BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – With the number of orchestras and wind symphonies in Dallas, Texas, it was no surprise that 2009 Illinois Wesleyan graduate Preston Prior was drawn there with his music education degree. What might surprise some, however, was his decision to found his own ensemble.
“The Dallas-Fort Worth area is a wealth of musical outlets,” said Prior, who works as head band director and music department chair for Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Dallas. “Every suburb has its own symphony and the area has more community bands per capita than anywhere else in the world.” Along with teaching, Prior is part of such ensembles as The Dallas New Life Symphony Orchestra, the Carrollton Wind Symphony and the Metropolitan Winds.
“Music for me is both a vocation and an avocation,” Prior said. “It’s important as an educator to continue to perform. Music educators are scholars and artists, and it benefits students to be able to bring an artist’s work and musicianship into the performance-based classroom.”
With that belief in the educational power of music, Prior created the Dallas Civic Wind Ensemble (DCWE) last fall. Although they only began playing in September of 2010, the ensemble has already garnered attention. Next season, they are anticipating performing in the grand Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and this summer they have been invited to be a featured ensemble performance at the Texas Bandmasters Association Conference in San Antonio. “That’s quite an honor for a band that has only been in existence for six months,” said Prior.