Mark Camphouse

From Wind Repertory Project
Mark Camphouse

Biography

Mark Camphouse (b. 3 May 1954, Oak Park, Ill.) is an American composer, conductor and trumpeter.

A product of the rich cultural life of Chicago, composer-conductor Mark Camphouse holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from Northwestern University where he studied conducting with John P. Paynter, composition with Alan Stout, and trumpet with the late Vincent Cichowicz. A scholarship from the prestigious Civic Orchestra of Chicago (training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony) enabled Camphouse to study trumpet privately for two years with legendary Chicago Symphony Principal Trumpet Emeritus Adolph Herseth.

Camphouse began composing at an early age, with the Colorado Philharmonic premiering his First Symphony when he was 17. His 25 published works for wind band have received widespread critical acclaim and are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. His compositions have been performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall-Chicago, Royal Albert Hall-London, and conferences of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference, American Bandmasters Association, and Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Principal commissions include those by the John P. Paynter Foundation, William D. Revelli Foundation, Bands of America, Inc., The United States Army Band, The United States Marine Band, Northshore Concert Band, and some of America’s finest college, high school, and community bands.

Mr. Camphouse has served as a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician in 42 states, Canada and Europe. He was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association in 1999 and has served as coordinator of the National Band Association Young Composer Mentor Project since 2000. He conceived and edited the unique four-volume book series for GIA Publications, Composers on Composing for Band. He was featured in a nationally broadcast interview on NPR’s Weekend America, focusing on his composition entitled A Movement for Rosa honoring late civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her single act of courage sparking the modern civil rights movement.

Camphouse was Professor and Associate Director of the School of Music at George Mason University where he conducted the wind symphony and taught courses in conducting and composition; he retired in 2022. Other principal artistic, administrative, and educational positions he has held include serving as Music Director and Conductor of the New Mexico Music Festival at Taos Symphony Orchestra (1977-1982), Music Division Head of the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts (1985-1989), Acting Dean of Music of New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, during the 1998-99 academic year, and Director of Bands at Radford University in Virginia from 1984-2006.

He won the 15th Annual National Band Association Composition Competition in 1991, received the 1991 Radford University Dedmon Award for Professorial Excellence (Radford’s highest faculty honor), and attained regional finalist status in the prestigious White House Fellowship Competition in 1992. Virginia Governor Mark Warner presented Professor Camphouse with a 2002 Outstanding Faculty Award, sponsored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. This award is the Commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s colleges and universities for demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, and public service.


Works for Winds


Resources