BIOGRAPHIES
COLIN TAYLOR
CONDUCTOR
Colin Taylor is an award-winning theatre music director, conductor, and a strong advocate for amateur and semi-professional music-making at the community level. He has performed as a conductor, instrumentalist, and music consultant at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, Good Shepherd Players, Reston Community Players, Sterling Playmakers, Encore Stage & Studio, and The Levine School of Music, among many others. Favorite recent theatre credits include "Titanic" (GSP), "Sister Act" (LTA), "The Addams Family" (GSP), "The Producers" (LTA), "Beauty and the Beast"
(SP), "Anne of Green Gables" (LTA), and "42nd Street" (SP). In addition to musical theatre, Colin has served as a guest conductor for the Loudoun Symphonic Winds and the Clarinistique clarinet choir. Colin studied orchestral conducting with Dr. John Devlin, former cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra and current music director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.
Colin started playing the clarinet in the fourth grade at the age of nine and, when not on the podium, regularly performs in theatre pit orchestras as a reed doubler and in local instrumental ensembles as a clarinetist and bass clarinetist. He has performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with members of the New York Philharmonic, has participated in several collegiate and community festivals for band and wind ensemble, and has performed several solo works for clarinet (Mozart, Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Weber) in community concerts over the years. Locally, he has performed as a clarinetist with the Manassas Symphony Orchestra, Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, Loudoun Symphonic Winds, and the Clarinistique clarinet choir, and is a founding member and tenor saxophone player of a local rock band.
WILLIAM WRIGHT
CONDUCTOR EMERITUS
William Wright attributes his early interest in music to his parents; his mother being a piano teacher herself. His advanced musical training was gained at Curtis Institute of Music where he received a Diploma in Clarinet, and at Catholic University from which he holds Masters and Doctorate degrees. Additionally, he studied conducting under Dr. Richard Lert at the Eastern Institute of Orchestral Studies. Mr. Wright performed as a clarinetist with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) for 40 years and with the New Orleans Symphony for three years. He is a former faculty member of both George Washington and Catholic Universities for both conducting and instrument performance and has instructed privately throughout the Washington DC area for 50 years. He was Music Director of the Potomac Valley Youth Orchestra from 2006-2010. He formerly served as Conductor of The Gennusa Clarinet Camerata.
Eugene Bates
VOCALIST
Eugene Bates has always loved singing, but learned to read music by playing clarinet in his middle school band. As an Air Force brat, he moved a bit, and ended up not being able to continue in band during High School. However, he continued to sing and picked the clarinet back up when he got to college. He enjoyed music so much, he decided to change his major midway through his freshman year of college, and graduated with a B. A. in Music. That promptly lead to a career in food service, but also introduced him to some wonderful friends who convinced him to sing at local karaoke and to audition for roles in a number of local community theatre productions.
It was in Fauquier Community Theatre’s “Far From Home” where Gene first got the opportunity to sing with the Silver Tones Swing Band. He has been performing with them ever since and has been loving every minute. He would like to thank his parents, his wonderful wife Amy, and his amazing son Liam for all their love, patience and support. He would not be where he is now without them.
