WSU Professor Elected President of Utah Viola Society

N E W S R E L E A S E

Who: Dr. Michael Palumbo, Weber State University faculty
What: President elect, Utah Viola Society
When: announced 25 August 2010


Dr. Michael Palumbo, Director of Orchestral Studies and Professor of Viola in the Weber State University Department of Performing Arts, has been elected as the new president of the Utah Viola Society, the Utah chapter of the American Viola Society. The American Viola Society promotes interest in the viola by encouraging performance and recording at the highest artistic level, by the continued study and research of the instrument and its repertoire, and by providing a vehicle for the ongoing development of the bond among violists.
Palumbo received his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Denver, and completed his Doctor of Arts in Orchestral Conducting at Ball State University as a conducting student of the late Robert Hargreaves, and a viola student of Robert Slaughter.
Palumbo has conducted such diverse groups as the “Bolshoi Ballet,” Ballet West, the New American Symphony Orchestra, and the 2002 Olympics Anthems Orchestra, plus all-state and other honor orchestras across the country.
Palumbo served as the Chair of the Department of Performing Arts from 1997 through 2007. In addition to his teaching and conducting duties Palumbo is associate principal violist of the Ballet West Orchestra , where he is also assistant conductor. He is an active recitalist, and chamber musician, performing frequently in a variety of venues. He is the violist with the Weber State University Browning String Quartet, and has performed as a guest artist with a number of chamber ensembles including most recently the Cassatt String Quartet and the Amelia Trio, and the Vivace Chamber Ensemble.
He has twice been the recipient of Hemingway Faculty Vitality awards at Weber State University for international touring and performing with both the Weber State Symphony Orchestra and the Weber State University Faculty Trio. In the summer of 2004 Palumbo was presented with the Mayor’s Award in the Arts for the city of Ogden, Utah. In 2003 he served as a competition judge for the Primrose International Viola Competition.
An avid promoter of music education, Palumbo serves on the Board of Trustees of the National String Project Consortium, and is the director of the Weber State University String Project. In 2004 he received the Exemplary Collaboration Award from Weber State University for his work with the project.
From 2002 through 2008 Palumbo was a member of the National Executive Board of the American Viola Society (AVS), and is recently chaired the Maurice Gardner Composition Competition for the AVS. At the 2008 Viola Congress he received the Founders Award from that organization.
Palumbo has served as president of the Utah Music Educators Association (UMEA), the Utah Viola Society, and has twice held the office of president of the Utah Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. He is a former national secretary of ASTA. He has also served as a member of the editorial committee of the newly revised ASTA String Syllabus. In 1997 Palumbo and David Dalton, founded the Utah Viola Society, and he served as it’s first president.
In addition to his memberships in ASTA, the AVS, and MENC, Palumbo belongs to Phi Kappa Lambda, and is a member of The American Federation of Musicians, Local 104, serving as the Union Steward for the Ballet West Orchestra.
For more information about Dr. Palumbo: mpalumbo@weber.edu