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Colonel Dennis M. Layendecker to Retire

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Brian McCurdy
  • The USAF Band
Bolling AFB, Washington, DC --  Colonel Dennis M. Layendecker, Commander and Music Director of The United States Air Force Band, will retire this summer after 26 years of distinguished service to the United States Air Force.

Colonel Layendecker assumed command on July 9, 2002. Originally from Springfield, Illinois, his Air Force career began in 1983. "It is amazing how fast these years have flown by!" the Colonel told band members when he announced his plans to retire this summer.

Under the Colonel's leadership these past seven years, the Band has expanded its global outreach in broadcasting, recordings and live performances. In the process, the unit has reinvigorated its mission as "America's International Musical Ambassadors."

During his Air Force career, Colonel Layendecker has performed throughout America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia--from New York to Los Angeles, London to Vienna, Oslo to Bucharest, from Tokyo, Seoul, to Manila.

Colonel Layendecker received a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago in 1975. He began his conducting studies in 1977 while on full piano scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium. He augmented his conducting studies in master classes at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and the Vienna Academy of Music in Austria.

In 1981, he earned a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and in 1988 completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining the Air Force, Colonel Layendecker served on the music faculties of The American Conservatory of Music, Chicago, Ill., and Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash. In 2006, he was inducted as a member of the American Bandmasters Association.

Colonel Layendecker will remain in the Washington, D.C. area, returning this autumn to his academic roots. He has been offered and accepted a full tenured professorship holding the Heritage Chair in Music at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia as Director of Orchestras. "It will be a very different life, but I am anxiously looking forward to teaching again!" he said.

Leading Air Force musicians, Colonel Layendecker has performed in such notable venues as the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles; Semper Opera, Dresden; Neues Gewandhaus Leipzig; Royal Albert Hall in London; and the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. He has led his ensembles before numerous world leaders to include seven American presidents, Queen Elizabeth of England, and Pope John-Paul II.

His radio and television broadcast credits have included appearances on BBC, German Radio and Television, Polish National Radio, Radio Luxembourg, RAI Italy, and public radio and national television across America.

The men and women of The United States Air Force Band wish Colonel Layendecker and his family all of the best in the years ahead. Congratulations on a marvelous career, and we look forward to seeing you around town!