Stanford Freese is an American tuba player and musical director who is the talent casting and booking director with Disney Entertainment Productions (

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

). Born in Minnesota, Freese has worked as a musical director at the Walt Disney Company for over 40 years, including as director of bands at both the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort. He was a show director for

Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be ...

, an entertainment producer for Pleasure Island and

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

, and a musical show director for

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual proper ...

. Freese is the talent and casting director for Disneyland.

Early life and education

A graduate of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, Freese was selected by the

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State fosters mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries around the world. It is responsible for the Un ...

as a tuba soloist with the Minnesota concert band that toured the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, in a performance for the President of the United States at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

. Freese was chosen again by the government to tour China as a tuba soloist with the Minnesota band on a goodwill tour.

Career

Freese began his musical career in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, where he produced and performed in television and motion picture soundtrack recordings until 1977, when he was hired by Disney and moved to

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

to serve as the leader of the Walt Disney World Band. Two years later, Walt Disney World Band relocated to Disneyland, where he became Director of Bands and began re-envisioning the musical programming for Disneyland and the upcoming Disney California Adventure theme park.

Awards and recognition

In 1995, Freese was inducted into the

Minnesota Music Hall of Fame The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame is located at First North Street and Broadway in New Ulm, Minnesota, United States, in the former public library. It has memorabilia of individual musicians and musical groups, as well as photographs of all who h ...

. In 1997, he was the recipient of the Classic Conference Fine Arts and Distinguished Service Award. In 2007, he was inducted into the Edina Hall of Fame and awarded the Outstanding Acievement Award by the University of Minnesota. Also in 2007, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records as producer of the largest Tuba Christmas Ensemble in the world consisting of over 500 tubas performing in concert at Downtown Disney. In 2008, he received the Disney Entertainment Excellence Award. In 2009 and 2010, he was recognized by the

United States Armed Forces School of Music The Naval School of Music (formerly and still widely known as the U.S. Armed Forces School of Music) is a United States Navy school located at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The school's mission ...

for participation and training of

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

senior bandleaders for the

United States military bands United States military bands include musical ensembles maintained by the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, United States Air Force, and United States Coast Guard. More broadly, they can also include musical ense ...

. In 2010, he received the Disney Entertainment Hall of Fame Award and the NAMM Association School JAM USA Award on behalf of the Walt Disney Company. In 2011, he received the Orange County Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life

Freese is married to Tera Freese and has two sons,

Josh Josh is a masculine given name, frequently a diminutive (hypocorism) of the given names Joshua or Joseph, though since the 1970s, it has increasingly become a full name on its own. It may refer to: People A–J * "Josh", an early pseudonym of S ...

and

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...

, both studio and touring musicians. Josh is a member of

the Vandals The Vandals are an American punk rock band, established in 1980 in Orange County, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums, two live albums, and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped ...

and

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...

. Jason is primarily a studio musician.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freese, Stan American bandleaders American tubists Musicians from Minnesota People from Edina, Minnesota University of Minnesota alumni 1945 births Living people 21st-century tubists Walt Disney Parks and Resorts people Directors of The Walt Disney Company Disney people