Conductors

Our Conductors

Stanley R. Schoonover, Founding Conductor

  Stanley R. Schoonover is in his 12th season conducting the Fairfax Wind Symphony. In 2009, he retired after thirty-two years of service in public school education. He served Fairfax County Public Schools for twenty-seven years, eleven as Music Supervisor, in addition to Director of Bands and Performing Arts Chairman at James W. Robinson, West Springfield and Mount Vernon High Schools for sixteen years, as well as Bangor (PA) High School for four years. Ensembles under his direction enjoyed nineteen years of consecutive Superior ratings and national and international recognition for their outstanding performances, including two Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic appearances, three National Music Clinics, the National Concert Band Festival, the Mid-East Clinic, and twelve VMEA In-Service Conference appearances. On three occasions, his ensembles have performed for the President of the United States. Mr. Schoonover is the Founding Conductor of the Fairfax Wind Symphony@, and currently serves as Coordinator for the Music For All National Concert Band Festival.

Schoonover received his B.Sc. Degree, cum laude, in Music Education from Gettysburg College, and a Master of Music degree from West Chester University. Postgraduate work has included study at the University of Virginia, George Mason University, the University of Michigan. He has studied conducting with Robert Zellner, Kenneth Laudermilch, Arnald D. Gabriel, William D. Revelli, H. Robert Reynolds and Anthony Maiello.

Mr. Schoonover is a Past-President of the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association and the Fairfax County Band Directors Association. He is the recipient of multiple Citation of Excellence awards from the National Band Association, the Medalist Stanbury Award, the Mount Vernon Teacher of the Year Award, the FCPS Service Award, and the 2006 VMEA Outstanding Administrator Award. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu, MENC, the American School Band Directors Association, the National Band Association, and has been a director for American Music Abroad and the Virginia Ambassadors of Music. In October of 2004, Mr. Schoonover was inducted into the East Stroudsburg Music Hall of Fame. He is listed in “Who’s Who in the World”, “Who’s Who in America”, and “Who’s Who in American Education”. He is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and conductor across the United States and abroad.

Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel, Principal Guest Conductor

Col. Arnald D. Gabriel retired from the United States Air Force in 1985 following a distinguished 36 year military career, at which time he was awarded an unprecedented third Legion of Merit for his service to the United States Air Force and to music education throughout the country. He served as Commander/ Conductor of the internationally renowned U.S. Air Force Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants from 1964 to 1985. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the USAF Band at a special concert held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Col. Gabriel served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, from 1985 to 1995, as Conductor of the GMU Symphony Orchestra and as Chairman, Department of Music for eight of those years. In recognition of his ten years service to the university, he was named Professor Emeritus of Music.

A combat machine gunner with the United States Army's famed 29th Infantry Division in Europe during WW II, Gabriel received two awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the French Croix de Guerre.

Following his separation from the Army in 1946, Gabriel enrolled in Ithaca College, where he earned both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Music Education. In 1989, his alma mater conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree and in 1997, he was further honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also listed in the International Who's Who in Music, 7th edition.

Col. Gabriel's professional honors include the very first Citation of Excellence awarded by the National Band Association, the Mid-West National Band and Orchestra Clinic's Gold Medal of Honor and its Distinguished Service to Music Award, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's New Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award and its rarely presented National Citation for "significant contributions to music in America", Kappa Kappa Psi's Distinguished Service to Music Award, Phi Beta Mu's Outstanding Contribution to Bands Award, and the St. Cecilia Award from the University of Notre Dame. Col. Gabriel was inducted into the National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors, becoming the youngest person ever to have received this honor, and was an inaugural inductee to the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame of Cortland High School in Cortland, New York. He is also a Past President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

Col. Gabriel has performed in all 50 of the United States and in 49 countries around the world. Among the hundreds of major orchestras and bands he has conducted are the Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Memphis, Florida, Glendale (California), Green Bay (Wisconsin), York and Williamsport (Pennsylvania), Fairfax, Puerto Rico, and Tatui Sao Paulo (Brazil), symphony orchestras, the Carabiniere Band and the Air Force Band (Italy), the Band of the Royal Netherlands Marines, the Royal Hellenic Band (Greece), the Staff Music Corps (Bonn, Germany), the National Band of the Canadian Forces (Ottawa), and the Gamagori Band and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (Japan).

Col. Gabriel continues to appear as clinician at major state, regional, and university music festivals and guest conducts outstanding school, college, municipal, and military bands as well as orchestras around the world. Col. Gabriel was named Music Director Emeritus of the McLean (VA) Orchestra for his outstanding leadership from 1986 to 2002.