about Wauwatosa East Orchestra
Wauwatosa East High School is one of two high schools in the city of Wauwatosa, a western suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wauwatosa (Tosa) East has three curricular orchestras and a Celtic/Bluegrass fiddle ensemble. Students perform at numerous evening events, host kid-centered concert experiences, engage in chamber music, and provide music at countless other community events. The school is host to a number of professional musicians from the community, including several members from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, the Tosa East Orchestra regularly performs new music and works with local composers. In 2021, The Tosa East Chamber Orchestra premiered a new piece, commissioned on behalf of the Education Foundation of Wauwatosa, by composer Barry Paul Clark. Titled Lesser Known Phases, this work by Clark was created in tandem with the student musicians at Tosa East. Finally, a large number of Tosa East Orchestra members additionally participate in our school’s pit orchestra and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO).
The Wauwatosa East Orchestra has traveled domestically and internationally, seeking to acquaint its student musicians with the finest schools, performers, and experiences worldwide. The orchestra has been hosted by the Eastman School (1995, 1999, 2003, 2013), the University of Southern Maine, the University Of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, the Royal Conservatory, Toronto, the Royal College of Music (1999, 2003, 2007), and the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University(2018), Nashville. Internationally, the Tosa East Orchestra has also traveled and performed in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and will resume international travel again in 2023 with a performance tour of Italy. Most recently, the Tosa East Orchestra traveled to and participated in a recording session at the Disneyland Sound Studio in Los Angeles, CA.
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about MICHAEL HAYDEN
Michael Hayden serves as the Director of Orchestras at Wauwatosa East High School. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Master of Music in Music Education from Northwestern University. During his tenure at Northwestern, Mr. Hayden studied conducting with Dr. Robert Hasty, composition with Dr. Peter Webster and Dr. Maud Hickey, and string pedagogy with Dr. James Kjelland. He has additionally studied orchestral and wind conducting with Dr. Gary Lewis, Jeffrey Grogran, and Allan McMurray.
Michael is a frequent presenter at various state, national, and international music conferences in the areas of music technology, secondary general music, composition, technology integration, and personalized learning. Most recently, Michael led a workshop on music technology curriculum design at Ableton’s Loop Festival, held in Berlin, Germany.
Michael is the former state technology chair on the Wisconsin Music Education Association (WMEA) Council and the North Central Representative on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Council on Music Composition. He is a regular contributor to the Wisconsin School Musician and has published articles with Leading Notes, JamHub, the Music in a Minuet series (NAfME), and Music Educators’ Journal (NAfME). Finally, Michael is also an associate lecturer in music education at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.
about
the 50 state
string orchestra project
2022-2024
The 50 State String Orchestra Project is a large-scale consortium commission that is bringing new music to classrooms and concert halls all over the US in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons, with educational and community orchestras in all 50 states commissioning a new piece for string orchestra, similar in difficulty level and scope to Stephanie’s 2011 work for string orchestra Beyond the Gate. Her consortium commissions for chamber music have already brought new string-centered music all across the world, from her 50 State Sonata Project for violin + piano, inspired by the work of her teacher John Kendall, and her World Sonata Project, which was commissioned by violinists from 35 countries in 2016.