Chris David Westover-Muñoz
An award-winning conductor/creator, Chris David Westover-Muñoz has conducted and curated programs for wind ensembles and orchestras nationally and internationally. He was awarded First Prize by the jury of the 2019 Warsaw Wind Ensemble Conducting Competition and his work has been described as “elegant, bold, vibrant, inspiring and centered,” by Augusta Read Thomas. Dr. Westover-Muñoz is associate professor of music at Denison University and Music Director of the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra.
Westover-Muñoz sees his work as a conductor as equal parts collaborator, curator, and creator. His work is primarily motivated by the social function of music—how music brings people together to engage with the challenging issues of our time through the collective act of music making.
Dr. Westover-Muñoz maintains an active profile as a research scholar and has presented his work on Vincent Persichetti and Beethoven at Hong Kong Baptist University and the conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik. He has conducted across the United States and in the People’s Republic of China and maintains a relationship with ensembles and conductors in Poland.
His album of IWW music, “Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1,” will be released by PM Press late in 2023.
Prior to his current appointment at Denison, Dr. Westover-Muñoz led wind ensembles, orchestras and operatic performances at Bethel College (KS), the University of Oklahoma, and the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. He has received acclaim for his performances with educational and professional ensembles in the US and abroad. Since 2017 he has been a frequent winner of the American Prize for Conducting in the choral, orchestral, and wind ensemble divisions.
He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Oklahoma and the Master of Music in Wind Conducting from the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.
Learning & Teaching
- Denison University Wind Ensemble, music director
- Protest Music
- Music Theory 1, 2, & 3
- Beethoven’s Hero
- New Music Ensemble
- Conducting
- Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra, Music Director (2022-present)
Research
“Deconstructing Authenticity in Three Urtext Editions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 67: A Conductor’s Guide to Variant Readings for Performance.” Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Oklahoma, 2016.
Holst's Chaconne from the Suite No. 1 in E-flat: A Contemporary Analysis. Journal of the National Band Association, 2007.
Works
- Westover-Muñoz, Christopher David. “Persichetti’s Peace Piece: A Lincoln Address and the Seventh Symphony.” in Festschrift in Honour of Raoul F. Camus’ Ninetieth Anniversary, vol. 36, Alta Musica. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag, 2021. Review committee: John Graziano, Nigel Marshall, Damian Sagrillo
- Westover, Christopher David. “Rediscovering Julius Viktor Gerold: the 1857 Transcription of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.” in Kongressbericht Wadgassen. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag, 2020. Review committee: Brian Alber, Leon Bly, Friedhelm Brusniak, Raoul Camus, Manfred Heidler, Björn Jakobs, Nigel Marshall
- Bronk, Beth, Roxanne Stevenson, and Chris David Westover-Muñoz. “Chapter 3: Teaching Load/Responsibilities/Evaluations.” in A CBDNA Guidebook for the Small Collegiate Band Program, edited by Charles Peltz and James Latten, 51-75. College Band Directors National Association-Small Band Programs Working Group, 2022.
- Persichetti, Vincent. Seventh Symphony (Liturgical). Edited and transcribed by Christopher David Westover. 2020.
- Westover, Christopher David. “Deconstructing Authenticity in Three Urtext Editions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 67: A Conductor’s Guide to Variant Readings for Performance.” Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Oklahoma, 2016.
- Westover, Christopher David. “Holst’s Chaconne from the Suite No. 1 in E-flat: A Contemporary Analysis.” Journal of the National Band Association, 2007.
- Westover-Muñoz, Chris David. “The Values of Banding: considering the wind band as a social aesthetic practice.” Land – Musik – Verein: Musikvereine in Praxis und Wissenschaft, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, November 2022.
- Westover-Muñoz, Christopher David. 2022. “Banding Together: the wind-band’s history and future of activism.” Paper to be presented at IGEB Virtual Conference, Bolzano (Italy), July 15, 2022.
- Westover-Muñoz, Christopher David. 2021. “The Grand Industrial Band: the Industrial Workers of the World, Bands, and the creation of the Little Red Songbook.” Paper presented at IGEB Virtual Conference, July 15, 2021.
- Westover, Christopher David. 2020. “The Missing “Procession” of Vincent Persichetti’s Divertimento for Band and other revelations from the manuscript scores.” Paper presented at CBDNA-North Central Division Conference, Temple University, Feb. 21, 2020. [YouTube]
- Westover, Christopher David. 2020. “Persichetti’s Peace Piece: A Lincoln Address and the Seventh Symphony.” Paper presented at CBDNA-North Central Division Conference, DePaul University, Feb. 20, 2020.
- Westover, Christopher David. 2018. “Rediscovering Julius Viktor Gerold: the 1857 Transcription of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.” Paper presented at Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung & Förderung der Blasmusik Conference, Wadgassen (Germany), July 2018.
- Westover, Christopher David. 2018. “Revealing the Path to a Wind-Band Version of Persichetti’s Seventh Symphony.” Paper presented at CBDNA-North Central Division Conference, Western Michigan University, Feb. 22, 2018.
- Westover, Christopher David. 2016. “Deconstructing Authenticity in Three Urtext Editions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, op. 67.” Paper presented at International Conference on Performance and Creativity, Hong Kong Baptist University, November 2016.
- Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1: Songs of the I.W.W. and the Salvation Army. PM Press, 2023.
Service
- College Band Director’s National Association
- World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles
- Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik, Advisory Board
- The American Beethoven Society
Other
First Prize Winner of Warsaw Wind Ensemble Conducting Competition, October 2019
2018-2019 American Prize in Conducting
- College/University Band Division, 3rd Prize
- College/University Chorus Division, 2nd Prize
- Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, College/University Ensemble Division, 3rd Prize
2017-2018 American Prize in Conducting
- Community Chorus Division, 2017-2018 – 2nd Prize
- Community Orchestra Division, 2017-2018
- 3rd Prize & Special Judges Citation: Career Encouragement Citation
- Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, College/University Ensemble Division, 2017-2018 – Finalist—Honorable Mention
- Professional Orchestra Division, 2017-2018 – Finalist
