Raymond C. Wifler  

Raymond C. Wifler is a native of Glenbeulah, a small village on the western edge of Sheboygan County in eastern Wisconsin. He received a BS in music education at UW-Oshkosh, and a Masters and Ph.D. in music education at Michigan State University. After several years of conducting school bands in Lomira and Juneau, he moved to Fond du Lac in 1968 to teach music at the newly-opened UW Center-Fond du Lac. He was appointed Chair of the Music Department at Marian College in 1984, and since that time he has developed an accredited instrumental music education degree program at Marian.  In 2002 Dr. Wifler retired from full time teaching at Marian.

Dr. Wifler has directed the Fond du Lac Symphonic Band, an adult community concert band, since its reorganization in 1974. Under his capable and inspired leadership, the Band has grown and flourished, earning a national reputation for musical excellence. Currently in residence at Marian College, the Band offers a cooperative school-year program with the college that allows area college students to perform in the band for college credit.

With the assistance of a group of community leaders, Wifler spearheaded the effort to fund and construct the Buttermilk Performance Center in Fond du Lac’s Buttermilk Creek Park. Upon its completion in 1988, he developed and continues to co-direct the Buttermilk Festival, a summer-long music festival that features concerts by the Symphonic Band and other regional groups including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Kids from Wisconsin.

In addition to his work with the Symphonic Band, Wifler organized and served as first director of the Fond du Lac Oratorio Chorus (1971) and has served as music director and/or advisor to innumerable local music festivals and special events over the years. During his tenure at UW-Fond du Lac he developed and helped produce the popular madrigal dinners that played to capacity audiences each Christmas season for several years.

Wifler has been active in many aspects of arts development at the local and state levels. In 1994 he served as the founding President of the Fond du Lac Arts Council, and subsequently was instrumental in raising the necessary funds to renovate the Windhover Center for the Arts, which is home to the Arts Council along with many local arts activities. He has been a performing musician on clarinet, saxophone and trumpet throughout his musical career and serves frequently as a clinician, conductor and adjudicator for school events throughout the state.

A longtime member of the Wisconsin Bandmasters Association, he was elected to membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters' Association in 1993, a distinction currently held by only one other bandmaster in the State of Wisconsin. Ray and his wife, Carla, have four children, all of whom have played in the Fond du Lac Symphonic Band at one time or another

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