Celeste Gates Email & Phone Number

Celeste Leitch Gates is a composer, clarinetist, and private music teacher. Her musical interests range from traditional western music to the Avant Garde. As well as folk, rock, pop and jazz. Gates graduated from the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, Indiana. She holds a BA in music composition and creative writing. She also graduated Magna Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond Virginia where she holds a MM in Composition. She studied clarinet with Earl Bates, Henry Gulick and Charles West. She also studied composition with James Underwood, Jeff Haas, Juan Orego-Salas, Frederick A. Fox, Alan Blank, and Dika Newlin.In 2004, Gates performed in the Rome Festival Orchestra, Rome, Italy. Fritz Maraffi conducted.Celeste has played the different Reed parts in many musicals. She has also played in many chamber groups. Gates played clarinet and saxophone in the Northern Neck Orchestra and in the Northern Neck Big Band. She is currently playing popular music in Just the Two of Us, a guitar and instrumentals, string bass and vocal duo with her husband Mark. Celeste was also the conductor of the Northern Neck Orchestra from 1993-98.Gates has composed solo, chamber works, orchestral and choral works. They have been performed in Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado, Indiana and Rome, Italy. Her most recent performances: Three by James, is a song cycle based on three poems by the Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley. One of her favorite compositions is a double chorus piece called Sins of Kalamazoo. It is based upon the poem by Carl Sandburg. She also loves a song called Ten from her chamber musical called Four Weeks One Summer. As a composer she has attended many master classes for composition including two given by Leonard Bernstein. You can find Gates music online at SheetMusicPlus.com, ScoreExchange.com and IMSLP.org.Gates has taught private music lessons since she was 15. She now teaches in her own studio called Realistic Expectations. Celeste teaches an assortment of musical instruments: clarinet, saxophone, flute, guitar and piano. Students range in age from 6 to 90. Many of her students have gone on to college and majored in music. Gates received the Presidential Citation for Excellence in Teaching. It was awarded by the Governor's School for the Visual and Performing Arts. She is an elected member of the Society of Pi Kappa lambda.

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  Indiana University Bloomington

  Music Theory And Composition