 | | Allen Koepke |
| |  Allen Koepke, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939, has been a music educator in Iowa since 1960. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Luther College in 1960 and his Master of Arts from the University of Northern Iowa in 1967. He is presently Director of Choral Music at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and is Professor Emeritus from Kirkwood Community College (Cedar Rapids) where he taught for sixteen years. Prior to that he was a grade school, junior high and high school choir director for twenty years.
In 1996, he was awarded the “Iowa Professor of the Year” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Also in 1996 he was honored as “Innovator of the Year" by Kirkwood Community College and the national organization “League For Innovation” for his work in computerized classroom instruction. In 1995, he was inducted into the Jefferson High School "Hall of Fame" and in 1994 was awarded the coveted “Honorary Student” by the Kirkwood student body and Executive Council. At the 1997 Iowa Choral Directors Association Summer Symposium, he was awarded the distinguished Robert M. McCowen Memorial Award "for outstanding contribution to choral music in Iowa."
Koepke has conducted over 30 national U.S.A. tours and three international tours including Mexico, Scotland, England, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. His choirs have won numerous awards over the past 40 years including the “Silver Rose” trophy at the Copenhagen “People to People” Youth Festival and the “Superior” award at a jazz festival in Mexico City. For 12 consecutive years, one of his collegiate ensembles won the “Outstanding Group” award at a festival at Western Michigan University and the University of Northern Colorado.
Koepke has had many of his compositions performed at national music conventions, as well as national radio and television in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States. His “Missa Brevis” was performed in Carnegie Hall in 1995 and at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in San Diego. It has been performed by countless orchestras/choirs nationally and the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and Chorale in 1998. His “A Vision, A Dream” was written for the Iowa Sesquicentennial and “In Praise of Music” was the “finale” written in celebration of Iowa’s 50th All-State Music Festival (in 1996). His “Te Deum” was performed in Dallas, Texas in 2000 and by the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale. Koepke was the Composer-In-Residence for the Cedar Rapids Symphony for two years and presently has over 60 published works found in seven publishing houses. Recently he has been an adjunct professor at Coe College, Mt. Mercy College, and Cornell College. He presently spends his “free” time as a composer, adjudicator, clinician, teacher, and church choir director at St. Mark's Lutheran in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. | |
| | | Plays by Allen Koepke with Brooklyn Publishers: | | HAPPILY EVER AFTER... (MUSICAL) | | VIRGIL'S WEDDING - THE MUSICAL | |
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