Deborah Bish
- Associate Professor of Clarinet
Woodwinds
Preparing students for diverse careers in teaching and performance.
Our performance majors have secured positions in many professional playing careers including chamber ensembles, orchestras, and service bands.
Our large, comprehensive College of Music, the third largest in the nation, fosters limitless experiences and connections as you create your path in music. Undergraduate and graduate degrees in woodwind performance offer students the highest level of applied instruction, large and small ensemble performance experience along with courses in literature, pedagogy and supportive core music courses in piano, theory and history. Our graduates serve on the faculties of numerous colleges and universities across the nation.
Strong Community
Our full-time resident faculty members are leaders in their field and foster students individually and in groups in a comprehensive manner that prepares them for the competitive world of brass performance. Ensembles and group work foster a team approach that enriches individual performance but also builds skillsets needed to excel in bands, orchestras, jazz ensembles and chamber music.
Many of our students remain connected to our faculty throughout their professional careers through strong alumni networks and collaboration in performance and presentations across the globe. Classical performance students are doubly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a world-class jazz faculty and play in groups that explore the creative world of improvisation and jazz and commercial style.
The College of Music continues traditions of a comprehensive and welcoming program with healthy and spirited competition in a supportive, collaborative environment.
Performing Opportunities in World-Class Ensembles
Two full orchestras, Philharmonia, and University Symphony Orchestra, explore diverse repertoire, provide professional training as solo opportunities with concerto competitions at undergraduate and graduate levels. Five large wind groups including Wind Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, Concert Band and Campus Band that regularly play on national festivals and premiere exciting compositions by today’s composers and arrangers. Collegium Musicum, early music groups that rehearse and perform on period instruments.
Athletic Bands support high-profile FSU sports including the 425-member Marching Chiefs, Seminole Sound at men’s and women’s basketball games both on campus and traveling around the nation. Studio Choirs offer a homogenous ensemble experience including work in competitions, exploring new techniques and works for brass that prepare students for future masterclasses and even composing and arranging for brass groups. Chamber Winds offers all students the chance to form groups like brass quintets that explore performance and entrepreneurship. Many groups are active in playing concerts and gigs in the region. Freshmen and sophomores get a great introduction with a chamber ensemble experience that rehearses independently two hours per week and is also coached by an experienced graduate teaching assistant one hour each week.
Many of our graduate students are engaged with regional orchestra around the state and, occasionally, are asked to substitute with orchestras around the nation including Atlanta, Houston, and Seattle. FSU students regularly also participate in prestigious summer music festivals including Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestra Institute, and many others. Many FSU students and alums also work with DCI groups like the Phantom Regiment, Carolina Crown, The Cadets, Spirit of Atlanta, and others.
For more information about the Woodwind program, contact Jeff Keesecker.
Woodwinds Faculty
Undergraduate Programs
Bachelor of Music students receive instruction they need to prepare for a career beyond the Baccalaureate, including the possibility of continuing their training in graduate school.
Graduate Programs
Master of Music students are pushed to a sophisticated level of musical accomplishment to make them competitive in the professional environment or, sometimes, continue in school to pursue the terminal pedagogical degree.
The Doctor of Music program offers a student much flexibility in choosing courses that will provide a comprehensive base for career development. This includes another performance-based option for the treatise requirement. Students can choose to perform two lecture recitals and bundle them into one paper of c. twenty pages in length in lieu of one more comprehensive and detailed document.