Department of Music

John Korak

John Korak is Professor of Music and Music Department Chair at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He holds B.M.E., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the University of North Texas, where he was a student of Dr. Leonard Candelaria. He performed with such groups as the Mexico City Philharmonic, Illinois Symphony, Texas Baroque Ensemble, Dallas Bach Society, Texas Brass Ensemble, Texas Wind Symphony, the St. Louis Brass Ensemble, the Bach Society of St. Louis, the Bluebonnet Brass, the Kansas City Baroque Consortium, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Now retired from playing, he was the principal trumpet in the American Kantorei Orchestra and has been a featured performer with the SIUE Wind Symphony at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, England, and the American Cathedral in Paris, France. He was a featured artist at the International Music Festival in Nagaoka, Japan, and was a member of the Texas Baroque Trumpet Ensemble at the European Trumpet Days Conference in Bad Sackingen, Germany. He performed the Illinois premier of Eric Ewazen’s Danzante for Trumpet and Wind Ensemble and has performed at International Trumpet Guild conferences in Bangkok, Thailand; Goteborg, Sweden; Sydney, Australia; and throughout the United States, including leading a performance at the ITG Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the SIUE Trumpet Ensemble. He was invited to perform as a featured artist with the SIUE Wind Symphony at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Chiayi City, Taiwan.

Dr. Korak has directed both middle school and high school band programs in Lewisville and Flower Mound, Texas, and is the director of the University Concert Band at SIUE. He is sought as a clinician in both the trumpet performance and wind band areas and has presented clinics to
students throughout the country and abroad, including master classes at the Krakow (Poland) Academy of Music, the Monterey (Mexico) Youth Music Camp, the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Michigan), and Nagaoka (Japan) area schools. In 2022, Dr. Korak was a featured presenter at the Performing Arts Medicine Association’s International Symposium, where his discussed collegiate musicians’ health resources.

Dr. Korak is a member of Who’s Who, Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, Alpha Chi Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Honor Society, and the International Trumpet Guild. For 19 years he was the Book Reviews Editor for the International Trumpet Guild Journal and is the author of two books published by Balquhidder Music: Giuseppe Concone: The Complete Solfeggi and Bel Canto Studies for Trumpet.