A graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, Christopher Ritter holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education. He studied wind conducting with Dennis R. Glocke and O. Richard Bundy.
Chris is a saxophonist. His teachers include Professor of Saxophone Dr. David B. Stambler (Penn State) and Steve Bowman (State College, PA). He presented his first full recital in December 2006, performing the works Desenclos, Yoshimatsu, Mobberley, Rogers, and others. His saxophone quartet, Reed Disorder, was honored to perform at the 2007 International Saxophone Symposium presented by the U.S. Navy Band at George Mason University. While at Penn State, Chris performed with the Centre Dimensions Jazz Ensemble and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Chris is an active performer in the Poconos/Lehigh Valley and is seeking collaboration with a pianist in the area to present a solo recital.
Raised in State College, PA, Chris was fortunate to grow up in a community supportive of the arts. He traveled Europe in 2003 with the State College Area High School Jazz Band. The ensemble performed at Jazz à Vienne and the Montreux Jazz Festival, in France and Switzerland respectively.
Chris taught in Bethlehem, PA at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts and has been on the faculty at Penn State Summer Music Camp since 2005. He is currently serving as Director of Bands at East Stroudsburg High School South in East Stroudsburg, PA.
Mr. Glaser (sabbatical) joined the East Stroudsburg Area School District in 1998 and has been the Director of Bands for the East Stroudsburg High School South Campus since 2000. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education. As an undergraduate student, Mr. Glaser studied wind conducting and band literature with Dennis Glocke and O. Richard Bundy, and saxophone with M. Daniel Yoder. He recently received a Master's Degree in Wind Conducting from Rutgers University, where he studied with William Berz.
At East Stroudsburg High School South, Mr. Glaser directs the Symphonic Band, Concert Band, the Cavalier Marching Band, and the Jazz Ensemble. Prior to his current teaching appointment, Mr. Glaser taught instrumental music lessons and conducted the Concert Band at Bushkill Elementary School, was the Associate Director of Bands at the East Stroudsburg High School, and was the director of two jazz ensembles at the J.T. Lambert Intermediate School. Under his direction, bands at East Stroudsburg have received numerous Superior ratings at PMEA and PBA Concert Band Adjudications, and in 2002 and 2005, the East Stroudsburg South Symphonic Band was selected to perform at the Annual PMEA In-Service Conference.
Mr. Glaser is the Co-Director of the COTA Cats, a high school honors jazz ensemble that performs in conjunction with the annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Festival. He served as the interim director of the East Stroudsburg University/Community Concert Band in the fall of 2002, and has also been the musical director for Pocono Lively Arts, a Northeast Pennsylvania community musical theater company. His professional memberships include, MENC, PMEA, IAJE, NBA, WASBE, NEA, PSEA, the Golden Key National Honor Society, and he is listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.