Prof. Eric L. Hinton Concludes Year as Interim Conductor of Williamsport Symphony Youth Orchestra

[Dr. Eric L. Hinton; Conducting the Wind Orchestra, Eric L. Hinton, Cambria Press (2008)]

Eric L. Hinton, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Music/Director of Bands at Susquehanna University. He has made a specialty of conducting wind bands for youth, and has authored a book, Conducting the Wind Orchestra: Meaning, Gesture and Expressive Potential, published by Cambria Press (2008).

In the current issue of Symphony E-Notes, the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra makes an announcement about Eric L. Hinton, Interim Conductor of the Williamsport Symphony Youth Orchestra (WSYO):

“As the season ended for the WSYO, so did Dr. Eric Hinton's year as interim conductor. As he becomes more active as a guest conductor for festivals regionally and nationally, the demands on his time have simply become too diverse for him to continue as the WSYO's conductor. We say thank you to Dr. Hinton for stepping in this season and for his excellent work with the WSYO musicians.”

On November 10, 2011 Susquehanna University published:

Hinton to Conduct Williamsport Symphony Youth Orchestra

Eric Hinton, assistant professor of music and director of bands at Susquehanna University,has been named conductor of the Williamsport Symphony Youth Orchestra (WSYO), an outreach program of the Williamsport Symphony. The Youth Orchestra is composed of high school students from Williamsport and surrounding areas.

At Susquehanna, Hinton conducts the symphonic wind ensemble, symphonic band and stadium band. He teaches trumpet and conducting, as well as courses in brass instrument pedagogy and the history of literature of the wind orchestra. He is also director of the Susquehanna University High School Wind Ensemble Institute, which brings more than 50 talented wind and percussion students to campus each summer for an intense week of chamber music and wind ensemble performance.

“I’m very excited about this new association [with the WSYO], not only because it brings me back to orchestral conducting—something that I did a great deal of in Great Britain—but also because I’m working with talented, motivated high school students. This is something that I enjoy very much,” Hinton said.

Hinton received his doctorate degree from the Birmingham Conservatoire in England, where he conducted the Junior School Symphony Orchestra and Wind Orchestra. He served as a member of the board of trustees and education adviser to the Aston Performing Arts Academy, an organization that works in partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to bring instrumental music instruction to African-Caribbean students in deprived areas of Birmingham. He has also conducted the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire youth wind orchestras.

Hinton has conducted at numerous all-state, region, district and county band festivals in Pennsylvania and New York, and conducts the symphonic band at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine. His university ensembles have been invited to perform at the Music Educators National Conference and the College Band Directors National Association, among other professional conferences. His first book, “Conducting the Wind Orchestra: Meaning, Gesture and Expressive Potential,” was published in December 2008 by Cambria Press.