News & Views Saturday, April 20, 2024

View all of Stanton’s Five Star Features and favorites with our new online catalogs! Featuring our favorite new titles for school and sacred ensembles in fun, programmable categories, use our online catalogs to go straight to a title’s preview material. Visit our directory to find the catalog for your ensemble.

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• Program with the Pros!

Marketing Your Music Program by Sean Dennison Smith
“Marketing Your Music Program: From Traditional Branding to Digital Promotion” will easily guide you through today’s world of marketing – both traditional and modern forms of social media and websites. With quality content, a strong brand and a clear strategy, you can greatly increase the presence of your choir, orchestra and band. It will also help you discover effective and efficient ways to fundraise while building important connections with a wide-reaching community.

Topics covered include: marketing overview for your music program • branding your choir, orchestra and band • websites • “Power Four” platforms • additional marketing platforms • marketing your program in 30 minutes a week • the road to success • social media best practices • helpful resources and websites • equipment needs • press release templates • 50 content marketing ideas to enrich your music program.

Find more valuable texts on our website, or contact us for recommendations. Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. This series, The Stanton’s Difference, highlights just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

Stanton’s is one of the largest sheet music retailers in the country, with tens of thousands of titles in stock. We understand that many of our customers can’t make it to our Columbus, Ohio location to peruse music, so we offer a 21 Day Trial service.

How It Works: Music can be secured with either a Stanton’s account or a credit card. We send you the in-stock materials you request, and you pay nothing but the shipping and handling costs. As long as the music is returned to us in NEW condition within 21 days, you are never charged. If you have specific titles you’d like to see, we will happily send those to you, or you can ask one of our knowledgeable staff members to select pieces for you based on concert theme, performance venue, type of group, etc.

What You Can Take On Trial (by department):
Choral, Handbell, Classroom General Music & Solo Vocal: You may take up to 20 single copies of octavos and/or up to 5 musicals, collections, or director’s scores.

Band, Orchestra and Instrumental: You may take up to six items on trial, including full arrangements, solos and chamber ensembles (only scores will be sent for titles appearing on the OMEA High School Large Group Contest List).

Piano/Keyboard: Up to five collections and/or 10 teaching pieces, one copy each. Popular sheet music is not available for 21 Day Trial. 75% (by dollar amount) of the piano music on trial must be purchased.

For more details about our 21 Day Trial, visit us online at stantons.com, or give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. This series, The Stanton’s Difference, highlights just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

We’re Big Enough to Serve ALL Your Needs
– Stanton’s Sheet Music has direct access to all major and many minor, independent, and European publishers, allowing us to carry and order hundreds of thousands of print music titles for you.

– Stanton’s e-Tools are designed to make your job easier! Use our Listening Library, Jukebox, YouTube channel, Wish List, and Digital Delivery features to compare and organize titles for your music program.

– Itemized purchase orders, bids, quotes, and large orders are no problem. We work with many schools around the country and U.S. International schools who “bulk order” over the summer.

– Besides providing music to customers all over the country, access to major publishers like Hal Leonard and Alfred combined with stantons.com gives Stanton’s Sheet Music global reach with numerous international orders and worldwide shipping destinations.

But Small Enough to Serve YOU
– Stanton’s Sheet Music is still a single location, family-owned store in downtown Columbus, Ohio. We do not have a separate warehouse or call center, and our website is just another way to shop for music with Stanton’s.

– We have three sales departments, each with a specific number of dedicated, specialized staff: Choral & Classroom Music, Band & Orchestra, and Keyboard & Pop. While anyone in a respective department can help you, if you find a specific staff member you like to work with, feel free to request them.

– We are your customer service. We answer your phone calls and e-mails. We fill your orders and process your online orders. We personally handle your “sheet music emergencies.” We solve any problems should they arise. We will get to know you by name, and by working with you over time, get to know your program.

– We are your partner in music education, performance, and ministry. We choose our Stanton’s Five Star Features to help make your job easier. We organize and conduct Stanton’s numerous clinics, workshops and reading sessions. We develop Stanton’s e-Tools with you, the music teacher, in mind.

We hope that over the course of this series we have given you some reasons to make Stanton’s your #1 choice for sheet music. If not, give us a call or place an order with us, and see why Stanton’s Sheet Music has been Sheet Music Specialists since 1960!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. This series, The Stanton’s Difference, highlights just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

The staff at Stanton’s understands the stresses and pressures of the first year of teaching. Getting to know your building and district, discipline, lesson plans, evaluations, booster groups, budgets/purchasing, scheduling….oh, yeah, and actually teaching! We’d like to make your life just a little bit easier, and here’s what we can do to help:

Money Matters: Requisitions, purchase orders, board accounts, booster accounts; it can all seem “Greek to you” if you’re not familiar with school purchasing. Visit or call us as soon as you are hired to determine what kind of account(s) your school has and what you have to do to get music. Don’t be shy, ask lots of questions now!

We’re Happy To Meet You: Come on down and visit us in person! Introduce yourself to the staff, let us know what and where you’re teaching. We can give you a short tour of the store and let you know what kinds of products we have that fit your needs. We’ll also be happy to send you home with any current promotional materials or a 21 Day Trial so you can choose literature at your leisure.

So Much Music, So Little Time: The tens of thousands titles that we have in stock can be a bit overwhelming for anyone. The music educators on our staff can steer you in the right direction, offering suggestions for all types of classes and ensembles at all levels. We spend hundreds of hours each year reviewing new publications, so we show you only the best of what’s out there.

E-Tools: Stanton’s website has several different e-tools to assist you in choosing, purchasing and teaching your music. There’s our YouTube channel, Jukebox, Listening Library, Digital Delivery and, of course, the Stanton’s Barcode Scanner App – available for free in The App Store and Google Play.

For more details, questions or to introduce yourself, visit us online at stantons.com, or give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

At Stanton’s, we know you have many choices when it comes to purchasing sheet music. This series, The Stanton’s Difference, highlights just a few of the many reasons why Stanton’s is the best place to buy music for your school, church, private studio or personal use!

If you’re a school, church or community music director, your purchases are usually invoiced to an account to be paid by your institution. If you are new to any of these positions, or have recently changed gigs, give us a call! We will be happy to provide you with your organization’s account number(s), and walk you through the billing process.

Are you new to shopping with Stanton’s? Rest easy – our staff can check to see if your organization already has an account (many often do), and if not, setting up a new account is easy! In fact, we can help you set up a new account when you place your first order, or make your first purchase, in a matter of minutes!

What we need:
– Name of the organization to be billed
– Billing address
– Billing phone number
– Purchase order number (if required by billing institution)
Let us know where you would like to have your order shipped, and you’re done!

Some notes:
– Stanton’s can bill your: School Board/District; Church; School Building Activity Fund; Booster organization; Community Band/Choir organization
– We can assign multiple ship-to addresses and institutional credit cards to your account.
– You can bill orders to your account at our store, over the phone, at stantons.com, or at any conference or reading session where we’re exhibiting!

If you have any questions, give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC and speak with our sales staff, or press 4 to speak directly with our Accounting Department, and shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

Click here for more information on the STANTON’S DIFFERENCE!

On June 21st over 1,000 cities in more than 120 countries will be celebrating Make Music Day from sunup to sundown. This all day festival welcomes everybody to make music anywhere! Play outside or on social media, just MAKE MUSIC!

France started Fête De La Musique in 1982 to celebrate free and live music everywhere with everyone. Translated, Fête De La Musique means both “festival of music” and “make music!” Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, was chosen for the new holiday. Make Music Day has grown in such popularity that it shuts down the streets in France so musicians may take over!

Make Music Day can be organized as a small back yard concert or as a national event. The NAMM Foundation took up the US sponsorship of Make Music Day. They have resources for those who want to host an event. You can even join their Make Music Alliance to get assistance in promotion, sponsorship, and tech support – visit makemusicday.org if you want to know more.

This is Stanton’s Sheet Music’s third year participating in Make Music Day. Each year, we leave our recital hall open to those who would like to make music. This year, we are featuring some of our very own Sheet Music Specialists as our featured musicians. Catch any of our performances on our Facebook page!

If you participate from home, consider sharing your performance on social media and giving us a shout out! Feel free to tag us and use these hashtags to reach more people!

#makethemostmusic #MakeMusicDay

Wearing ear plugs is something few performing musicians do. We worry about communication and our effectiveness in playing, so we tend to forgo the plugs – but AFTER experiencing hearing loss is not the time to start worrying about protection. Here are some educational resources to help you protect one of your most valuable musical assets – your hearing!

• Read this article to learn more about the workings of the inner ear, how to recognize hearing loss symptoms, and how to prevent more damage: The Musician’s Guide to Hearing Protection – from a Doctor!
• Read this article to learn about the different types of ear plugs and the components that make them: Musicians’ Hearing Protection: A Review
• Use this resource to find the right ear plug for you: Which Musicians Earplug is Right for You?
• Did you know, sound at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss? What is ALARA? Read about the increase in citizens with hearing loss and learn about steps to effective noise control in our community: What Is a Safe Noise Level for the Public?
• Recently, a viola player in the UK won a compensation case for hearing damage from the horn section of a performance. The volume reached at least 137 decibels. Read the article here.
• Hearing loss can end your career and change how you live your life. Music educators are no exception. Check out some more resources to have on your phone to regulate your classroom rehearsals:
  The Best Phone Apps to Measure Noise Levels
  3 Free Classroom Noise Level Monitors

recommended by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist

The 2018 marching band season is almost upon us! As you plan, don’t miss the newest marching band charts, including “Believer,” “Feel It Still,” “The Greatest Show,” and “Thunder.”

Looking to freshen up your show with a new arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Find great options here!

Warm-ups and percussion cadences? We’ve got ‘em! We can also help you build your library with Stanton’s Five Star Features for pep band books and cheers, fight songs and time outs.

Contact us for personalized recommendations from our Sheet Music Specialists, and remember – shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

About the Author:
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. His iPod ranges from jazz and funk to classic and alternative rock, and symphonies. Besides music, he geeks out on amusement parks, hockey (are 4 hockey podcasts too many?), and all things Pittsburgh. He spends his free time being dad to 2 young children and playing saxophone with Swing’s the Thing Big Band.

Notice anything different about us?

We’ve launched our newly redesigned website for musicians and educators to compare all music options, organize titles for personal and professional use, and share their passion for musical expression. The new website is designed to improve your search results and reduce research stress.

“We’ve been working on this website for three years now. The features we are most excited for are the advanced search bar and music-specific filters that offer you more opportunities to find sheet music that fits your educational or performance goals,” said David Ginter, technical manager.

Our search bar is optimized for music specific searches. You can search by instrument, voicing, keyword, full title, composer, artist, arranger, series, or catalog number. However, remember – less is more. If you want to be even more specific, click on our advanced search and type in as much information as you have.

If you still have too many results after hitting enter, click on the photo to the left to reveal the filter! All you’ll have to do is chose the tab you want and it will grow to show you how every item is grouped. Say you searched the word “Star,” but you only want to see SAB music – the voicing tab will tell you how many SAB selections are in this search.

We are also introducing new Social Media and Reprise pages. These pages archive our social and email announcements to allow our non-social media users access to our news and product recommendation. You can check in with the Social Media page for a weekly snapshot of what’s happening at Stanton’s and easily follow us without ever logging in.

You can stop scrolling back months at time to find that email with that title you can’t remember the name of, but you know would be perfect! Visit our Reprise page and only look through our emails without any distractions.

“The website is a resource where music directors can easily see, listen, and learn new products that best fit their ensemble needs. What we’ve created is a large music library database. With that database we can help directors and musicians compare ideas, organize their selections, and share with their ensemble and the audiences they reach,” says President, Eric Strouse.

The world of a musician or collegiate music major is often foreign and strange to those outside of the profession. Parents, family and friends are often at a loss as to what graduation gifts might be most useful to high school graduates who plan to major in music, or college graduates pursuing music as a profession. The members of our knowledgeable staff at Stanton’s have all been in their shoes, and we recommend these gifts (in a variety of price ranges) that WE could have used when we graduated!

For HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES becoming instrumental music majors:

The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms by Christine Ammer, $10.75
The more advanced a student becomes, the more often they will be using upper level music that is often published overseas. While standard music terms can be found in a traditional music dictionary, some instructions and descriptions will be written in the composers’ native languages. This resource lists the terms most commonly found in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin and Portuguese scores.

The Musician’s Practice Planner, $9.99
Students are often a little shocked when they find out that they will be spending much more time in the practice room than they did in high school (most collegiate teachers expect at least 3 hours/day), and staying organized is key. This easy-to-use 8 “x 11” spiral-bound book has two full pages devoted to each lesson. Designed to make lessons more enjoyable and efficient, it is used as an assignment book by teachers and as a practice log by students.

Trying to check items off your instrumental studio list? Stanton’s carries a full line of standard method books, etude books and solo repertoire! Visit http://www.stantons.com or give us a call – we’re sure we can help you find what you need! Oh, and don’t forget – Music Majors get a 10% Discount off most methods, etude books, and solos!!!

Bach, Beethoven and the Boys: Music History As It Ought To Be Taught, $17.95
If It Ain’t Baroque…More Music History As It Ought To Be Taught, $15.95
Accidentals on Purpose: A Musician’s Dictionary, $15.95
Just for fun, we offer a wealth of musical humor writings by David W. Barber. The more educated the reader, the more fun they will have with Barber’s dry wit and knack for putting musicians in their place! Click here to see all of the author’s offerings.

For COLLEGE GRADUATES becoming First Year Band Directors:

Handy Manual Fingering Charts by Clarence Hendrickson, $8.99
You’re not alone – no one remembers all those fingerings for the bassoon they learned in a methods class three years ago! That’s probably why we’ve never met a band or orchestra teacher who didn’t own at least one of these convenient little reference guides. It includes fingering charts for all woodwind, brass and string instruments as well as drum rudiments, a transposition chart and ranges. A must-have!

Instrument Repair for the Music Teacher by Burton Stanley, $22.95
This concise guide for the band director covers the basics of woodwind and brass maintenance and repair. Topics include: changing pads, springs and key regulation for woodwinds, and caring for piston valves, rotary valves, and basic soldering for brasses. Although Stanton’s recommends maintenance and major repair through your local instrument dealer or selected repair shop, this book addresses basic fixes and can get you (and your student) out of a jam.

The Music Teacher’s First Year by Elizabeth Peterson, $19.95
From a first-year teacher whose instruments were stolen before entering his building, to a teacher who received “hate mail” before her first day, to a teacher whose sensitivity, flexibility and insight gained her the respect of her ensemble in only weeks, this collection of true stories from first-year teachers is a delightful description of their real world. In addition, each chapter includes discussion questions for pre-service and young teachers as they prepare for their teaching future.

Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, $39.50-$69.95
These books are the go-to resource for quality instrumental literature at all levels. The books are a wealth of information, and the accompanying CD sets have high quality recordings of each featured piece. While a worthwhile investment, they can be out of reach for those on a first-year teacher’s salary. Available titles include Teaching Music Through Performance in Band Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, as well as Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band, and Beginning Band Vol. 1 and 2. Books and CD sets sold separately.

Help your graduate build their reference library with these other fantastic resources!
National Core Arts Standards by Wendy Barden, $12.95
Habits of a Successful Band Director by Scott Rush, $29.95
Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director by Scott Rush, $29.95
Developing the Complete Band Program by Shelley Jagow, $39.95
Urban Music Education by Kate Fitzpatrick-Harnish, $19.95
Strategic Plans for a Successful Booster Club by David W. Vandewalker, $44.95
Boosters to the Rescue! Handbook for Educators by David W. Vandewalker, $44.95

Visit our Marching Band and Concert Band pages for complete music resources, programming ideas, and more! Also, be sure to give your graduate Stanton’s phone number: 1-800-42-MUSIC, ext. 2! Our staff is a great resource with music knowledge and teaching experience, and full of ideas!

respectfully offered by Dan C., Orchestra Music Specialist

If you are reading this, you are probably a musician or associate with musicians. When you are a musician or hang with musicians, you begin to think that everyone is probably involved in music in one way or another. But, we musicians are really a fairly finite group of people.

It has been speculated that if you were to gather all people in the United States who make their living in the music industry (whether creating it, performing it, recording it, writing it, teaching it, publishing it, selling it, making and repairing instruments that play it etc), you would end up with about the same amount of people as are employed by the Kellogg’s Company – you know, the cereal and snack food folks. Yeah – a pretty finite group!

It seems unlikely that anyone involved in this tight-knit music community would intentionally keep their fellow musicians from trying to make a living. And yet, that’s what you do when you copy sheet music without permission. Sheet music is property – like a trumpet, violin or a microphone – but it’s intellectual property, which can be a bit nebulous. Basically, only the Copyright Holder has the “right” to “copy” their work. When you copy music without permission from the copyright holder, you are actually stealing it.

When you copy music without a second thought, that means the music is not being sold. Consequently, the music retailer and all their employees lose income, the music publisher and all their employees lose income, and, perhaps most tragically, the composer loses income. Your fellow musicians are being deprived of their ability to make a living.

So not only are you breaking the law by copying music, you are keeping your brothers and sisters in this finite musical community from doing what they love to do: be a musician. If they can’t make a living at it, they may have to leave and do something else. And the musical world becomes an even smaller place.

So don’t copy music without permission – it’s not only illegal, it’s immoral. Let’s make sure the livelihood of our music community is secure so we can all continue to make music – that thing we love to do!

For more information on what you can and cannot do when it comes to copyright, check out these books on the subject:
Copyright Basics by Joel Leach
The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law by James Frankel
Music Copyright Law by Moser & Slay
Music Publishing: The Complete Guide by Steve Winogradsky

About the Author:
Dan C. has worked at Stanton’s since 1979, primarily with orchestra music and print promotions. A “working” musician, he’s a classical cellist, a rock & jazz bassist and a folk & country guitarist/singer. His free time is spent with family or reading, gardening, cycling and working puzzles. His series of musical puzzles (RP3 Rebus Puzzle Picture People) can be found on the Stanton’s Facebook page each Sunday. He also has a reputation as a pretty good joke teller. Seriously.

The amazing staff at Stanton’s knows how valuable your time is. That’s why we try to provide you with as many tools as we can to make choosing music easier, faster and more enjoyable! In this series of blog posts, we will be profiling our E-tools. Whether you are a local customer here in Columbus, OH or one of our many friends around the world, we hope you will find a way to use our E-tools!

It’s happened to all of us: You have a rehearsal or a performance coming up in a few days (or a few hours!) and you’ve lost your music; it’s they day before a competition, and your judges’ copies are nowhere to be found; you desperately need something new and fresh for your church choir to start on tonight. In many cases, Stanton’s Digital Delivery can come to your rescue!

Using the Digital Delivery website, you can purchase thousands of titles and print them at home on your home computer within minutes. In addition, many popular sheets (including pop, Broadway, country, etc) can be transposed to the key of your choosing, so you’ll always be able to have piece in a comfortable range for you. Lead lines can also be transposed for instruments such as trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and French horn. Many titles are available in convenient PDF format, so they’re ready to use right on your tablet!

You can access our Digital Delivery site directly by clicking here, where you can browse options for bands, orchestras, choirs, and solos for many different instruments. You can also use the regular Stanton’s website, where titles available for Digital Delivery have a printer icon next to their descriptions. Clicking on that icon will take you directly to that item’s page on the Digital Delivery website, where you can purchase and print.

For questions about how to use the Stanton’s Digital Delivery Site, please feel free to give us a call at 1-800-42-MUSIC or visit us online or in person!

Click here for more in the Stanton’s E-Tools series!

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist

Richard Canter discussing Scale & Rhythm Chunks

Scale & Rhythm Chunks is a hit!!

We’ve reached the third and final exhibition day at the 2014 Midwest Clinic, and I’m glad to say that our booth traffic was brisk – more akin to what we’re used to from the state MEA conferences that we attend! Highlights from Day 3 include Richard Canter (Scale & Rhythm Chunks) returning to our booth and talking over his book with numerous band directors, getting to finally meet our new Hal Leonard representative in person (it’s always nice to put a face with a voice!), and receiving plenty of positive customer feedback about Stanton’s service and website!

The Stanton’s booth is a hub of activity

After a busy and successful day, the exhibit hall closed at 5:00 pm, and it was time to break down the booth, pack it up, and load out. Since it was ‘old school week’ (packing everything in boxes instead of loading full bins onto our large rolling carts), the entire booth was packed and loaded in about 3 hours. If you’re thinking, “You guys must have been hungry after all that work”, you’d be right. At the recommendation of our good friend and Chicago customer Bob Erickson (Hoffman Estates H.S.), we headed to the south Loop for BBQ ribs and chicken at Miller’s Pub. As you can tell by the picture, it was a feast!

It was a feast!!

Overall, our trip was fantastic! It was great to see some of our regular customers from Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. Since The Midwest Clinic is an international conference, we met numerous educators and students from around the world, especially Australia and Japan. If you’re teaching band or orchestra, and haven’t attended The Midwest Clinic before, you really should. It is a world class event featuring the highest quality clinics and concerts; a huge exhibit hall featuring all of the instrument manufacturers, sheet music publishers both large and small, and much more (including Stanton’s!). The very large and modern McCormick Place and adjacent Hyatt Regency are beautiful facilities that do a wonderful job hosting this event.

We had a great time, and look forward to seeing YOU there next year!

About the Author:
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. He enjoyed encountering several Chicago Blackhawks fans on the return trip to Columbus headed to Saturday’s game vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is glad to report that the CBJ won 3-2 after a 9 round shootout

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist

Day 2 of the 2014 Midwest Clinic has come and gone, and it was quite an active day. The Stanton’s booth was busy, especially around mid-day with plenty of educators and students loading up on method books, solo and ensemble repertoire, and new concert pieces. One of my favorite aspects of working our booth is meeting directors that we don’t know, passing along our new band music promotions, and explaining our selection process.

Visitors to the Stanton’s booth included our good friend James Swearingen, FJH orchestra composer Lauren Bernofsky, and Hal Leonard arranger Johnnie Vinson. In addition, I had an engaging and enthusiastic conversation with Alfred composers Chris Bernotas and Vince Gassi. Band Education Specialist Kent White attended the session on Scale & Rhythm Chunks by Ohio’s own Richard Canter. It was standing room only with over 500 people attending his session, and we have all but sold out of the copies we had at the booth!

One of the other unique elements of The Midwest Clinic is the number of composers and arrangers on-hand. As mentioned above, I spent quite a bit of time today speaking with Chris Bernotas and Vince Gassi, as well as Randall Standridge, Grand Mesa president Walter Cummings, and FJH composers Travis Weller and Brian Balmages.

The “Barnhouse Party Bus,” on the way to dinner

Again our day was capped off with a fantastic meal, this time at Maggiano’s Little Italy courtesy of C.L. Barnhouse. It’s in a great historic building that probably dates to the 20’s. To our surprise Stanton’s along with RBC Music of Texas were honored with the presentation of the “Barney” Award in recognition of our long relationship in selling and promoting Barnhouse titles. A much appreciated and heartfelt presentation was given by James Swearingen. I also got to hear a number of fantastic (and hilarious) stories about Chuck Barnhouse since I was seated between Barnhouse president Andy Clark and Ed Peterson of Omega Recordings, the company that records the Washington Winds.

That’s all for today from The Windy City (or Gotham if you’re a fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman Trilogy).

About the Author
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. He is thrilled to have had gelato and fantastic cheesecake for dessert over the past two nights! Seriously, Cheesecake Factory – meh.

Ryan Nowlin & Stanton’s band guru Kent White

Ryan Nowlin & Stanton’s band guru Kent White

by Ken Tilger, Band Education Specialist

Sweet Home Chicago

Greetings from the exhibit hall at the 2014 Midwest Clinic! After a full day of set up on Tuesday (check out our time lapse video here), I am excited to share Stanton’s Midwest debut.

Ryan Nowlin & Stanton’s band guru Kent White

While exhibit hall traffic was light on our first day, things began to pick up after 1:00 pm as more band and orchestra directors, students and parents began to arrive. As always, it is fun to see some of our Ohio and Kentucky friends and educators at national (and international) conferences. Band directors from Westerville, New Bremen, Lexington (OH), and Louisville, KY were among some of the familiar faces on the first day, along with Ohio State, Capital, and Baldwin Wallace having booths here as well. In addition, we were thrilled to be visited by composer and Columbus native Roger Cichy, educator and 2014 Capital Reading Clinic guest Paula Crider, and Ohio native and staff arranger for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band Ryan Nowlin. Stay tuned for a Q&A post with First Lieutenant Nowlin in the near future!

Of course, professional conferences are about making new friends and bringing sheet music to the masses, but they are also great opportunities to speak with our publisher representatives (and sometimes CEOs!) face-to-face about new music, textbooks, and other products, talk about specific ways to improve service, and catch some music industry scoop.

The day was capped off with excellent food. The Stanton’s staff is happy to recommend RBC Steakhouse, and Café Bionda where I had fantastic southern Italian cuisine (and gelato!).

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for our Day 2 recap tomorrow!

About the Author
Ken is a former band director, and has been with Stanton’s since 2004. He is excited to introduce his son to some favorite Christmas specials this year including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Vintage!