Morris Collier NCTM, Emeritus Assistant Concertmaster of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, has been a resident of Lincoln since 1951 and a member of LSO’s first violin section for most of the last 59 years. He has been first violinist (sometimes second violinist or violist) with the Lincoln String Quartet for 56 years and has played first violin with the Nebraska Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Hastings, Nebraska, Symphony for many years. He also played first violin with the Omaha Symphony for 23 years, first and second violin with the Lincoln Chamber Players, the Nebraska Chamber Players; violin & viola with the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra 17 yrs from its beginning, and first violin with the Nebraska Sinfonia, the Joslyn Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Camerata Orchestra Berlin Tour (as concertmaster) and the Des Moines Symphony. He has been concertmaster of several college, community and church orchestras throughout Nebraska. Morris also served as temporary concertmaster of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra and the Lincoln Little Symphony, the Omaha Symphony and the Omaha Pops Orchestra.
He has appeared as a violin soloist with the Nebraska Wesleyan University Orchestra, Concordia University Orchestra, Joslyn Chamber Orchestra, Lincoln Municipal Band, and Tri-City (Nebraska) Youth Symphony and as a viola soloist with the UNL Symphony Orchestra. He was a violinist with the NWU Trio during its Nebraska Touring Grant performances from 1979-81 and violin soloist at a Rocky Ridge Music in the Mountains summer concert. His NWU recital of 1973 with Cary Lewis including Bartok’s vn/pno Sonata No. 2 was telecast on NPTV. Morris is an MTNA Nationally Certified Teacher of Violin. His teaching includes 59 years as a private string teacher and 17 years as a string specialist with the Lincoln Public Schools. He was Assistant Professor of violin and theory at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1968-83, also conducting the NWU orchestra and teaching music history. While on sabbatical from NWU in 1980-81, he was Assistant Professor of strings at Kansas State University and first violin of the KSU Resident String Quartet. He was a string teacher for six years at St. John’s Lutheran School (Seward, Neb.) and three semesters at Concordia College (now University). He received the Nebraska ASTA Private Teacher of the Year award in 1994 and, with his wife, Aleta Collier, received a Mayor’s Arts Award in 1995 and the Dietze-KFOR Music Teacher of the Month award in 1996. He was inducted into the Nebraska Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2002 and jointly with Aleta received the NMTA Distinguished Teacher of the Year award in 2003 as well as an MTNA 50 Year Member Recognition citation in 2011. They also shared the first Lincoln’s Symphony Association Golden Baton Award in 2008. Morris is listed in Who’s Who in the Midwest, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.
Morris was born and raised in Clinton, Okla., and participated in the public schools orchestra as a violinist (he was concertmaster for three years) and in the concert and marching bands (he was first horn). He played horn in the Clinton Municipal Band and violin in his teacher’s church orchestra. Upon graduation in 1942 he entered the University of Oklahoma as a violin performance major but continued in the university’s marching bands as second horn (occasionally first horn) and played first violin with the Oklahoma University Symphony Orchestra. His studies were interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy (1943-1946). His final rating was Aviation Ordnanceman (Turret) 2C.
In 1946 Morris resumed his studies at OU and continued the above activities. He was awarded the OU Symphony’s Holmberg Trophy for service to the orchestra in 1949. After graduation in 1949 with a BM in violin he entered the Eastman School of Music as a master’s degree candidate and was granted a MM in Theory in 1951. After moving to Lincoln he continued violin study at UNL with Emanuel Wishnow. He began his work in the Lincoln Public Schools as a traveling string specialist in the fall of 1951. His efforts in teaching strings made possible the birth of the Lincoln Youth Symphony a few years later. A number of Morris’ former students have continued the performance and teaching of violin and viola in many areas of the United States including Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island, Nebraska. He currently teaches 20 or more private string students, ages 3 to 70ish, per week. His former student, Sean Michael Keelan, is Concertmaster of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Sioux City Symphony.
Morris had as his principal violin teachers R.A. Lloyd, Paul S. Carpenter, Margaret Kennedy Farish, Millard Taylor and Emanuel Wishnow. He has, over the years, participated in numerous festivals and workshops such as Rocky Ridge Music Camp (as a performer and teacher), Aspen Music Festival, Janos Starker Seminar (as a performer), UNL Great Plains Session (as a teacher), Nebraska ASTA workshops and the Ottawa, Kansas, Suzuki summer workshop (pre-Twinkle emphasis). As president of the Nebraska ASTA, he organized several state workshops with Janos Starker, Samuel Applebaum, Zvi Zeitlin, Paul Rolland, Gerald Fischbach and others. He performed and taught several summers in the Brownville, Nebraska, Summer Music Camp. He served NMEA as orchestra chairman for two years. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Sinfonia, the Lincoln Musicians Association Local 463 and the Omaha Musicians Association Local 70-558 and is a Patron of Delta Omicron.