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University of Wyoming

Staff

Dr. Robert S. Belser
Director of Bands

A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Dr. Belser began his musical training on trumpet then on euphonium as a student Keith House. He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Missouri State University studying with Russell Coleman and Robert Gifford. Following his undergraduate studies, he taught instrumental and choral music in Central Missouri. Dr. Belser served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Illinois where he studied with Harry Begian, Gary Smith, and Dan Perantoni, and earned the Master of Science in Music Education degree. He was Assistant Director of Bands at Eastern Kentucky University directing the concert band, athletic bands, and teaching music appreciation. Dr. Belser was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from The University of Iowa where he was a student of Myron Welch. He has also studied conducting with Craig Kirchhoff, John Paynter, and Mallory Thompson.

Dr. Belser was recently honored as a recipient of the prestigious John P. “Jack” Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom teaching in 2000, and has served as a teaching excellence panelist for the UW Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Belser is quite active as a clinician and conductor throughout the country, and as an adjudicator for bands in the West and the Midwest. Under his baton, the UW Wind Ensemble performed for the Western/Northwestern Division conference of College Band Directors National Association receiving acclaim for their sensitivity and musicality in performance. He is a proponent of new music and the process of creativity, and is not only in demand as a conductor but as a clinician for his promotion of positive teaching techniques and advocacy for the arts.

In addition to conducting, Dr. Belser also teaches music education and graduate conducting and literature courses. His research interests include the process of creativity, historic and new wind repertory, and the arts in the process of learning.

Dr. Christopher Nicholas
Director, Western Thunder Marching Band

(307) 766-5127
cnich@uwyo.eduChris Nicholas

Dr. Christopher Nicholas joined the University of Wyoming faculty in the fall of 2001. His responsibilities at UW include directing the Western Thunder Marching Band, Symphonic Band, and Men's and Women's Basketball Bands, as well as teaching studio trombone and music education courses in the Department of Music. A native of Illinois, Mr. Nicholas received his Bachelor of Science in Music Education degree at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and his M.A. and D.M.A. degrees in Wind Conducting at the University of Iowa.

A versatile conductor and trombonist, Dr. Nicholas has accepted performance engagements in both classical and jazz idioms throughout America, Europe, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean, including recitals and concerts in Switzerland, Germany, England, France, and Austria; Taoyuan, Taichung, Taipei, Jiou Fen, and Lukang, Taiwan, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Dr. Nicholas has served as Conductor of the Ensemble des Instruments a Vents Sainte Trinitie in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, West Indies, as well as the Wyoming Ambassadors of Music Concert Band on their European tour, conducting concerts in England, France, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

In demand as a classical trombonist, Dr. Nicholas has performed with the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonique Sainte Trinitie in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, The Ohio Light Opera, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Contemporary Chamber Players, the University of Iowa Center for New Music, the University of Iowa Faculty Brass Quintet, and the University of Wyoming Faculty Brass Quintet. Also highly in demand as a jazz trombonist and clinician, Professor Nicholas has performed with Louie Bellson, Ed Thigpen, Clark Terry, Cecil Bridgewater, Kim Richmond, Reggie Thomas, Rick Haydon, Clay Jenkins, Jim Widner, Grammy Award Winner Allison Krauss, and as a trombonist in the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, formerly known as the Jazz Members Big Band of Chicago.

Dr. Nicholas is currently active in the Denver and Fort Collins music scenes, performing live and in the recording studio on upcoming releases as the featured trombonist with the Caleb Riley Funk Orchestra, The Lindsey O’Brien Band, The FoCo All-Stars, Victor Barnes, and the Hugh Jazz Quintet. In recent performances with the Funk Orchestra, Nicholas has shared the national stage with the likes of Bruce Hornsby, Los Lobos, Little Feat, and former members of Medeski, Martin and Wood, Parliament Funkadelic, and Prince.

Dr. Nicholas is active as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the West and the Midwest and has presented clinics at music education conferences on topics ranging from computer-based technology in music education to strategies for improved intonation in band performance. Mr. Nicholas's articles have appeared in the Wyoming Music Educator’s Journal, the Journal of the Iowa Bandmasters Association, and the Bands of America Summer Symposium handbook. In the fall of 2006 Mr. Nicholas was elected to the Board of Directors of the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps. Recently nominated for a “Top Teacher” award at the University of Wyoming, Dr. Nicholas is a dedicated teacher, performer, and advocate of student opportunities in music on an international scale.