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    We are very fortunate to have as Principal Conductor, Arlene Burney, retired Director of Music at Casa Grande High School, and current instructor of Brass Pedagogy at Sonoma State University. Guest conductors in previous seasons have included Nicholas Hodson, Dr. Brian S. Wilson, Marie Millard, Sean Millard, Tami Pallingston, Justin Peckner, Dani Reynolds, Dick Couden, Janeen Shave, Al U'Ren and Spiros Xydas. Our principal conductor until his retirement in 2009 was Jimmie Reynolds.

    
ARLENE BURNEY

Arlene Burney is Director of Instrumental Music and Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma. She has a B.A. in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz and a B.S. and M.S. in Music from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Ms. Burney has taught instrumental music for over 25 years. She started her teaching career in Santa Cruz, CA before moving to Israel where she lived for five years, developed a band program in Kiryat Menachem, a suburb of Jerusalem, and worked as assistant conductor for the Jerusalem Youth music program. After returning to the United States Ms. Burney taught instrumental music at both the Jr. High and High School level in Shreveport, LA and in Bloomington, IL. At Casa Grande H. S., Ms. Burney has developed the band program from 40 members in one band to more 120 members in two concert groups as well as two jazz bands.

Ms. Burney has served as Secretary for the Northern California Band Directors Association, and is an active member of MENC (Music Educators National Conference), CBDA (California Band Directors Association), and NCBA (Northern California Band Association). She is also a lifetime member of the International Horn Association.

As an accomplished French Hornist, Ms. Burney has performed with the Santa Cruz and Monterey Symphonies, the Carmel Valley Repertory Opera Orchestra, as well as numerous chamber ensembles. In the community band world Ms. Burney has been principal hornist with the Israeli Valley of the Winds Band, the Shreveport Metropolitan Band, and the Petaluma Community Band.

Ms. Burney was featured in the School Band and Orchestra, June 2009 magazine.

    

    

    

    


    
EMERITUS CONDUCTOR

Jimmie Howard Reynolds (1925 - 2013) was Director of Bands and Head of the Department of Music at Louisiana Tech University from 1962 until 1972, and Director of Bands at Iowa State University until 1980. From 1980 to 1985 he was Director of Youth Music for the Municipality of Jerusalem, resident Conductor of the Israel National Youth Band, and Music Consultant for The Music Foundation of Chicago and the Rothschild Foundation, Israel. He also taught courses in Music Education at Tel Aviv University and the Reuben Academy in Jerusalem.

Upon his return to the United States in 1985, he assumed the position of Band and Orchestra Director at Byrd High School in Shreveport, LA, the high school from which he graduated 45 years before. He was later Coordinator of Bands for the Caddo Parish (Louisiana) Schools. Reynolds' early public school teaching experience was in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where his bands consistently won superior ratings in both concert and marching.

Reynolds is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and past president of the Southern Division of the College Band Directors National Association, past member of The National Band Association, and a charter member of The American School Band Directors Association.

Reynolds has conducted district and All-State bands throughout the United States. He has also appeared as guest conductor with various groups at the American Band Masters Association national conferences, the Fresno State Wind Symphony, the University of Illinois Symphony Band, the Hattiesburg MS Community Band and the Sonoma County Honor Band.

Reynolds' published arrangements include:
Finale Symphony Nr. 3 by Gustav Mahler. Shawnee Press 1971.
Trio from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. TRN Riudoso NM 1992.
Dona Nobis Pacem from the JS Bach b minor Mass. TRN 1995.


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