CHS Band to Host 2020 Winter Camp

The Collierville High School Band will be hosting its annual Winter Camp at Collierville High School on Friday, January 31, and Saturday, February 1, 2020. The purpose of the 2020 Winter Camp is to give all students participating in CHS concert bands the opportunity to work under the baton of world-class guest clinicians and have an "honor band" experience right here at home. In addition to working with our guest clinicians, students will also work in smaller sectional groups with specialists on each instrument from the West Tennessee region. 

Winter Camp is a key component in the musical growth and development of students in the CHS band program. This year's Winter Camp will help prepare the students for the 2020 WTSBOA Concert Festival. Students will showcase what they have learned in a pre-Festival concert to be held on Thursday, February 27, at 6:30 PM in the Pickler Auditorium. Each of the three concert bands at CHS will be attending this year's Concert Festival, to be held at West Collierville Middle School March 10 - 13. At the Festival, concert bands throughout the West Tennessee region will perform and be judged by a panel of clinicians. The Festival concerts are open to the public and there is no cost for admission.
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Guest clinicians

Christopher Moorehouse

Christopher Morehouse is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University, where he serves as conductor of the SIU Wind Ensemble, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting, wind literature, and instrumental methods, and administers the entire SIU Bands program. He is also the Acting Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Music.

He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the SIU Wind Ensemble at the New York Band and Orchestra Festival in March 2008 and toured the People's Republic of China with the SIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir in May 2009. In spring 2011, the SIU Wind Ensemble hosted percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie for a four-day residency, culminating in a concert of Sean Beeson's Prometheus Rapture: Seven Legends for Snare Drum (world premiere wind version) and Joseph Schwantner's Percussion Concerto, and gave a concert, with the SIU Concert Choir, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In May 2012 and May 2016, members of the SIU Wind Ensemble and Concert Choir spent three weeks in Dublin, Ireland, in residence at the Gaiety School of Acting: The National Theater School of Ireland, developing and performing an original theater concert project.

Prior to joining the faculty at Southern Illinois University, Morehouse taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in New York and Massachusetts for seven years. He has served as the conductor of the University of Dayton (Ohio) Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conductor and music director of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble, assistant conductor for the Concord (Massachusetts) Band, guest conductor of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and commissioned works project chairperson on the executive board of the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association. In addition to Carnegie Hall, his ensembles have been chosen to perform at the Illinois Music Education Conference (SIU Wind Ensemble) and the Massachusetts Music Educators Association All-State Conference (Belmont High School ensembles).

Morehouse is published in nine volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, an encyclopedia of band literature published by GIA Publications, and contributed clinic reviews for the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles International Conferences held in Killarney, Ireland and Cincinnati, Ohio. He maintains an active schedule as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the United States, Canada, and Europe and is currently a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the Illinois Music Education Association.

Morehouse received his Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Ithaca College, Master of Music degree in wind ensemble conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music, as a student of Frank Battisti, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting, wind emphasis, from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as a student of Rodney Winther. He joined the School of Music faculty at Southern Illinois University in August 2005.

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Benjamin J. Diden

​Benjamin J. Diden is the assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He serves as the conductor of the symphonic band and assistant director of athletic bands. His duties also include music theory and applied clarinet instruction. He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Wind Conducting at the University of South Carolina. Diden received the Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree and the Master of Music in Instrumental Conducting degree from the University of Tennessee. He has served as a graduate assistant for the Pride of the Southland Marching Band at UT and the Mighty Sound of the Southeast Marching Band at USC, where he worked extensively with the entire band program of each university. He taught for several years in the public schools of Tennessee, most recently at Cumberland County High School in Crossville, Tennessee. Diden is a member of MENC, the College Band Directors National Association, and the National Band Association. He is also an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi.
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Christopher Tate

​Mr. Christopher Tate is the current band director at Southaven Middle school in Southaven, MS.  Mr. Tate was the former Director of Bands and Mentoring Supervisor for the Forrest City School District in Forrest City, AR, a position he held for 25 years. Before coming to Forrest City, he held similar positions in Clarksville, TX, Dumas, AR, and Leland, MS. He also served as Coordinator of Band Activities at Delta State University.
Mr. Tate received both his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Music Education from Delta State University in Cleveland, MS where he studied conducting with William D. Clark. He serves as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the Southeast. Chris is an active member of Phi Beta Mu, American School Band Directors Association, Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association, and the Arkansas Bandmasters Association.

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