Dr. Warren Olfert

Professor
Director of Bands

E-Mail: warren.olfert@ndsu.edu
Office: 227 Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-7266

Degrees

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

Warren D. Olfert is Director of Bands and Coordinator of Instrumental Music Education at North Dakota State University. His duties include conducting the NDSU Wind Symphony, teaching courses in conducting and music education (including student teacher supervision) and overseeing the graduate instrumental conducting area. He holds degrees from Florida State University (Ph.D., instrumental conducting/music education), the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (M.M., instrumental conducting), and Bob Jones University (B.S., music education).

Prior to his arrival at NDSU in 1999, Dr. Olfert taught at Bowling Green State University, where he was Assistant Director of Bands and conducted the Falcon Marching Band; at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan.; and at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., where he was Director of Bands. During his time at NDSU, Dr. Olfert has conducted all aspects of bands at NDSU, including the concert and marching bands, pep bands and chamber winds. He has led the NDSU Concert Band and Wind Symphony on annual national tours and has produced several compact discs of the band in concert. Under his direction the Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the 2010 College Band Directors National Association North Central Regional Conference for the first time in the ensemble’s history and has performed at the North Dakota Music Educators Association Conference in 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2016. Dr. Olfert also taught at the high school level in Louisiana and Georgia, where his bands received acclaim for their performances. In 2001, Olfert started the Northern Ambassadors of Music, a European tour of students from North Dakota and Montana; since it’s inception, the tour has grown to a group of over 350 participants and staff.

Since his arrival, the ensemble has participated in several commissions of new works for wind band, including works by Frank Ticheli, Timothy Broege, Jocelyn Hagen, Jack Stamp and Bob Mintzer and has won praise for his interpretations of new music. Dr. Olfert has presented workshops at various conventions nationally and has served as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States. He is an active member of several organizations on the regional and national level, including the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Tau Beta Sigma, Phi Beta Mu, and is past president of the North Dakota Music Educators Association.

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