News

Ireton Music Director Retires
(September 1, 2003)

Bishop Ireton High School Music Department
201 Cambridge Road
Alexandria, VA 22314

After thirty-three years as Director of Fine Arts, twenty-seven international concert tours, twenty-four world premiers of commissioned works and twenty-nine combined concerts with university and professional ensembles, Dr. Garwood Whaley will retire from Bishop Ireton High School at the end of January. Whaley came to Ireton in 1966 while a member of The United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” to give percussion lessons to students of the fledgling Ireton program and became director of bands in 1971. During his tenure, the Wind Ensemble has been the subject of several articles in national music journals including a feature article in the May 2000 Instrumentalist entitled “From Struggling Ensemble to a Band of Distinction.” The music program at Ireton is considered a national model of comprehensive music education.

Whaley was educated at the Juilliard School of Music and at The Catholic University of America where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. He has been the recipient of the Outstanding Secondary Educators of America Award, Outstanding National Catholic Bandmaster, The National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence, The National Federation Interscholastic Music Association Outstanding Music Educator Award, the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Legion of Honor Award and has been included in Who’s Who in American Music and the International Who’s Who in Music. In 1994, he received the Alumni Achievement Award in the field of Education from The Catholic University of America. This award, which is presented annually by the Board of Governors Alumni Association, recognized his accomplishments and honored him for his life’s work in education. In 2002, he was invited to join the American Bandmasters Association, the distinguished organization founded by Edwin Franko Goldman. For the past five years (2003), Dr. Whaley has received a Grant In The Arts from the Washington Post Educational Foundation for his “Commissioned Work and Composer-In-The-School Project.” In 1998, Bishop Ireton High School named its new performance hall the “Garwood Whaley Auditorium” in recognition of his long-term contributions to fine arts at Bishop Ireton.

Replacing Whaley at Bishop Ireton is Dr. Randall Eyles, former Superintendent of the United States Air Force Band and former Executive Director of the Percussive Arts Society. Eyles has a long-standing relationship with the school as both a commissioned-work composer and, beginning in 1974, as percussion instructor. His work “Freckles Rag” was commissioned and premiered by Garwood Whaley and the Bishop Ireton Wind Ensemble in 1982.

Dr. Eyles has numerous publications to his credit as well as an extensive solo performance background. As marimba and xylophone soloist with The United States Air Force Band, he has been featured on television, radio, recordings and tours of the United States, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, Belgium, England, France, Italy and Germany. Several important solo works for percussion commissioned by the U.S. Air Force Band were written especially for him.