Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra directors

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra will be performing at the Pell City Center Sunday, May 4 at 3 p.m. Admission is $15 for individual, and groups of six or more are $10 each. 

Below are biographies for the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra’s conductors:

Dennis Carrol is an instructor of instrumental music at Hoover High School

where he has taught since returning to Birmingham in 1988.  Dennis began his

career in music education after earning degrees from the University of

Alabama and the University of North Alabama.  Currently in his thirty-sixth

year as a music teacher in the state, Mr. Carroll is active in Hoover’s

entire band program which encompasses concert, jazz, and marching ensembles.

He serves as an officer in the Alabama Bandmasters Association and is a

member of the Music Educator’s National Conference, the National Band

Association and the International Trumpet Guild.  Dennis and his wife Ginny

have performed with the Red Mountain Orchestra since the early 1990’s and

are active musicians in the community.

Alan Goldspiel’s conducting career began in 1989 after studies with Maestro’s Vytautas Marijosius and Otto Werner Mueller. He has served as the principle conductor and artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra at Louisiana Tech University and as a guest conductor of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra. 

An international soloist and chamber musician, Goldspiel has performed world premieres at NY’s Carnegie and CAMI Halls, been featured on NPR radio stations from coast to coast, and performed in the critically acclaimed Goldspiel/Provost Duo. “A most expressive performer,” “brilliant execution,” “entranced the audience,” and “accomplished and sensitive” are some of the accolades the press has used to describe his playing. He has been a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Monroe Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Philharmonic, Sinfonie-by-the-Sea, Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra, and he served as an Artist-in-Residence for North Carolina’s prestigious Visiting Artists Program, presenting over eighty concerts throughout that state. Goldspiel was the only guitarist to be honored with the Marshall Dodge Award from the Performing Artists Associates of New England.

As a composer, Dr. Goldspiel’s music has been performed at international and national events, including the conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance, International Clarinet Association, and National Association of Composers/USA. He was the 2013 recipient of an Escape to Create Residency in Seaside, Florida and was awarded the 2014 Alabama Music Teachers Association State Composition Commission. 

He was the 2006 recipient of the James Alvey Smith Endowed Professorship for excellence in teaching, the 2002 recipient of Louisiana Tech’s University Senate Chair Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service, and given the Louisiana State Arts Council’s 2004-2005 Artist Fellowship Award for artistic excellence. He has taught at the International Guitar Festival held at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, where he remains the only guitarist to be designated University Scholar for his research on the music of Heitor Villa-lobos. 

Currently, Dr. Goldspiel is Professor of Music and Chair, Department of Music at the University of Montevallo.