Biography
Warren D. Olfert is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at North Dakota State University, where he has been responsible for the band activities since 1999. Olfert taught extensively at the high school level in the states of Louisiana and Georgia, where his bands received acclaim for their performances. He holds degrees from Florida State University (Ph.D., music education), the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (M.M., instrumental conducting), and Bob Jones University (B.S., music education).
Before his appointment at NDSU, he served at Bowling Green State University as Assistant Director of Bands and conducted the Falcon Marching Band; at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan.; and as Director of Bands at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. He has also served as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States. In 2001, Olfert started the Northern Ambassadors of Music, a European tour of students from North Dakota and Montana; since it’s inception, the tour grew to a group of over 375 participants and staff before travel was halted in 2020 by the Coronavirus Pandemic. His scholarly interests include a pursuit of wind band literature and he has published articles in the Journal of Band Research. He has also led and participated in the commissioning of new works for the wind band, including music by Frank Ticheli, Timothy Broege, Jack Stamp, Bob Mintzer, David Maslanka, Dana Wilson, Jocelyn Hagen, Jess Langston Turner and Samuel Adler and has won praise for his interpretations of new music.
Under his artistic direction, the North Dakota State University Wind Symphony has developed into one of the fine concert bands of the Midwestern United States. The ensemble has performed at the North Dakota Music Educators Association Conference five times; they have also performed at the Minnesota Music Educators Mid-Winter Conference in Minneapolis, the Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, Washington and the College Band Directors National Association North Central Conference at Illinois State University in 2010. In 2019, Dr. Olfert and the NDSU Wind Symphony received an invitation from the government of the Czech Republic to perform at the Prague Castle and was the first American ensemble to perform in the Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle in a shared concert with the renowned Prague Castle Guard and Czech Police Band.
Dr. Olfert has presented workshops on conducting, music education and band history at various conventions nationally and has conducted honor bands nationally, including the University of South Florida’s prestigious Festival of Winds. He is an active member of several organizations on the regional and national level, including the College Band Directors National Association, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the National Band Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Tau Beta Sigma, Phi Beta Mu, and is past president of the North Dakota Music Educators Association.