Dr. Gregory Wolynec

Associate Professor of Music
Director of Bands/Orchestra

Gregory Wolynec is the Director of Bands and Orchestral Studies at Austin Peay State University.  As an Associate Professor of Music he directs the Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting and teaches courses in orchestration and instrumental music education.  He is also the music director and a cofounder of the Gateway Chamber Ensemble, an ensemble based around APSU’s outstanding performance faculty along with professional players from the Southeast and Mid-West, which specializes in the performance of masterworks of the past and present for fewer than twenty players. The ensemble’s debut CD, including Strauss’ Serenade in Eb and Mozart’s landmark ‘Gran Partita’ Serenade, will be released in February 2010 by Summit Records in SACD format.   

 Dr. Wolynec was the recipient of the 2006 Socrates Award for Excellence in Teaching, a campus-wide award.  Under his direction the APSU Wind Ensemble has recorded two CDs, including the recently released Aubade, performed at the College Band Directors National Association Southern Division Conference and the Tennessee Music Educators Association Annual Conference and been active in premiering new works.  Composers such as Libby Larsen, Lee Hoiby, Anthony Plog and Jeffrey Wood have praised performances under his direction.  Graduates of his masters program in instrumental conducting have gone on to pursue doctoral degrees at major institutions, teach actively in the public schools of Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as hold collegiate teaching positions.

 Dr. Wolynec received his MM and DMA degrees in Instrumental Conducting from Michigan State University and a BM in Music Education and Clarinet Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.  Dr. Wolynec has taken additional studies in conducting at the Prague Conservatory, Czech Republic.  His conducting teachers have included John Whitwell and Timothy Topolewski.  Dr. Wolynec completed his doctoral dissertation on classical harmoniemusik as the recipient of both a Fulbright Grant to Prague, Czech Republic and a Michigan State University Graduate Merit Fellowship.  His research was carried out throughout the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and France. 

 Prior to coming to Austin Peay Dr. Wolynec taught at Castleton State College in Vermont and in the public schools of New York, where his ensembles were routinely awarded Gold ratings at New York State Major Ensemble Festivals.  Dr. Wolynec has been an active clinician and guest conductor of bands and orchestras, including all-state and all-region ensembles, in New York, New England, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.

Email: WolynecG@apsu.edu
Phone: (931) 221-7642
Music/Mass Communication Building, Room 150