Ithaca College's band tradition has carried musicians from South Hill classrooms into school music programs, military ensembles and Broadway pits for more than a century. A new college history traces that reach from Patrick Conway's 1922 Military Band School to a recent graduate's commissioned clarinet concerto.
Grace Gonoud, a 2026 music education graduate, performed the concerto at the college's Commencement Eve Concert before beginning work as a middle school band director in the Syracuse area. Fellow student John Oliver wrote the piece for her, drawing on classical music, jazz and improvisation.
The annual concert placed Gonoud with the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Cook, the college's director of bands. The program also featured the college's jazz ensemble and choir under the direction of Mike Titlebaum, a music performance professor and director of jazz studies. Gonoud had performed in the concert throughout her four years at Ithaca before taking a featured solo role.
The piece, “A Fourth Place,” reflected the range of Gonoud's training. She played clarinet and saxophone and performed in the wind ensemble, orchestra, jazz groups and theater pit orchestras. Oliver also worked a phrase associated with Titlebaum's improvised solos into the concerto as a tribute to their teacher.
A school built for band leaders
The college traces its band education roots to Conway, who founded his Military Band School in Ithaca in 1922 in partnership with the Ithaca Conservatory of Music. The school was among the early programs devoted specifically to training band musicians, conductors and teachers, according to the college.
Conway's plan went beyond performance. In a 1928 article, he described graduates who would know multiple band instruments, organize and direct ensembles, compose and understand band literature. His approach sought to prepare musicians to teach and lead institutions as well as play in them.
Walter Beeler, a student of Conway's school, became conductor of the Ithaca College Concert Band in the early 1930s. He helped build the program's national reputation over the following decades. The college also points to faculty compositions, including Karel Husa's “Music for Prague 1968” and Dana Wilson's “Piece of Mind,” as part of its place in wind-band music.
Art Ostrander joined the faculty in 1971 and later served as School of Music dean from 1985 to 2008. Kim Dunnick, now a professor emeritus of music performance, arrived in 1981 after teaching in Tennessee. He described an alumni network in which graduates became teachers, conductors and performers who helped younger musicians find opportunities.
Alumni went into military music and classrooms
Military ensembles became one destination for graduates of the Conway school and later Ithaca programs. George Howard went on to become the first conductor of the U.S. Air Force Band, according to the college.
Arnald Gabriel enrolled at Ithaca College in 1946 and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music education. He later led the Air Force Band as conductor and commander from 1964 to 1985 and was named its first conductor emeritus after retiring.
The program's influence also runs through school classrooms. Mark Fonder, a professor emeritus and historian of the college's bands, described music educators as the backbone of that legacy. Among the graduates cited by the college is Robert Van Wyk, a Rahway High School educator who received a New Jersey Music Educators Association Master Music Teacher Award in 2026.
Another graduate, Christina Carnevale-Helbock, has led Brentwood High School ensembles that repeatedly earned New York State School Music Association Gold with Distinction ratings. Those careers illustrate how graduates can carry the program's teaching methods into schools far from Ithaca.
A path from Ithaca to Broadway
Trumpeter Jim Hynes, a 1978 graduate, found a different route into music. He began playing at 17, came to Ithaca College after a teacher encouraged him to study music and won the college's concerto competition by his senior year. During a professor's sabbatical, he also played in the faculty brass quintet.
After graduate study at the Eastman School of Music and a period with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Hynes moved to New York City. He went on to play Broadway shows, tour with Paul Simon and record film scores and commercial music. His trumpet work included music associated with “The Price Is Right” and NBC's “Sunday Night Football,” the college said. Hynes died in June 2026, before the college published its account of his career.
For Gonoud, the link between performance and teaching is immediate. As a student, she played with local theater productions, supported ensembles at Cornell University, took professional gigs and worked with students in local schools. She said those opportunities helped prepare her for a career in music education.
Gonoud now teaches and performs while starting her work as a middle school band director near Syracuse. Several Ithaca alumni served on the search committee that hired her, another example of the network that has grown around the college's bands.
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