Botti, Joan Tower, Michael Colgrass and William Bolcom.

The Hartt Wind Ensemble has recorded two compact discs for the NAXOS label; Passaggi and Dragon Rhyme. In reviews Gramophone Magazine describes The Hartt Wind Ensemble as “stellar” and Fanfare Magazine wrote “and on the evidence of his two Naxos CDs, Adsit is simply one of the finest conductors leading a wind ensemble today.”

An advocate of new music, Adsit is the founder of the National Wind Ensemble Consortium Group (NWECG) and the institute for the Advancement of Secondary and Primary Instrumental Repertoire Excellence (ASPIRE). The mission of these groups is to commission the world’s finest composers to write music for primary, secondary and professional level ensembles.

Professor Adsit holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and trombone performance and a master’s degree in wind conducting, both from the University of Michigan where he studied with H. Robert Reynolds.