Barry G. Peters

Barry Peters is a native of Pennsylvania. He attended Mansfield University where he received a B.S. in Music Education. He earned an M.M. in Music Education from Ithaca College.Mr. Peters’ taught in Troy, PA and in Hammondsport, Canandaigua, Liverpool, and Union Endicott school systems in NYS until his retirement in 2002 when he began work as an adjunct faculty member at Ithaca College. While at Ithaca, he supervised student teachers and also taught classes in the music education department.

During his high school teaching time, he was an award winning band director and marching band director.   Since 1997 Mr. Peters has been the conductor of the Binghamton Youth Symphony.  His guest conducting experience has included many county, area all-state, and honor bands and orchestras in New York and Pennsylvania.  

 Mr. Peters has performed as principal trumpet with the Corning Philharmonic and the Elmira Symphony. In addition to the Ithaca Concert Band, Mr. Peters performs with the Vestal Community Band and the Southern Tier Concert Band. He has also performed with numerous bands, orchestras and in area churches.

 He has been a member of numerous New York State Boards of Directors for musical organizations and serves as a certified NYSSMA adjudicator.  Awards include the 2005 New York State Band Directors Association Outstanding Retired Band Director Award and the 2010 Mansfield University Alumni Association Distinguished Educator Award. 

 In 2026, Mr. Peters was named a conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band.

Collin Smith

Collin Smith is a native of the Southern Tier region of New York and has served as the band director at Horseheads High School since 2015.  He holds music education degrees from Ithaca College and SUNY Potsdam, and previously taught in Plymouth, Massachusetts where he was also a member of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony.

Mr. Smith directs the Horseheads Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band. He has conducted many musical theatre productions and held various roles with the Horseheads Blue Raider Marching Band since 2009, including director for several seasons.  Additionally, Mr. Smith chaired the music department for six years and started the Winter Percussion and Winter Colorguard programs at Horseheads.

Recently, Mr. Smith served as the New York State School Music Association Zone Representative for Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, and Yates counties.  He also continues to perform as a percussionist with the Corning Area Community Concert Band and with other local groups. 

In 2026, Mr. Smith was named a conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band.

Conductors Emeriti

Richard (Rick) Eleck served as conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band from 2015 until 2026. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Baldwin-Wallace and a Master’s from Ithaca College. He joined the Music Education faculty at Ithaca College in 2017 with responsibilities focused on teacher education. He was the Director of Bands at Cortland Senior High School from 1986 until retiring in 2017. His responsibilities included conducting the wind ensemble and concert band as well as directing the jazz, marching and pep bands. Eleck is well known as an All-State and Major Organization adjudicator and clinician. Prior to teaching in Cortland, he was the Director of Jazz Studies at Cayuga Community College. He is a sought after guest conductor and clinician throughout New York State.

Eleck, who has been a proponent of life-long music making, said, “I am both humbled and honored to have been offered the opportunity to be co-conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band. I have often said that playing a musical instrument should not stop at the high school level, and this band accomplishes the mission at an extremely high level.”

Mark Fonder served as conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band from 2013 until 2015. He was a professor of music education at Ithaca College where he conducted the Concert Band.  He earned his Ed.D. and M.S. degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his B.M. at  Lawrence University.  Professor Fonder is a former faculty member at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay and a public school teacher in Wisconsin.  He was formerly a trombonist with the Green Bay Symphony and the San Antonio Brass.  Adjudicator, clinician, guest conductor, school music consultant. Music consultant, Educational Testing Service. Contributor, Music Educators Journal, Instrumentalist, Band Director’s Guide, Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education. Editor, Ithaca Conference on American Music Education: Centennial Profiles; Journal of Historical Research in Music Education; Hawaii-Pacific Music Education Research Symposium.  Fonder has published a book entitled, "Patrick Conway and His Famous Band," (Meredith Publications, 2012). Fonder has been a presenter at state, regional, and national conferences. In retirement, Mark enjoys reading, travel, and playing trombone with the Appleton City Band.

Beth Peterson served as conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band from 2000 until 2015. Dr. Peterson, emeritus professor, retired from her position as associate director of bands at the University of Illinois School of Music in 2022. Prior to her role at Illinois, Dr. Peterson was a tenured professor of music education department at the Ithaca College School of Music. During her 17 years at IC, Peterson taught brass and woodwind pedagogy, instrumental conducting, secondary instrumental methods, and graduate level music education courses.  She supervised student teachers at the junior and senior level and was the placement coordinator for the Junior Instrumental Student Teaching program. Peterson has conducted the Ithaca College Brass Choir and All-Campus Band, and the Ithaca College Symphonic Band. Dr. Peterson is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and serves on the Board of Directors for the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Beth currently lives in Fort Collins, CO, with her husband Steve and their golden retriever Stanley.

Keith Kaiser served as conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band from 1999 until 2012. He has been on the faculty at Ithaca College since 1998, and has served as dean, associate dean and assessment coordinator for the School of Music. He has served as the chair of the Department of Music Education for more than 12 years. Kaiser holds degrees from the Florida State University (Ph.D.), the University of Redlands (MM), and the University of Wyoming (BM). Kaiser has been named a Charles A. Dana professor, and he received the Ithaca College Faculty Excellence Award and the Student Affairs and Campus Life Faculty Appreciation Award. He has taught undergraduate and graduate music education courses, supervised junior and senior level student teachers, and conducted various instrumental music ensembles. For six years, Kaiser served as conductor of the Signature Syracuse Concert Band (a concert band for inner-city youth). He is active throughout the country as a guest conductor, presenter, clinician, adjudicator and consultant. Dr. Kaiser lives in Ithaca with his children Andrew, Chris, and Matt, and his dogs Annie and Marble.

Henry G. Neubert conducted the Ithaca Concert Band from 1978 through the summer of 1999.  He was professor of double bass at the Ithaca College School of Music where he also conducted the symphonic band. He earned his BME and MM degrees at Northwestern University, where he studied double bass with Warren Benfield and conducting with John Painter. After six years of teaching instrumental music in the Northport - East Northport Schools on Long Island, Neubert joined the Ithaca College faculty in 1972.  Neubert was the principal bassist of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra where he occupied the Charles and Shirley Hockett endowed chair.  On April 23, 2005, Neubert conducted his retirement concert at Ithaca College where he nurtured over 2,000 student musicians throughout his career.  He passed away on February 18, 2025, leaving a wonderful legacy of professional mentorship, community music, life-long music making, and a love of baseball, and he is remembered for all he gave musically to the Ithaca Concert Band and to all those whose lives he touched.

Joan Beeler was the inaugural conductor of the Ithaca Concert Band. She led the band from the summer of 1976 until 1977, when Henry Neubert took the lead. Beeler was instrumental in helping to secure funding, rehearsal space, and musicians at the beginnings of the Ithaca Concert Band. Former community member and band supporter Robert Sweet recalled that when he was a graduate student at SUNY Cortland in 1975 majoring in recreation, he proposed a graduate project in lieu of a master’s thesis. The premise of his project was to bring back the Ithaca Community Band to allow musicians to continue to play together into adulthood after high school. He approached what was then the Ithaca Youth Bureau to initiate the project, and he sought out Ithaca College music professor Joan Beeler who agreed to conduct the band. Per Sweet, Joan Beeler did a ”phenomenal job, and the band was off and running.” Joan was married to Walter Beeler, longtime conductor of the Ithaca College Concert Band, who had once been a member of Patrick Conway’s band.

For more information on the history of the Ithaca Concert Band, please visit The ICB Story.