Justin (Wayne) Lewis (born in 1982) is an American arts administrator, conductor, cellist, and educator who became a conductor in the United States Air Force Band program in 2012.
Justin (Wayne) Lewis (born in 1982) is an American arts administrator, conductor, cellist, and educator who became a conductor in the United States Air Force Band program in 2012.
A native of Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, Lewis graduated from Cedar Cliff High School and served as a Spanish-speaking missionary in the Arizona Tucson Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2001-2003). He attended Temple University's Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree (2006) in cello performance with a minor in journalism, public relations and advertising. While at Temple, he was elected to the "Who's Who Among Students at American Universities and Colleges" while studying with Orlando Cole, Jeffrey Solow and Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Kathy Picht-Read. Lewis earned a master of music degree in cello performance (2008), a Pennsylvania K-12 music teaching certificate (choral, band, orchestra, general music) (2009) and master of music degree in orchestral conducting (2010) from the Pennsylvania State University. While at Penn State, Lewis conducted the Penn State Sinfonietta, the largest music ensemble in the school of music, the Penn State Cello Choir and the Penn State Philharmonic. He also taught courses in cello pedagogy, chamber music and repertoire, Lewis completed a doctor of musical arts degree in cello performance with cognate studies in conducting from Catholic University of America's Benjamin T. Rome School of Music. Additionally, he studied conducting at [Codarts] in Rotterdam, Netherlands between 2015 and 2018 with Igor Gruppman.
Lewis commissioned in the United States Air Force as a band officer in 2012. A distinguished graduate of the Air Force Officer Training School, he was awarded the Daniel Webster Award, and the General Daniel "Chappie" James Award for Excellence upon commissioning, and was subsequently stationed at Joint Base Langley Eustis where he became the flight commander of the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band. He attended Defense Information School where he became certified as a Department of Defense spokesperson. In 2013, he led the first Air Force Band/Public Affairs collaborative effort to connect American school children with youth in Kyrgyzstan using music. The effort strengthened U.S. State Department regional objectives by building bonds between the two cultures, and won the first Air Force Public Affairs Director's Communication Excellence Award for Innovation ever given to a band.
In 2015, Lewis was reassigned to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band at Ramstein Air Base where he was the flight commander overseeing the ensembles' musical events throughout 105 nation area of responsibility. In 2017, he deployed to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar where he became the officer in charge of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Band, a group of active-duty musicians who toured 13 nations in Southwest Asia and parts of Africa as cultural diplomats on behalf of the United States government. In 2018, Lewis was assigned to the Secretary of the Air Force office of Public Affairs where he facilitated opinion leader engagements with senior leaders, city outreach efforts, and VIP visits to the Pentagon reservation. In 2020, Lewis was assigned as commander of the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
Lewis formerly served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Suzuki Institute in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and choral director and music department chair at Herbert J. Saunders Middle School in Manassas, Virginia where he also taught orchestra and theory courses, and developed a music therapy curriculum for students with special needs. He has taught music at the Haverford School for Boys in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and the Conservatory of Musical Arts in Haddonfield, NJ. Lewis served at music director of the Washington Temple Orchestra. In 2012, Lewis won an online conducting contest to guest conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. He has appeared with the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, the Central Pennsylvania Symphony, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Society of Philadelphia, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band, Symphony in C, the Wind Ensemble of the College of William and Mary, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, La Orquesta Sinfonica de las Americas and the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants among others.
Lewis frequently appeared with the professional men's vocal ensemble, Brethren. He regularly guest conducts high school honors music festivals and has appeared at four American Choral Directors Association conferences. Lewis has recorded with Shadow Mountain Records and the Centaur label. With the Capitol String Quartet, he released 'Walk Beside Me,' a recording of LDS primary children songs, for Deseret Book in late 2014. It peaked at #2 on Deseret Book's music charts.
Lewis is married to American violist Jennifer Jackson Lewis. They have five children.
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the score in a way that reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by ensemble members, and "shape" the phrasing where appropriate. Conductors communicate with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, usually with the aid of a baton, and may use other gestures or signals such as facial expression and eye contact. A conductor usually supplements their direction with verbal instructions to their musicians in rehearsal.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Robert Lawson Shaw was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He was known for drawing public attention to choral music through his wide-ranging influence and mentoring of younger conductors, the high standard of his recordings, his support for racial integration in his choruses, and his support for modern music, winning many awards throughout his career.
William Levi Dawson was an American composer, choir director, professor, and musicologist.
Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer, conductor, author, and professor. During the course of a professional career which ranges over six decades he has served as a faculty member at both the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In addition, he is credited with founding and conducting the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which participated in the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Adler's musical catalogue includes over 400 published compositions. He has been honored with several awards including Germany's Order of Merit – Officer's Cross.
David Sartor is an American composer, conductor, and educator, and is the founder and music director of the Parthenon Chamber Orchestra.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
Craig D. Jessop is an American academic, musician and singer best known for his tenure as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Choir) from 1999 to 2008.
Donald Nally is an American conductor, chorus master, and professor of conducting, specializing in chamber choirs, opera, and new music. He is conductor of the professional new-music choir, The Crossing, based in Philadelphia. He teaches graduate students at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music.
David Blair Hamilton is a New Zealand composer and teacher.
Eduardo Alonso-Crespo is an Argentine composer of classical music.
Michael Jeffrey Shapiro is an American composer, conductor, and author.
Harold Boatrite was an American composer.
David Serkin Ludwig is an American composer, teacher, and Dean of Music at The Juilliard School. His uncle was pianist Peter Serkin, his grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin, and his great-grandfather was the violinist Adolf Busch. He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. His choral work, The New Colossus, was performed at the 2013 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
Terry Lowry is an American composer, conductor and pianist. He is the Conductor and Music Director of the Carroll Symphony Orchestra. His compositions include symphonies, concertos, oratorios, works for chamber ensembles and soloists, choral works and along with Dennis Blackmon, composed the musical Montgomery, based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Patric Standford was an English composer, supporter of composers' rights, educationalist and author.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Kile Smith is an American composer of choral, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. The Arc in the Sky with The Crossing received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, and the Canticle CD by Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble helped win the 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh. A Black Birch in Winter, which includes Smith's Where Flames a Word, won the 2020 Estonian Recording of the Year for Voces Musicales.
https://www.music.af.mil/Home/Biographies/Display/Article/1309324/justin-w-lewis/