Beth Chaussé, D.M.A.
Associate Professor (flute)

Kyle Mack, D.A.
Associate Professor, Director of Jazz Studies (low brass, instrumental jazz, Jazz Ensemble)

Neil Mueller, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor (high brass)

Warren Olfert, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Director of Bands (Marching Band, Concert Band, teaching methods, band techniques, brass methods)

Matt Patnode, D.M.A
Assistant Professor (saxophone, woodwinds)

Paloma Patnode
Assistant Professor (oboe)

Michael Thrasher, D.M.A
Assistant Professor (clarinet, woodwinds)

Karen Wakefield
Assistant Professor (horn)

Beth Chaussé

Associate Professor
Flute
E-Mail: Elizabeth.Chausse@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 218H Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-5920

• D.A., Ohio State University
• M.M., Ohio State University
• B.S., University of Idaho

Beth Chaussé joins the NDSU faculty in the spring semester after finishing her doctorate from the Ohio State University. Ms. Chaussé taught previously as a visiting Assistant Professor of Flute and Theory at the University of Idaho where she taught the flute studio, Theory, and Aural Skills classes. She has performed concertos with several orchestras as a Young Artist and competition winner, including the Spokane and Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestras. Originally from the Northwest, Ms. Chausse received her Bachelor's degree in flute performance Magna cum laude from the University of Idaho. She received a University Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at the Ohio State University, gaining her Master's degree in 1999. In keeping with her interest and affinity for chamber music, Ms. Chaussé is currently involved in doctoral research concerning Leos Janacek’s wind sextet, Mladi.

Dr. Kyle Mack

Associate Professor
Director of Jazz Studies
Low brass, instrumental jazz
E-Mail: Kyle.Mack@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 209 Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-7873

• D.A., Ball State University
• M.M., Ball State University
• B.S., Dickinson State University

Dr. Kyle Mack has been a member of the North Dakota State University faculty since 1993. He teaches applied low brass, music education classes, and graduate instrumental conducting. He directs the jazz program and the Varsity Band and assists with the Gold Star Marching Band and Concert Band. He also serves as the music director for the Fargo-Moorhead Jazz Arts Group's Big Band. Dr. Mack's trombone playing can be heard on the F-M Jazz Arts Group Big Band's CD, And That's That.

Before coming to NDSU, Dr. Mack directed elementary through high school band programs in North Dakota and Maryland and taught at Simpson College in Iowa. While at Ball State he served as Assistant Director of Bands and Assistant Director of Jazz Studies. Immediately preceding his NDSU appointment, he was the Director of Bands at Valley City State University.

Dr. Mack has been an active clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor in North Dakota, Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa, and he performs regularly as a trombonist. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, National Band Association, International Trombone Association, International Association of Jazz Educators, Music Educators National Conference, Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and College Band Directors National Association. Dr. Mack is an endorsing artist/clinician for United Musical Instruments U.S.A., Inc.

Dr. Neil Mueller

Assistant Professor
High brass
E-Mail: Neil.Mueller@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 213 Music Education Building
Office hours:  MW 10:00-11:00 a.m.; T  1:00-2:00 p.m.
Phone: (701) 231-7929

• D.M.A., Boston University School for the Arts
• M.M., Yale University
• B.M., Concordia College, Moorhead

A native of South Dakota, trumpeter Neil Mueller has been very active on the east coast as a soloist and chamber and symphonic musician.  As the winner of the 1997 Concerto-Aria Competition at Boston University, he performed as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by Keith Lockhardt at Symphony Hall in Boston, as well as the Boston University Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by David Hoose at the Tsai Center for the Arts.  In November 1999, Mueller played a concerto with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra at the Garde Art Center in New London, CT.  As first trumpet with the Brass Ring, he has appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, given world premieres of brass quintets by Joseph Schwantner, David del Tradici, and Roger Kellaway, and recorded a disc of new brass quintets commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, and David del Tridici on the Crystal label.  Mueller has also recorded chamber music on the CRI and Camphill labels.  Principal Trumpet of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra since 1993, Mueller has also performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Berkshire Bach Society, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, the Cantata Singers and Ensemble of Boston, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.  He holds degrees from the Boston University, Yale University, and Concordia College, Moorhead.

Dr. Warren Olfert

Assistant Professor
Director of Bands
E-Mail: Warren.Olfert@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 227 Music Education Building
Office Hours:  11-12 MWF, 10:30-11:30 TR
Office Phone: (701) 231-7266

• Ph.D., Florida State University (music education)
• M.M., University of Cincinnati (instrumental conducting)
• B.S., Bob Jones University (music education)

Warren D. Olfert currently serves as conductor of the NDSU Gold Star Marching Band and Concert Band. Olfert has taught extensively at the high school level in Louisiana and Georgia, where his bands received acclaim for their performances.

Before his appointment at NDSU, he served as director of bands at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, at Pittsburgh State University in Pittsburgh, Kansas, where he supervised the Four State Band Festival, and at Bowling Green State University, where he was Assistant Director of Bands and conducted the Falcon Marching Band. He has also served as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and has published articles in the Journal of Band Research.  His current projects include a new survey of wind band repertoire and music education texts.

Olfert has presented workshops on conducting and band history at the Oklahoma Music Education Association Convention, the Oklahoma Bandmaster's Association Convention, the Kansas Bandmaster's Association Convention, the CBDNA Southwest Division Conference, the Oklahoma Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop and the CBDNA/NBA Southern Division Conference.  He is an active member of the College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha, Pi Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Beta Mu, and other organizations.

Dr. Matthew Patnode

Assistant Professor
Saxophone, flute, chamber music, and jazz studies
E-Mail: Matthew.Patnode@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 211 Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-7872

• D.M.A., Arizona State University
• M.M., Arizona State University
• B.M., State University of New York College at Potsdam

In the Fall of 1999, Matthew Patnode came to North Dakota State University, where he teaches applied saxophone, flute, chamber music, and jazz studies.  He holds a D.M.A. and an M.M. in saxophone performance from Arizona State University and a B.M. in performance from State University of New York at Potsdam. He has studied at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Bordeaux, France, and was awarded the Prix de Vermeil in saxophone.

Before his appointment at NDSU, Patnode was instructor of woodwinds and jazz studies at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  He has also taught saxophone and jazz at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Crane Symphony Orchestra, Arizona State University Symphony, the Scottsdale Municipal Band, and the NSU Symphonic Band.  He has also performed as orchestral saxophonist with the Phoenix Symphony. As a jazz musician, Patnode has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and also in groups backing up artists Louis Bellson, Doc Severenson, Rosemary Clooney, Maureen McGovern, and Martha Reeves.

As a saxophone quartet member, Dr. Patnode has performed in the historic East Room of the White House and at the North American Saxophone Alliance conferences in the United States and Canada.  He currently is alto saxophonist with the Hard Bop Saxophone Quartet and in other jazz groups in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Paloma Patnode

Associate Professor
Oboe
E-Mail: Paloma.Patnode@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 218H Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-5920

• M.M., Arizona State University
• B.M., Idaho State University

Paloma Patnode is the instructor of oboe at NDSU. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Idaho State University, Pocatello, and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University. Her oboe teachers have included Darrel Stubbs, H. James Schopeflin, Michael Whittier, and Frank Stalzer. Additional oboe and reed-making studies have been with Ferald Capps, co-author of The Reed Maker’s Manual. Mrs. Patnode has taught instrumental music from the elementary through high school levels in public school systems in California, Arizona, South Dakota, and North Dakota. In addition to her public school teaching, she has also served as a teaching assistant in woodwind music education at Arizona State University. As a professional oboist, she has performed with the Utah Valley Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, Sun City Symphony, Grand Forks Symphony, Bismarck Symphony, and the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, among others. In addition to her university teaching assignment, she retains a private oboe studio and is an active oboe clinician throughout the Dakotas.

Dr. Michael Thrasher

Assistant Professor of Music (Clarinet)
E-Mail: michael.thrasher@ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 225 Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-8498

• D.M.A., University of North Texas
• M.M., University of North Texas
• B.M., Northwestern State University

Dr. Michael Thrasher currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music (Clarinet) at North Dakota State University. He previously taught at North Central Texas College, Dallas Baptist University, and in public school band programs in Texas and Louisiana. His teaching experience includes work at the middle school, high school, community college, and university levels.

An active chamber musician, Dr. Thrasher has appeared as a recitalist in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, New York, Georgia and Kansas. In the orchestral area, he has performed with the Garland Symphony Orchestra, the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, the Abilene Philharmonic, and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra. As a soloist, Thrasher performed the Stamitz Clarinet Concerto No. 3 with the North Central Texas Orchestra and premiered Dan Pinkston¹s Clarinet Concerto, a work written for and dedicated to Thrasher, in November 2000. He has taken part in recordings for the Klavier label, for Houston Public Radio, and served as both producer and performer on a compact disc featuring sacred music for clarinet and piano by composer Dan Pinkston.

As a researcher, Dr. Thrasher has presented papers and lectures at the Texas Music Educators Association Conventions in San Antonio; the Music Educators National Conference meeting in Phoenix, Arizona; at the College Music Society Southern Regional Conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas; and at conventions of the International Clarinet Association in Columbus, Ohio, and Stockholm, Sweden. In 2002, he received second prize from the ICA research committee for his lecture at the Stockholm conference. In addition, he has had articles published in The Clarinet, The Saxophone Symposium, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, Texas Music Education Research, and The Online Clarinet Resource.

Dr. Thrasher holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northwestern State University, the Master of Music degree in clarinet from the University of North Texas, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet from the University of North Texas. His primary teachers include James Gillespie, Bruce Bullock, and John Scott.

Karen Wakefield

Assistant Professor
E-Mail: @ndsu.nodak.edu
Office: 218H Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-5920

• D.M.A.,
• M.M.,
• B.M.,

Karin Wakefield (horn) has been an active performer in the midwest and the New England states as an orchestral, chamber and solo musician. She is currently principal horn of both the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony and Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company,and is a member of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Woodwind Quintet and the Prairie Wind Brass. She is also an adjunct instructor of horn and piano at Concordia College (Moorhead, MN), and maintains a large studio of private horn and piano students.