Ian Polster taught introduction to music, fundamentals of music, music composition, music education, 20th-century American music, elementary music theory, studio trombone, and jazz styles at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, until his retirement in 2004. He is author of or contributor to more than 20 books and monographs on composition, theory, developing music skills, and micro-computer software. He has presented papers at professional meetings on electronic music, new approaches to teaching first-year music theory, and theory preparation of teachers. Polster has produced more than 100 commissioned works and has published numerous musical arrangements for major publishers. His compositions and arrangements have been recorded, broadcast, and performed by bands and orchestras throughout the world. He has been a guest conductor for many high school, college, and symphony orchestras and has presented clinics and workshops on performing, composing, and arranging. As an active professional musician, he has appeared with many of the nation's leading entertainers. The principal trombonist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra for over 40 years, Conductor of the Springfield Concert Band, and the past Conductor of the Springfield Youth Symphony, he serves as Music Director for various community theatre productions. Polster was a former member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra and its clinic staff and the orchestras of Nelson Riddle and Henry Mancini. His travels as a performer have taken him to Germany and Japan. As a guest of the Tchaikovsky National Conservatory of Music, in 1999 and 2001, he prepared and conducted the first performances of “West Side Story” in Kiev, Ukraine . Polster earned B.S., B.Mus., and M.Mus. degrees at The Ohio State University. He was Director of Instrumental Music for the Xenia City Schools, 1961-66; was an Associate Director of Bands at The Ohio State University, 1966-67; and Director of Instrumental Music and Chairman of Music Theory at Central State University, 1967-70. He joined the Wittenberg faculty in 1970. He presently serves as Assistant Director of the Ohio State University Marching Band Alumni Band.
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