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Some of the most defining moments in Gary Ciepluch's life have come while playing clarinet in symphonic bands. One such moment was in the seventh grade, when his junior high band leader waved his arms to give the downbeat. From then on, Ciepluch knew he wanted to conduct his own band.
"While I've always had interests in academics and sports, music has always been the focus of my life," says Ciepluch, a 1999 recipient of the Carl F. Wittke Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching.
Ciepluch, CWRU's director of bands and director of music education, now leads the CWRU Symphonic Winds, the University Circle Wind Ensemble, and the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony I and II, a high school group he founded for exceptional musicians. He also is the administrator for seven performing ensembles.
An expert on symphonic band and wind ensemble repertoire, Ciepluch is responsible for finding as many as 70 pieces of music for the groups to play each year. He must also arrange programs that are both artistically challenging for the students and exciting and enjoyable for the audience.
During the rehearsal of the CWRU symphonic winds class, an elective course in the Department of Music, Jennifer Barovian, a member of the Wittke Award selection committee, observed what she thought was a mark of an outstanding teacher.
"I could tell by the conversations he had with his students that he knew each of them personally," said Barovian, a May graduate from Concord, Ohio.
The idea of giving to younger people what someone has given to him inspires Ciepluch, who oversees the training of the next generation of music educators.
Unlike other professors who may only encounter a student in one or two classes, Ciepluch's symphonic winds students may stay with him for all four years. Some begin even earlier, in the high school symphony, and then continue to develop as musicians at CWRU.
He passes on the sage advice of his mentors and band directors at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his bachelor's and doctorate degrees: Don't take on a position you are not ready for.
Ciepluch explains music educators have to start teaching to find out what they need to know. At CWRU, music educators cannot pursue their master's degree until they have taught for three years and can return to the University knowing the issues that face the teacher in the classroom.
But Ciepluch music education majors do not leave the University with empty resumes. He puts them to work on the band staff, which includes responsibility for working with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. They help with Saturday rehearsals and serve as chaperones and music librarians on the group's biennial tour overseas.
Eleven years ago, Ciepluch became the first director of winds and band, a tenure-track position at the University. He also inherited an ailing symphonic winds band which had only six people show up for the first rehearsal. Ciepluch undertook a recruitment blitz for musicians and made a pledge that he would never turn away an interested musician.
CWRU symphonic winds class now has 110 musicians from all corners of campus, as well as a few community members who enjoy playing.
Ciepluch muses, "What excites me is that these are the people who will someday sit on the school boards or the boards of arts organizations and symphonies. If arts are going to flourish in our society, it will be educated and influential people who have had positive experiences in the arts who fight to keep these experiences alive for themselves and their children."
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