About the Conductor
Martin Behnke
Following several years of teaching music in the California public schools
and in colleges and universities in four other states, Martin Behnke came
to Willamette University in 1979 as Director of University Bands, later
serving as Chairman of the Department of Music as well. Dr. Behnke
received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music from San Jose State
University, and completed the Ph.D. in Music Education at the University
of Colorado.
In addition to his teaching background and 12 years as a professional trombonist, Dr. Behnke has maintained involvement throughout his career as a jazz pianist and composer. He has been active throughout the Northwest as an adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor of bands, jazz ensembles, and vocal jazz ensembles. He has also taught on the faculty of the Mount Hood Festival of Jazz Instrumental Workshop, and conducted his Jazz Piano Workshop for educators and students throughout the state. In 1985 he received an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship to study composition with Norman Dello Joio, and in 1999, an Oregon Council for the Humanities Research Grant to present the life and music of Duke Ellington for the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Beyond Category.
Dr. Behnke has received numerous commissions for his instrumental and choral compositions, and his music is published by Alfred Music, UNC Jazz Press, and his own mbehnkemusic. His bands have toured to Canada, California, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest; and have been heard in concert on Oregon Public Radio.They have also regularly performed at conferences of the Oregon Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, Western International Band Clinic, and College Band Directors National Association. He has served as State President of the Oregon unit of the International Association of Jazz Educators, and as Oregon State Chairman for CBDNA. For six years he served as chairman of the Oregon Band Directors Association Adjudicator Certification Committee and he is an elected member of the Northwest Bandmasters Association.
Following his retirement from Willamette University in 2005, Dr. Behnke has relocated to Southern Oregon, where he writes music, directs the jazz ensembles and teaches applied jazz piano at Southern Oregon University, directs the Southern Oregon Concert Band, and is active as a lecturer, guest conductor, and jazz pianist.
Find out more about Martin Behnke at his website: mbehnkemusic.com