Faculty

Dr. Janice E. Wade
Professor of Music; Music Director/Conductor, Wartburg Community Symphony; Professor of Violin and Viola
Office: FAC 108
Phone: (319) 352-8370

Dr. Janice E. Wade is Music Director and Conductor of the Wartburg Community Symphony. Before joining the Wartburg College faculty, she founded and was Conductor and Music Director of the Des Moines Community Orchestra for 11 years. Maestro Wade earned her Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music Education degrees from Drake University and completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Iowa in 1992.

Dr. Janice E. Wade, Chair, Music Department, and Professor of Music, is Music Director and Conductor of the Wartburg Community Symphony and Professor of Violin and Viola. She holds degrees from Drake University and the University of Iowa. At Wartburg, her classroom teaching experience includes conducting and string methods.

As a violinist, Dr. Wade has much experience as a symphony and opera orchestra principal, string quartet leader, recording violinist and show-orchestra player with such well-known performers as Doc Severinsen, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, Florence Henderson, and Marvin Hamlisch. She is currently the concertmaster of the Bijou Players, a touring group which accompanies silent films with their original film music. Her solo experience includes both recital and solo orchestral performances.

Dr. Wade has considerable teaching experience, ranging from private lessons to public school teaching to serving as faculty at Interlochen National Music Camp. She is past president of the Iowa String Teachers Association and was editor of the Private Teachers Forum in the national journal of the American String Teachers Association for eight years. Her primary violin teachers have included Mary Sexton, Frank Noyes, Wilfred Biel and Leopold LaFosse.

As conductor, Dr. Wade founded and conducted the Des Moines Community Orchestra for eleven years and has led the nearly fifty-year-old Wartburg Community Symphony to unprecedented success including world premieres, collaborations with world class soloists, and shipboard performances on cruise ships. The WCS presents a five-concert season each year. Dr. Wade's conducting teachers have included Frank Noyes, James Dixon, Frederick Fennell, Leonard Slatkin, and Jorge Mester.

Dr. Wade is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, ASTA with NSOL, Conductors' Guild, and is listed in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who of American Entertainers, and 2000 Notable American Women

On May 12, 2007, Dr. Wade, Professor of Violin/Viola and Conductor of the Wartburg Community Symphony, was given the key to the city of Waverly in celebration of her 100th concert with the orchestra. Waverly Mayor Ivan Ackerman also proclaimed May 12 "Dr. Janice Wade Day" in recognition of 20 years of outstanding musical service to the community.