The All-Illinois Junior Band was founded for the express purpose of creating a premier musical experience for the state’s finest middle school band students. As the first statewide middle school honor band in over half a century, membership in AIJB is determined solely through competitive blind auditions. Its goals are to provide an opportunity for middle school students to perform excellent literature with a mature ensemble and distinguished conductor, to interact with similarly dedicated student musicians from around the State of Illinois, and to encourage and inspire these outstanding young musicians to continue their musical studies.
The finest national recognized conductors and music educators working with students.
Rehearsal and performance in the world class Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois.
Blindly adjudicated auditions with high standards for acceptance. Membership determined solely by audition.
High quality literature prepared by the students in advance of the festival.
Appropriately sized ensemble with balanced instrumentation.
Single participation fee covers costs associated with the AIJB Festival, including a t-shirt, Friday night reception, and lunch on Saturday. (Free concert admission, no director fee, and no school participation fee)
Dr. Linda R. Moorhouse serves as Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also serves campus as a member of the University Senates Conference, the Athletic Board, and as a member of the University of Illinois System-wide Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Council. She previously served as Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Music for eight years, and she is a Fellow of the Academic Leadership Program within the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
Before joining the University of Illinois School of Music in fall 2010, Dr. Moorhouse served on the faculty at Louisiana State University for over 20 years, where she was the recipient of LSU School of Music and several campus-wide awards for teaching excellence. While at LSU, she taught conducting, directed the LSU Symphonic Winds, and served as drill designer, auxiliary choreographer, co-director and teacher of record of the LSU Tiger Marching Band, one of a select few award-winning college marching bands in Division I universities. Under her leadership, the LSU Tiger Band received the Sudler Trophy (the “Heisman trophy” of college marching bands), and won the 2008 ESPN “Battle of the Bands” contest. She also served as director and administrator of the LSU Summer Music Camps.
Dr. Moorhouse is active as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator both nationally and internationally and her service to the band profession is a matter of record. Concert ensembles under her direction at two different universities have been featured at both national and regional conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, the North American Saxophone Alliance International Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association. She is a Past President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, and is a past President and the former Executive Secretary of the National Band Association, the largest professional organization for bands. She is also a past President of the Women Band Directors International, where she is a recipient of the organization’s “Silver Baton” and “International Golden Rose” awards for outstanding leadership and service to the music profession. Honored as a Member Laureate (member of international distinction) of Sigma Alpha Iota, the professional fraternity for women in music, Dr. Moorhouse is also a recipient of the “Diploma of the Sudler Order of Merit” from the John Philip Sousa Foundation in recognition of extraordinary service to the music community. The National Band Association has recognized her contributions to bands and band music on numerous occasions with the NBA Citation of Excellence, along with election to the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (AWAPA), considered the “Oscar” of the band world. She is the 72nd inductee to this honored academy of prominent musicians and educators. Dr. Moorhouse is a recipient of the Tau Beta Sigma “Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director Award,” a member of the VIP community within the Division of Education at Conn-Selmer, and is also recognized in Grove Music Online.
In addition to her conducting and teaching obligations, Dr. Moorhouse has several publication credits including research contributions to multiple volumes of both the Composer’s Insight–Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band (Meredith Music) series and the series, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA), along with other Meredith Music publications.
Dr. Moorhouse received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied with Peter Erös and Timothy Salzman. She holds a Master of Music Education degree from LSU, and a Bachelor of Music Education with Honors degree from the University of Florida, where she is a member of the University of Florida Bands Hall of Fame.
International engagements include serving as an adjudicator on two jury panels for the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, and as a speaker for the International Round Table Conference as part of the World Music Contest. She also appeared as a conducting clinician and conductor with Portugal’s Wind Ensemble of Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, and has served multiple times as an adjudicator for Singapore’s National Youth Music Festival, in addition to working as a clinician and adjudicator in Western Australia.