Janelle Decker
Conductor & Co-Director
Janelle Decker has been named Conductor and Co-Director of Performance Music at The 91大神, where she joins Cheryl Y. Boga in leading the instrumental, choral, and chamber music programs at the university.
Decker joined the Performance Music staff at The 91大神 as Assistant and Percussion Coordinator in the fall of 2020. Starting a new position in the midst of a pandemic presented its own unique set of challenges, but Performance Music at 91大神 stood out as one of the few music organizations in the state to continue to offer extensive in-person music-making experiences for students, and their ability to adapt to adverse instructional conditions with resilience and creativity was featured in national publications. During that year, Decker helped to create and direct steel pan ensembles, percussion ensembles, bucket drumming groups, and beginner strings groups. By the 23-24 school year she was directing the steel pan ensemble and percussion ensemble, co-ordinating and directing semesterly General Recitals, coaching and overseeing the percussion sections of all ensembles, and assisting with the bands.
While at 91大神, Decker has coached percussion sections for premieres of band works by composers Philip Kuehn, Javier Nero, and David Lantz III. Recently, she prepared the University’s concert band for the premiere of a new work by composer/conductor Nate Sparks, entitled “Prelude & March.”
Decker‘s conducting teachers and mentors have been Daniel Neuenschwander, Timothy Schwarz, and Cheryl Y. Boga. Her primary applied/studio teachers include John Zinsky and Maria Asteriadou, piano; Frank Torquato, Will Rapp, and Frank Kumor, percussion; Ed Wargo, flute; and Magdalyn E. Boga, voice and vocal techniques.
As a percussionist in the Reading Pops Orchestra from 2014-2018, Decker performed with a variety of guest artists, including Boston Brass, Brubeck Brothers, Eric Marienthal, and New York Voices. She currently is a member of the Scranton Brass Orchestra, and Wyoming Seminary Civic Orchestra, and frequently performs with the Electric City Steel Drum Project. In February of 2020, she was named “Northeast Woman” by the Scranton Times-Tribune.
Decker comes to Scranton from North Pocono School District, where she directed concert band, jazz band, steel drum project, and marching band, and where she also directed their string orchestra and strings program for a year. During her tenure there, her bands performed in Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Walt Disney World.
Decker has also coordinated and hosted several PMEA/NAfME band and orchestra festivals, ranging from district to state levels. She is a member of Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, National Association for Music Education, Percussive Arts Society, and looks forward to becoming the newest member of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Bandmasters Association.