Employee Directory

Mark Goodenberger, percussionist and composer, is the Director of Percussion Studies at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. As a specialist in Symphonic and Chamber music, he has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, Libby Larsen, Chen Yi, George Crumb, Karlheinz Stockhausen,Elliott Carter, Lou Harrison, Zhou Long, Tomas Svoboda, Forrest Pierce, Mark Polishook, and Chinary Ung, premiering many new works. He is also active as a baroque specialist, performing the kettledrums with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, and Trinity Consort. As a concert recitalist, he performs many pieces of his own, written for a wide variety of instruments. His compositions range from solos to works for mixed ensembles, to pieces that join elements of theater, dance and vaudeville into the diverse world of percussion. In 2013, he was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Artistic Achievement Award by Central Washington University’s College of Arts and Humanities. He is a Yamaha performing artist, a member of the Vic Firth Education team, and is proud to endorse the Goodenberger G-LINE Mix marimba mallets made by Amy Putnam Mallets. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Lewis and Clark College and a Masters of Music in Performance degree from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Kirsten Boldt-Neurohr is the Advisor for all undergraduate music majors as well as the Recruiting Specialist for the music department. Prior to her appointment in the advisory position she was an Instructor of Music at Central Washington University, teaching first year Music Theory, Counterpoint, Survey of 20th Century Music and Introduction to Music. Prior to coming to CWU, Dr. Boldt-Neurohr was the Instructor of Bassoon at Metropolitan State College of Denver where she also taught Music Theory and Introduction to Music Appreciation. She also previously taught Applied Bassoon, Music Theory and Music History at Southern Oregon University.

Dr. Boldt-Neurohr holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Bassoon Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado-Boulder, the Master of Music degree in Bassoon Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Bachelor of Music Performance and Education degree from Ithaca College. She is also an active freelance musician and teaches privately in the area, holding the position of Co-principal bassoon in the Oregon East Symphony (Pendleton), and performing regularly with the Yakima Symphonyand the Walla Walla Symphony. An enthusiastic teacher, Kirsten’s private bassoon and oboe students have received honors in All State Band and Orchestra (CO, OR, WA), WIBC, State Solo and Ensemble Competitions, as well as having received college music scholarships.

Dr. Boldt-Neurohr was a soloist in the opening concert of the 2007 International Double Reed Society Conference premiering IDRS 2007 by Jacob Bancks with oboist Gordon Hunt. She was also a soloist with the Oregon East Symphony performing the Vanhal Double bassoon Concerto and with the Steamboat Springs Orchestra in November 2003, performing Mozart’s, Concerto for Bassoon. She has held positions with the Steamboat Springs Orchestra and the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with the Cheyenne Symphony, San Juan Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Emerald City Opera, Berkeley Opera, San Francisco Symphonietta, and the Rogue Valley Symphony. She also enjoys presenting an annual solo recital; Bassoon and Friends with the St. Marks Concert Series in Medford, Oregon. Her principal teachers have included Mark Eubanks, formerly of the Oregon Symphony; Lee Goodhew-Romm, of Ithaca College; Martin Gatt, of the London Symphony Orchestra; Rob Weir and Stephan Paulsen of the San Francisco Symphony and Yoshiyuki Ishikawa of the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Dr. Boldt-Neurohr recently released a CD on Centaur Records, The Road Less Traveled, performing lesser-known works for oboe, bassoon and piano trio with the Three Wood Trio. She is also an enthusiastic grower of Arundo Donax, the cane used in the making of woodwind reeds, and has published several articles regarding her research through the International Double Reed Journal.

Dr. Gayla Bauer Blaisdell, Professor of Voice and Opera, joined the faculty of Central Washington University in 2008, served as the Vocal Area Coordinator from 2010 – 2021, and became the Graduate Coordinator for the Music Department in the Fall of 2021. She has a vibrant studio of aspiring singers and directs the nationally award-winning CWU Opera Ensemble.

Dr. Blaisdell’s professional activities include her work as a soprano soloist and recitalist as well as an opera director. Coming up in the summer of 2022, she is looking forward to directing a production of Dvorak’s Rusalka at the Utah Vocal Artists Summer Program. As a soloist and recitalist, Dr. Blaisdell has sung in many major New York City venues including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space. Since moving to Washington, Dr. Blaisdell has appeared multiple times at Benaroya Hall in Seattle as a soloist and performs regularly with regional orchestras in the Pacific Northwest as the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and concerts featuring excerpts from Wagner among others. Dr. Blaisdell often appears with the CWU ensembles to premiere contemporary works and collaborates with colleagues from CWU and around the country in recitals. Her CD, Gayla Blaisdell Performs the Songs of Ross and Paulus, is available for purchase on all major digital music sites including Amazon and iTunes. Dr. Blaisdell is also a highly sought after as a clinician and adjudicator in the state and region, and in 2017, she was an Invited Guest Scholar Lecturer at Nanjing University in China.

Dr. Blaisdell’s scholarly interests intersect in the fields of feminist theory, performance and pedagogy to examine current cultural topics in opera and song. Her article, “Fostering Inclusion: Unpacking Choral Dress Codes and Uniforms” was published in the September 2018 Choral Journal and in 2021 she presented a paper co-written with her CWU Theatre colleague, Dr. Natashia Lindsey, entitled “The Problem with the Fat Lady: Promoting Body Size Diversity Onstage and in the Classroom” at the National Opera Association Conference. Most recently Dr. Blaisdell has expanded her area of research and training to include Intimacy Choreography Best Practices and is pursuing projects that build on and adapt the principles of Consent and Boundary work used in Intimacy Choreography for use in the applied vocal studio and opera. In addition, Dr. Blaisdell recently attended workshops in Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, Consent in the Acting Classroom and she became a Mental Health First Aider in December of 2021.

Dr. Blaisdell holds a Ph.D in Vocal Performance from New York University. She has established herself as a scholar in feminist theory and opera presenting her work at national and regional venues since the completion of her dissertation in the field. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Opera and a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory and a Bachelors Degree in Vocal Performance and a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Blaisdell also trained at the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Opera North, the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Italy and Dorian Opera Theater.

Degrees:
New York University
Ph.D Vocal Performance

New England Conservatory
M.M. in Voice Performance
G.D. Opera

The Eastman School of Music
B.M. Voice
B.M. Music Education

Joseph Brooks is a very active and diverse woodwind performer. Spanning his career of nearly 40 years he has held principal chairs and has been a featured soloist on the clarinet, oboe, and saxophone. As a guest artist and clinician he has frequented college and university campuses throughout the United States. He has served as the solo clarinetist with the United States Continental Army Band, principal clarinet and featured soloist with the Rome Festival Orchestra and has been heard in recital at the International Clarinet Convention. In addition to his credits as a classical performer, Professor Brooks is also active as a jazz artist.

Mr. Brooks has been on the faculty at Walla Walla University, Whitman College, Western Kentucky University, and is presently the Professor of Clarinet at Central Washington University. He performs regularly with the Central Wind Quintet, The Joe Brooks Quartet, and is often heard in recital as a classical saxophonist and clarinetist. He takes special pleasure in performing as often as is possible with his son, Jeffrey Brooks.

Nikolas Caoile is a conductor, pianist, and music educator. Currently, he is Music Director and Conductor of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Director of Orchestras at Central Washington University, and the Music Director Designate of Lake Union Civic Orchestra. Since 2017, Caoile has served as Acting Chair of the Department of Music at CWU. He served as the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Salem Chamber Orchestra from 2012-2016. He has guest conducted many other orchestras including: Auburn Symphony, Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers (OSSCS) Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra, Rainier Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Gig Harbor Symphony, Lake Avenue Orchestra, and Olympia Symphony. In 2009, he conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in collaboration with the Christopher Wheeldon's Morphoses Dance Company at New York City Center. Caoile participated at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music where he worked with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier.

A passionate believer in music education for all ages, Caoile has led numerous educational and community engagement concerts including the Alaska, Indiana, and Idaho All-State Orchestras, the Washington All-State Jr. Orchestra as well as many regional honor orchestras in Washington, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Oregon and Indiana. In 2019, Caoile will direct the All-City Middle School Orchestra in Salem, Oregon. In 2016, Caoile received the Outstanding Orchestral Achievement Award from the Washington Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Caoile regularly presents clinics at National Association for Music Educators Regional and State Conferences and has served as a presenter for Seattle Symphony Pre-Concert Talk series.

Born in Portland, Nikolas Caoile now resides in Ellensburg WA with his wife, mezzo-soprano, Melissa Schiel and their son, Kieran. Caoile holds degrees in conducting and composition and completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan. In 2013, he accepted a nomination to join Phi Beta Kappa as a member of the Willamette chapter, Delta of Oregon. His principal teachers are Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier, and Peter Erös. Caoile also enjoys playing golf, NYT Crosswords, and cooking.

The work of composer and pianist Jiyoun Chung (b. 1982, South Korea) has received many distinctions and awards and is often heard in festivals and concerts in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Her current interest in composition lies in encompassing various cultural influences into her works. Her own identity as a Korean immigrant plays a big factor in her music making. Having two different cultural perspectives as she has enculturated into the United States allows her to see one culture as an abundant source of creations from the point of view of the other. Thus, embracing both in the compositional process comes naturally to her, however, Chung’s works are not limited to the fusion of Korean and concert music. While the wealth of inspiration derives from the East Asian culture, other inspiration comes from various musical portraits and genres such as contemporary concert music, K-pop, jazz, musical theater, hip-hop, street music, and world traditional music. Languages, structures, timbres, and vocabularies from those different musical arts have expanded her musical palette, which helps to speak to a broad range of audiences.

Jiyoun Chung received her BM in Composition from Hanyang University in South Korea. She earned her MM in Composition and in Piano Performance from Illinois State University, studying with Carl Schimmel and Martha Horst. She received her DMA in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she studied with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and James Mobberley. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Music at Central Washington University.

Born in Denver, Colorado, oboist Scott Erickson has performed throughout the Americas. While pursuing his doctorate at Florida State University, he was appointed Principal Oboe of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Bolivia, and he taught at the National Conservatory in La Paz. His unique experiences have given him an adventurous musical personality, and his pursuits for newer sounds and ideas manifested themselves in performances of both written and improvised music with the Bold City Contemporary Ensemble in Jacksonville, Florida.

​Erickson is a frequent performer in orchestras throughout the United States, with performances in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Coastal Symphony of Georgia, Pensacola Symphony, Ocala Symphony, Panama City Pops, Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, and the Albany (Georgia) Symphony. Additionally, he has given concerto performances in the United States, Canada, and Bolivia.
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In 2018, Erickson joined the faculty at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. He was awarded his doctorate in oboe performance at Florida State University, where he also earned his master’s degree, studying with Dr. Eric Ohlsson. He received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Wyoming with a dual emphasis on oboe and flute, studying with Dr. Lindsey Bird-Reynolds and Dr. Nicole Riner, respectively. He is an active performer and educator, and he maintains a reed making business in Ellensburg.

Dr. T. André Feagin serves as Director of Bands in the Department of Music at Central Washington University. In this position, he guides the educational and artistic vision of the band program that includes the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Wildcat Marching Band, and Pep Band. He heads the graduate wind band conducting program and serves as the conductor of the Wind Ensemble, the preeminent wind band at CWU. Under his leadership, the Wind Ensemble was a featured performer at the 2022 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Western/Northwestern Division Conference and has been selected and invited as a featured performer at the 2024 World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensemble (WASBE) International convention in Gwangju, South Korea.

In addition to his role in the department of music, Dr. Feagin also serves as Dean Fellow of Student Success in the College of Arts and Humanities where his programming and mentorship focus on student academic success, community engagement/building, and creating a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. He currently serves as chair of the diversity, equity, and inclusivity committee in the College of Arts and Humanities. In 2023, Dr. Feagin was the recipient of two President’s Diversity Awards at CWU in the" faculty" and "community" categories, respectively for his work in fostering equity and belonging at CWU and the surrounding community.

Prior to his appointment at CWU, he served on the music faculties of Colorado State University, Coastal Carolina University (SC), and the University of Texas at El Paso. His secondary teaching experience include serving as Director of Bands at Watkins Overton High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (TN).

Dr. Feagin has appeared as a guest conductor with numerous All-state, regional honor bands, and professional bands and orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Southeast Asia. Recent engagements include serving as guest conductor with the Northwest Sinfonietta Orchestra (WA) and the 2019 American Spring Festival (Czech Republic). As a clinician/presenter, he has been invited to speak on conducting, diversity and inclusivity in music education, and leadership at numerous music educators’ conferences across the United States and around the globe. In 2022 he was selected to present at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles convention in Prague, Czech Republic.

Dr. Feagin was one of three nationally selected conductors to perform with the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America in the inaugural Young Composer/Conductors Mentor Project sponsored by the National Band Association. In 2012, he was one of three nationally selected conductors to perform with the United States Academy Band at West Point during the Association of Concert Bands National Convention. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including twice a national finalist in the professional/college wind band division of the American Prize contest. In 2011, he was honored with a proclamation of “Professor T. André Feagin Day” from the Mayor and City Council of El Paso, Texas. Dr. Feagin has served as a teacher resource guide contributing author in four volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series (GIA Publications).

Dr. Feagin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting from the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music where he was a student of the late Gregg I. Hanson. His doctoral research studies Spanish wind composer Bernardo Adam Ferrero and his wind composition Homenaje a Joaquín Sorolla. He holds a Master of Music degree in instrumental wind conducting from the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. He is grateful for his mentors and teachers that have shaped his passion for conducting and music education. Among them are Gregg I. Hanson, Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Kraig Alan Williams, Thomas Cockrell, Bruce Chamberlain, Pat Morrow, Darry Pilkington, and Sallie Vines White.

Dr. Feagin holds professional memberships in the National Association for Music Education, College Band Directors National Association, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Washington Music Educators Association, Patron of Mu Phi Epsilon, and honorary memberships in both Tau Beta Sigma and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He served on the Statement of Purpose and Diversity Committees of the College Band Directors National Association and serves on the advisory board of Emergence: Research & Performance Topics in Black Music, the scholarly publication of the National Associations of Negro Musicians, Inc.

Dr. Feagin’s experience in Drum Corps International (DCI) and the marching arts expands two decades. Previous appointments include serving as brass caption head of the Santa Clara Vanguard and The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps. He has served on the brass staff of the Boston Crusaders, Carolina Crown, and is the former executive director and brass caption head of the 2007 DCI Division III World Champion Memphis Sound Drum and Bugle Corps. As a performing member, he served four-years as conductor of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps. He was the recipient of the DCI Jim Jones Leadership Award in 2000 and the DCI Division III Director of the Year Award in 2007. Dr. Feagin served on the educational staff for the United States Army All-American Marching Band from 2009-2015 and 2018. He led the organization as head director in 2013, 2014 and 2018.

Josh Gianola is a percussionist, advocate, and educator. Currently, he is the principal percussionist of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra and the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra. An active freelancer, Josh regularly plays as an extra percussionist with the Oregon Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and has been a guest principal percussionist for the Mid-Columbia and Newport Symphony Orchestras.

A passionate advocate for systemic equity, Josh helped to launch Yakima Music en Acción (YAMA) in January of 2013. A nonprofit committed to developing youth leadership through music, YAMA’s student body grew from 11 to over 120 in the years that followed. In addition to teaching orchestral and traditional repertoire, Josh served as Yakima Symphony Liaison and was the primary contact with the Yakima School District. Through fostering these community connections, Josh and the team at YAMA worked to disrupt barriers to access in the orchestral landscape, and further enriched the lives of hundreds of otherwise underrepresented students in the Yakima Valley.

Josh holds a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Portland State University, and a Bachelor of Music Performance from Central Washington University. He now resides in Ellensburg, Washington with his wife, violinist Vanessa Moss, their black lab Gilly, and their cat, Cat. His principal teachers are Jon Greeney, Joel Bluestone, and Mark Goodenberger

John Harbaugh is the Professor of trumpet at Central Washington University. He has over 35 years of college teaching experience. He performed at the Vatican’s year 2000 concert series in Rome and as a member of the CWU brass quintet at Washington WMEA conventions and All Northwest MENC conferences. His professional experience includes touring with Tom Jones, Paul Anka, and Buddy Rich. He appears on three Grammy nominated albums and has recorded as a jazz soloist with the London Symphony. He was principal trumpet in the Yakima Symphony for 17 years and has been a member of regional orchestras in Iowa, Washington, and Alaska. In the last several years he performed in groups behind Charo, Bob Newhart, Mannheim Steamroller, and the Disney touring company of “High School Musical”. He was director and executive producer of “A New and Different Way of Getting More Music Out of Trumpet” which was rereleased on DVD in 2007 This 3 DVD series documents internationally known teacher Professor William Adam’s pedagogical concepts for playing and teaching trumpet. His trumpet students have consistently been in the semi final rounds of the National Trumpet Competition in both the ensemble, undergraduate, and graduate divisions. In 2004, 2011 and in 2013 the CWU trumpet ensemble was invited to perform at the International Trumpet Guild Conventions. He presented lecture recitals at Soochow and the Chinese Cultural Universities in Taipei, Taiwan. He performed as a soloist in 2013 and 2015 with Tao Yuan Symphonic Band in Taiwan. His released CD’s “New Vistas” and “Chilaxin with the John Harbaugh Jazz Trio” can be heard on Spotify and other websites. In 2018 and 2019 you can hear his work as lead trumpet and as a jazz soloist on Greg Yasinitsky’s “Yazz Band” Cds or on the web. Feel free to contact him at harbaughj@cwu.edu. He currently works as a soloist/clinician for C.G. Conn/Selmer Corporation and has appeared in the U.S. Canada, and Taiwan.

Jazz Biography

John Harbaugh’s history and experience in the jazz idiom is extensive. Since his days as an undergraduate performing in the winning band and being selected as a outstanding jazz soloist at the Wichita Jazz Festival to his current position at director of Jazz two at CWU.

He has degrees from schools with nationally acclaimed jazz programs, a BA from University of Northern Iowa, MME from the University of North Texas ( lead trumpet in the 2 o’clock band) and 40 hours on a Doctorate at Indiana University ( lead trumpet in David Baker’s premiere jazz ensemble). He has studied jazz improvisation with Rich Matteson, Ashley Alexander, and David Baker. During his career he has directed college bands that have been invited to perform at the North Sea, Montreux, and was selected from at national pool to have his group be one of only ten to compete at the Notre Dame Jazz festival. His professional career includes a US and British Isles tour with Buddy Rich, two years touring the US, Japan, and Europe with Paul Anka, two years touring the US, Canada, and Britain with Tom Jones, as well as working most of the shows in Las Vegas during the mid 1980’s. He can be hear as a jazz soloist with the London Symphony on “Powell Canyons”, in the trumpet section on four Ashley Alexander /Frank Mantooth recordings, and 2009 Drum Channel DVD “Buddy Rich up close”. He has been involved in three Grammy nominated productions and on one Dove award winning recording. He has recorded educational jazz material for Barnhouse and Music Minus One publications

He has perform in groups backing up artists like, Mel Torme, Gerry Mulligan, Anita ODay, Sammy Davis Jr. Bob Newhart, Woody Herman, Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, and Lionel Hampton to name only a few.

He continues to work having recently played in pit orchestras for touring Broadway shows like, 9 to 5, The Color Purple, Disney’s High School Musical, and “South Pacific” He brings wealth of knowledge and experience when works as a clinician, an adjudicator, and or performer. He is currently is faculty member at Central Washington University teaching applied trumpet, coaching trumpet choir, and directing the second jazz band. He is as a faculty member of the Yellowstone Jazz camp, a clinician for Conn /Selmer Corporation, and as has served a member of the advisory committee for the National Trumpet Competition.

Equally devoted to music performance and education, Thomas Hawthorne is a double bassist familiar with the instrument from every angle. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and shaped by early experiences as an instructor with the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association (TYSA), Thomas welcomes a study of the instrument centered on joy and continuous exploration. A sought-after performer in numerous ensembles throughout the region, Thomas currently serves as an active section bass with Symphony Tacoma and enjoys playing with a variety of other groups including Tacoma City Ballet, Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Olympia Symphony Orchestra, The Sound Ensemble, and Vashon Opera, among others.

Alongside his role as Lecturer of Double Bass at Central Washington University and private studio instruction, Thomas also works to instruct and coordinate various music education efforts throughout the South Sound region of Washington state as Education Manager at TYSA. Offering sectionals to middle and high school bass players, spearheading new educational programs like the Tacoma Community Ukulele Project to expand access to music education, and coordinating TYSA’s String Orchestra Festival – a regional orchestra festival bringing in over 1,000 middle school musicians – are just a few of the projects Thomas enjoys contributing to at TYSA.

During the summer, Thomas serves as both manager and bass faculty at the Hammond Ashley – TYSA Double Bass Workshop as well as the Evergreen Music Festival. He also serves as manager of TYSA’s unique intersection of jazz and classical repertoire, their Symphonic Jazz Workshop.

Holding his Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in Double Bass Performance from the University of Michigan, Thomas has had the good fortune of studying double bass under the tutelage of many renowned instructors including Dr. Diana Gannett, Scott Pingel, Maximillian Dimoff, and Ranaan Meyer. When not playing or teaching bass, Thomas can be found hiking, disc golfing, or playing a board game with his friends and family.

Keith Karns is a trumpet player, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator based in the Pacific Northwest. He has worked with some of the leading voices in jazz including Rich Perry, Stefon Harris, Greta Matassa, Lauren Sevian, the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, and Benny Golson.


Keith's big band has toured nationally and has recorded two CDs of his original compositions and arrangements. He has received awards from the National Trumpet Competition, the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Downbeat Magazine, and the Jazz Education Network (JEN).


Keith has taught at the University of North Texas, North Central Texas College, Western Oregon University, and Central Washington University. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, Indiana University, and the University of North Texas. His teachers include John Harbaugh, Robert Baca, Joey Tartell, Pat Harbison, David Baker, Bill Adam, Jay Saunders, Rich DeRosa, and John Murphy.

Keith performs on a custom trumpet built by Fred Powell. He is a Torpedo Bags performing artist and uses Torpedo Bags to transport and protect all of his trumpets.

Praised by the International Piano Magazine as “pianist of beautiful finesse and golden tone”, pianist Yerin Kim is a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. She has given concerts in various festivals and recitals in major venues internationally, including The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Carnegie Hall in New York, Place Flagey in Brussels and Rolston Hall at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Her solo debut album "First and Last Words", works by Robert Schumann and Alfred Schnittke, was released by the Sheva Collection Label in Spring 2019. Phoenix Classical, one of the foremost promoters of Classical recordings across the world, remarked on the album as “powerful and engaging, very poetic and expressive with some truly original interpretive insights, all performed with a great technique”. The album has garnered critical acclaim from major classical music magazines, including the International Piano Magazine, Fanfare Magazine, and The Whole Note Magazine. Partnering with her husband, Brendan Shea, performances have been broadcasted on Klara Continuo in Belgium, PBC in Seoul, WUFT Classic in the USA and has been praised by the Calgary Herald as “lively, ebullient, and spikily accentuated performance”. Their debut performance in Seoul, South Korea was recorded live and published by Ark Studio in 2016. Their latest project, “The Sound and the Fury”, was released in 2021 by the Blue Griffin records and have remarked by major magazines as "rich and intimate(BBC)", "exquisitely as a team..gives way to a radiant purity(String Magazine)", "deeply musical, expressive character and spiritual fusion (Classical Music Sentinel)". (www.shea-kimduo.com).

As a regular lecturer and guest artist, Kim performs and gives talks on promoting awareness of the power of music in the community that it serves. She has been invited to give lectures for prominent educators and students at Indiana University Bloomington, the Nantucket Project, MTNA South Bend Music Teachers Association, and the Universal Arts Institute, S. Korea. Committed to bringing inspiring concert programs and classical music experience to a broader audience, she founded and directs Sensory Friendly Music and Autism Concert Series, serving music to autistic individuals in New York, St.Louis, and South Bend. She is also Co-artistic Director with violinist Brendan Shea of Chamber Music in the Bend, programming high quality chamber music education and performing chamber music concerts for the community.

Kim is equally passionate in teaching and has been teaching a diverse group of students from many parts of the world. She is the head of Keyboard Studies at Central Washington University and directs the keyboard program where she teaches solo piano, chamber music, and collaborative piano. Prior to joining Central Washington University, she taught at the University of Notre Dame and at Chugye University for the Arts Conservatory in South Korea as Visiting Professor of Piano. She also enjoys pre-college teaching and has taught talented young students from pre-college programs at Indiana University Bloomington and State University of New York Stony Brook. Kim holds a Double Degree in Piano Performance and Psychology from Oberlin conservatory and college, a Master of Music from Indiana University Bloomington, and Doctor of Musical Arts from State University of New York, Stony Brook. Her mentors and teachers include Hans Boepple, Seunghae Choi, Haewon Song, Arnaldo Cohen, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and Gilbert Kalish

Dr. Nicole Lamartine is thrilled to be joining the excellent music faculty at Central Washington University, where she will act on her values of empowering the next generation of choral educators and cultivating excellence in 21st century choral performance.

As a clinician and guest conductor of three international honor choirs (DoDDS Honor Choir in Germany, AMIS TTBB Honor Choir in Abu Dhabi, TAISM Festival Choir in Oman), nine All-State choirs (MN, CO, WA, OR, WY, MT, AK, KS), the 2014 NW ACDA TTBB Honor Choir, and dozens of regional honor choirs, Nicole seeks to positively impact choral musicians all over the world. An avid champion for music education, Nicole has headlined conferences of the Association for Music in International Schools (Hong Kong) and the Washington Music Educators Association.

Dr. Lamartine’s research focuses on rehearsal technique and anatomy and movement for conductors, and she has presented at dozens of conferences including national and regional meetings of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, College Music Society, California All-State Music Conference, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

From 2020-2022, Dr. Nicole Lamartine served as the Sorensen Director of Choral Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she conducted the flagship UCSB Chamber Choir, integrated relevance into graduate choral studies at the MM and DMA levels, and taught studio conducting and voice.

As Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wyoming from 2008-2020, she led the Collegiate Chorale, The UW Singing Statesmen and the Happy Jacks, and taught conducting and studio voice. Her choirs were honored to sing at several national and regional conferences (2020 NW ACDA, 2017 NW NAfME, 2015 NW NAfME, 2012, NW ACDA, 2011 NCCO, 2011 NW MENC), and she is a recognized expert in females conducting tenor/bass choirs. She won the Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom Teaching, the university's highest teaching award.

Dr. Lamartine has enjoyed abundant opportunities to commission and premiere new works from leading composers such as Craig Hella Johnson, Libby Larsen, Jennifer Higdon, Gerard Schwarz, Forrest Pierce, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Muehleisen, and Karen Thomas.

She conducts Chor Anno with Howard Meharg (Vancouver, WA), providing an opportunity for a creative outlet as ensemble singers to choral music educators in the NW. Chor Anno performed at the 2022 NW ACDA conference. She is also the founding Artistic Director of the Santa Barbara Gay Men’s Chorus, which just completed its first season.

An active performer, Dr. La has sung professionally with Conspirare, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and Colorado Bach Ensemble. She has served the American Choral Directors Association as President of the Northwestern region. She achieved world, national, and state records in powerlifting, demonstrating that creativity is intertwined with strength of body and mind. The “Nicole Lamartine Choral Series” is published with Santa Barbara Music Press and focuses on accessible music for emerging Tenor-Bass choirs.

Daniel Lipori serves as Associate Professor of Bassoon and Music History at CWU. In addition to applied lessons, he teaches courses in music history, woodwind techniques, music literature, and bibliography and research. Prior to his appointment at CWU, he taught music history and double reeds at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Dr. Lipori received his Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Certificate in Early Music History and Performance from Florida State University and his Doctoral degree from the University of Arizona. Dr. Lipori has studied bassoon with William Winstead, Norman Herzberg, John Hunt, Jeffrey Keesecker, and William Dietz.


Dr. Lipori has performed with many orchestras throughout the country, primarily in Washington, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida. In the Ellensburg area, he performs regularly with the Yakima Symphony, and has also played with the Wenatchee Symphony, the Washington/Idaho Symphony, and Lake Chelan Bach Festival. While in the Duluth, MN area, he performed on occasion with the Duluth-Superior Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Marquette, MI Symphony, Chequamegon, WI Symphony, as well as on period instruments with the College of St. Scholastica Early Music Ensembles. At CWU, Dr. Lipori plays with the faculty wind quintet and on baroque bassoon for the Musica Antiqua concert series. He also plays in the Intermontane Bassoon Trio with Susan Hess (University of Idaho) and Ryan Hare (Washington State University).

Dr. Lipori is a regular performer/clinician at many conventions around the country and recently has presented at the conventions of the International Double Reed Society (1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008), Music Teacher’s National Association (2001), Northwest Music Educator’s Conference (2007), Washington Music Educator’s Association (2006), and Minnesota Music Educator’s Association (2000, 2003).

Dr. Lipori is an active member of the International Double Reed Society, Early Music America, Music Educator’s National Conference, and the Washington Music Educator's Association. He has previously been a member of the American Musicological Society Midwest Chapter, Minnesota Bassoon Association, Texas Music Educator's Association, and Minnesota Music Educator's Association.

Dr. Lipori is an active author, coming out with a new edition: Georg Wenzel Ritter; Quartets for Bassoon and Strings, published by A-R Editions in 1999 and A Researcher’s Guide to the Bassoon, published by The Edwin Mellen Press in 2002. He regularly contributes articles to the Double Reed Journal, and is their primary new music reviewer.

Dr. David McLemore is the Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at Central Washington University. His duties include teaching applied tuba and euphonium lessons, directing the CWU Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, as well as teaching courses in music appreciation and low brass methods. David also serves as tubist for the CWU Faculty Brass Quintet. Prior to his appointment at CWU, David served as Adjunct Instructor of Music at Young Harris College, where he taught applied tuba and euphonium lessons as well as courses in music theory and appreciation.

Dr. McLemore maintains an active career as a performer in both large and chamber ensembles. He has performed as a substitute/extra tubist with the Macon Symphony Orchestra (GA), Valdosta Symphony Orchestra (GA), and Georgia Symphony Orchestra; additionally, he served as a low brass mentor with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles program, acting as principal tubist of the DSO Civic Orchestra from 2009-2011. David was a finalist in the 2011 New Jersey Symphony Orchestra principal tuba audition, and more recently a super-finalist in the 2014 Louisville Orchestra principal tuba audition. He has performed with numerous chamber ensembles, including the Classic V brass quintet (GA), Pine Lake brass quintet (GA), the University of Georgia Graduate Tuba-Euphonium Quartet, and the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble.

As a soloist, Dr. McLemore has competed at numerous national and international competitions, often emerging as a prize winner. David won 1st prize Artist Tuba in the 2010 International Tuba-Euphonium Conference solo competition, 1st prize Artist Tuba in the 2012 Leonard Falcone International Tuba-Euphonium Festival solo competition, and 1st prize Brass in the 2012 MTNA National solo competition. More recently, he won 1st prize tuba, 3rd prize euphonium, and the Grand prize (on tuba) in the 2014 International Women’s Brass Conference solo competitions. McLemore was also one of five finalists in the 2011 WAMSO Young Artist Competition, winning a scholarship to attend the 2011 Aspen Music Festival. He won 3rd prize tuba at the 2014 Jeju International Brass Competition in Jeju, South Korea. David is frequently in demand as a soloist and clinician, performing at the 2012 and 2014 International Tuba Euphonium Conferences, the 2013 United States Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Workshop, the 2013 and 2015 Southeast Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conferences, and the 2015 Midwest Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conference.

Dr. McLemore holds degrees from the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music (DMA), the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (MM), and the University of Southern California Flora L. Thornton School of Music (BM). At UGA David was awarded with the Presidential Fellowship, the first student in the history of the Hodgson School of Music to receive the prestigious award. At the University of Michigan he received two Master’s Degrees: one in tuba performance and the other in chamber music performance. David’s principle teachers include David Zerkel, Fritz Kaenzig, Norm Pearson, Jim Self, Warren Deck, and Richard Pasko.

John Michel, in his thirty-second year as cello professor at Central Washington University, enjoys his eclectic career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

In addition to regular solo recitals, he has performed Strauss’ Don Quixote, Shostakovich #1, Dvorak, Herbert, Elgar, Haydn D & C, Tchaikovsky Rococo, Maria Newman, Saint Saëns and Vivaldi E minor concertos. With his wife Carrie Rehkopf he has performed the Beethoven Triple and Brahms Double Concertos, the latter performed for memory in Seattle, Olympia and Ellensburg, and the last movement at the Kennedy Center under the steady baton of Nikolas Caoile. More recent collaborations were with Lawrence Golan and the Yakima Symphony; John Welsh and the SOGO Symphony; David Walton and the Rainier Symphony; R. Joseph Scott and the Sammamish Symphony; Ryan Heller and the Southwest Washington Orchestra; and Paul Elliott-Cobbs and the Everett Symphony.

In double series concerts, Mr. Michel has performed all of the six Bach Cello Suites for memory, and regularly appears in the Seattle Bach Suite Marathon.

In 2001, he was one of seven guest artists featured at the First Kobe International Cello Festival in Japan where he gave a solo recital and masterclass, as well as performed in the Grand Cello Concert with 750 other cellists from around the world. In 2015 he returned with five students to Gumi, Japan for the 1000 Cellists Concert. At the World Cello Congress III, he premiered the new Solo Cello Sonata “Othmar” by composer Maria Newman. He has published recordings onto CD and for digital distribution including the Dvorak Cello Concerto, Shostakovich Cello Concert #1, Bach Suites G & C, Maria Newman Solo Sonata and numerous live recordings.

Mr. Michel is a founding member of the Kairos (formerly Kairos Quartet) which holds an endowed professorship as the CWU resident ensemble. More recently, Kairos performed with Dr. Moli Chiang at the National Recital Hall of Taiwan and collaborated with various artists including distinguished pianists Stephen Beus, Duane Funderburk, Yerin Kim, Eduard Zilberkant and Tatjana Rankovich; violinists Kathryn Votapek, Brendan Shea, Aaron Berofsky, Vanessa Moss, Allion Salvador and David Perry; violist Michelle Rahn, Jessica Jaspar and Tim Betts; choreographer Shauna Barger, Diane DeFranco Browne and Jackie Kopcsak; and visual artists Mellasenah Williams and Rachel Kirk. The Kairos continues to premiere and/or commission new works by composers including Duane Funderburk, Charles Berofsky and Matthew Armbrust. For twenty years, the Kairos Quartet performed throughout the Northwest and beyond. The Kairos Quartet recorded Maria Newman’s "Birthday of the Infanta" on the Raptoria Caam label. On occasion, he substitutes in the cello section of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

He was the founder and former director of the Internet Cello Society, a cyber-community of cellists, that shared the knowledge and joy of cello playing with enthusiasts from around the globe. At one point, 20,000 ICS members represented 84 different countries. It is now permanently archived at CelloBello.com. He served on the board of the New Directions Cello Association. Regionally, he hosts the Central Cello Celebration, a special gathering of cellists from across the Northwest.

During the summers, Mr. Michel has performed and taught at the Music & More SummerFest in Bosnia & Herzegovina, InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy, Chautauqua Summer Chamber Music Festival, Kairos Chamber Music Lyceum, Marrowstone Music Festival and the Evergreen Music Festival. He also has been co-director and faculty at the Icicle Creek Music Festival and Institute. He has given masterclasses for the Banff International Orchestra Festivals; Olympia, Icicle Creek and Tacoma Youth Symphony organizations; the Seattle Cello Society and the Interlochen Arts Camp. The American String Teacher Association, Washington chapter, named him Outstanding College String Teacher in 1996.

His formal training includes Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Michigan and the New England Conservatory, respectively. Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio, Jeffrey Solow, Stefan Popov, Ned Johnson, John Lenz and Susan Ladley were his main cello teachers.

He is married to violinist Carrie Rehkopf, and father of three active young men. He continues his father’s professional photography business as Skyline Studios, skylinestudios.org focusing on portraiture and publicity photos. For recreation, he enjoys playing tennis and strategy games including online chess.

Dr. John S. Neurohr is the Assistant Professor of Trombone at Central Washington University. His duties include teaching applied trombone lessons, directing the CWU Trombone Choir, and teaching the Brass Pedagogy and Literature courses. He is also a member of the CWU Faculty Brass Quintet. In addition to his duties at CWU, Dr. Neurohr is also Principal Trombonist of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra (WY), the Oregon East Symphony, and the Seattle Wind Symphony. During the summers, he is the Trombone Instructor (Session 2) at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.

Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, John has been a regular substitute/extra musician with the Seattle Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Yakima Symphony, and the Wenatchee Valley Symphony, as well as having appeared on movie score soundtracks. Previous orchestral appointments include serving as principal trombonist of the Longmont Symphony Orchestra (CO), the Steamboat Springs Orchestra (CO), the Colorado Mahlerfest Orchestra, and as second trombonist of the San Juan Symphony (NM) and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (CA). Prior to leaving the Rocky Mountain Region, John was a first call substitute musician for many of the symphony orchestras throughout the Colorado Front Range, and performed regularly with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Ft. Collins Symphony, and the Boulder Philharmonic.

As a soloist, John has performed recitals at the Colorado Music Festival, Telling Stories Concert Series, the Pendulum New Music Concert Series, and the St. Mark’s Concert Series in Medford, Oregon. As a featured soloist, he has performed with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, Brass Band Northwest, Niwot-Timberline Symphony, Central Washington University Wind Ensemble, twice with the University of Colorado Wind Symphony, and once with the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra. In 2003, John was one of six finalists selected for the prestigious Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Competition, the first brass player to have advanced to the final round in the competition’s history. In 1999, he was the winner of the Young Artists Concerto Competition in Morgantown, West Virginia.

An active chamber musician, John is a founding member of the Apollo Chamber Brass, a nationally touring nonprofit arts and education corporation based in the Front Range area of Colorado. Additionally, he has also performed and commercially recorded with the California Parallélè Ensemble, and the world renowned Summit Brass. Prior to leaving the Front Range area of Colorado, he performed regularly and toured with both the Denver Brass and Boulder Brass.

As a jazz/commercial musician, John has served as bass trombonist of Walt Disney World’s All-American College Band in Orlando, Florida and lead trombone of the Downbeat Award winning University of Colorado Jazz Ensemble I. In addition, he performed regularly with the Legacy Jazz Orchestra, a Thad Jones tribute band based in Denver. He has performed with such notable artists as Randy Brecker, Ron Carter, Conrad Herwig, Steve Houghton, Jeff Kashiwa, Chuck Mangione, Ron McCurdy, Arturo Sandoval, Jim Snidero, Chip Stevens, and Phil Wilson.

An avid educator, John is in demand nationally as a clinician. Recent presentations of clinics, masterclasses and performances include: Appalachian State University (NC), Colorado Bandmaster’s Association Workshop, Colorado State University, Northwest Brass Band Festival (WA), Seattle Trombone Workshop, Sul Ross State University (TX), the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and West Virginia University. In addition, he previously served on the faculties of the University of Colorado-Boulder, Parlando School for the Arts (CO), and the Governor’s School East of North Carolina.

John’s education includes the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Master of Music Performance degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Bachelor of Music Education degree, graduating summa cum laude, from West Virginia University. He received additional studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School as a Hewlett Scholarship recipient.

Throughout the course of his studies, John has been fortunate to have studied with such prominent performers and pedagogues as Mark H. Lawrence, principal trombonist (retired) of the San Francisco Symphony, Steven Witser, formerly associate principal trombonist of the Cleveland Orchestra, Michael Powell, trombonist of the American Brass Quintet, Dr. William Stanley, associate professor of trombone at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. H. Keith Jackson, associate professor of trombone at West Virginia University, and the late Matthew, “Matty”, Shiner, formerly professor Emeritus at Duquesne University. John received his first musical training at the age of nine from his father, John H. Neurohr, a Wheeling, West Virginia area freelance trombonist.

Dr. Hal Ott is professor of flute at Central Washington University where he was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor. He currently serves as principal flute with the Yakima Symphony and the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, and he has presented clinics, adjudicated, and performed as a recitalist and concerto soloist on both the flute and baroque flute throughout the United States, Europe, and the Peoples' Republic of China.

Dr. Ott served as program chair for the Dallas National Flute Association convention and has published numerous articles in Flute Talk Magazine and The National Flutist Quarterly. His CDs include, Maria Newman Chamber Works (Nominated by Jim Svejda of NPR's "The Record Shelf Guide to the Classical Repertoire" for a 2010 Pulitzer Prize), Flute for Thought, Concerto Collage, and Latin Expressions, and he is an author of the widely used textbook, Teaching Woodwinds, published by G. Schirmer.

In the fall of 2012, Scott Peterson returned to his alma mater to conduct the CWU Men’s Choir as an adjunct professor.

He retired in June, 2012, from Yakima Valley Community College after 36 successful years as Director of Choral Activities. While at YVCC, Dr. Peterson conducted the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and also taught music appreciation and music theory. He continues as Chorusmaster of the Yakima Symphony Chorus which is the choral organization of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. He teaches a Choral Literature Techniques course in the CWU summer graduate offerings for the Masters of Music Education.

A native of Iowa, Scott Peterson received his D.M.A. degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington where he conducted the U. W. Opera Chorus. He was granted Central Washington University’s first M. A. degree in conducting where he formed and conducted the Central Chorale. He received a B. A. degree in music education from Midland Lutheran College where he conducted the Freshmen Chorale. Dr. Peterson studied with Robert DeCormier, Dale Warland, Abraham Kaplan, Joan Conlon, William Hatcher, Maurice Skones, E. Gordon Leavitt and Eugene B. Nelson. He also twice performed as a member of the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in Carnegie Hall under Robert Shaw.

Dr. Peterson was a member of Male Ensemble Northwest for 27 years. During that time he performed with MEN at two national ACDA conferences and several division conferences. He was on the faculty at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival for 7 summers where he conducted the FSAF Chamber Singers and the Festival Chorus.

Dr. Peterson is past president of the Northwestern Division of the American Choral Directors Association. During his term, the Divisional conference was held in Vancouver, B. C., the first ACDA conference to occur outside the United States.

Violist Michelle Rahn enjoys a career that balances teaching and performing. As an experienced teacher and viola instructor at Central Washington University, Dr. Rahn works to inspire curiosity; form healthy, efficient and musical players; and provide all the tools necessary to continue learning after graduation. She also works with youth, local youth symphonies, and maintains a private teaching studio. As a performer, Dr. Rahn is an active freelancer, soloist and chamber musician. She has performed in China, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Bermuda and across the US. She enjoys premiering new works and has recently performed pieces by Brian P. Buch, Rodney Lister and Andrew Smith.

Dr. Rahn is a native of southern Oregon and studied for her undergrad at the University of Oregon in violin performance until, upon hearing the Walton Viola Concerto, was compelled to switch to the viola. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts, Performance Diploma and Master's degree from Boston University. Her primary teachers were Michelle LaCourse, Edward Gazouleas, Leslie Straka and Steven Ansell.

While attending Boston University, she received the Dean's Scholarship, the String Department Honor’s Award and won the viola prize at the Boston University Bach Competition. Dr. Rahn was a participant in the National Orchestral Institute (2008), the International Chamber Music Course in Positano, Italy (2008), the Karen Tuttle Coordination Workshop (2007) and the Jascha Heifetz Music Institute for the Development of Personal Style (2003).

Previous appointments include faculty positions teaching viola, orchestral excerpts and chamber music at the University of Oregon School of Music and Chemeketa Community College.

During the summer, she performs and is on faculty for many festivals including: the International Chamber Music Course in Positano, Italy, the Community Music Center Chamber Music Program in Portland, Oregon and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Junior Strings Intensive in Lenox, Massachusetts. She is a performer in the Siletz Bay Music Festival and the Astoria Music Festival.

Dr. Rahn approaches every pursuit with creative, positive energy. In her free time, Michelle enjoys baking, hiking, gardening and watching classic movies with her husband and cat, Bijou.

Violinist Carrie Rehkopf’s career blends the best of the worlds of performing and teaching. Called a ‘first-class musician’ by Sir Georg Solti, her particular interests in building new audiences and cultivating artistry in players of all levels have led her to incorporate elements of acting, choreography and narrative into her violin work. She toured North America for 24 years as first violinist of the Kairos Quartet. Founder and Director of both the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute and the Kairos Chamber Music Lyceum, Ms. Rehkopf has also performed at the Tanglewood, Banff, Norfolk festivals, the Interharmony Festival in Italy and Music & More Summerfest in Herzegovina. She has given concerto performances with the Everett, Olympia, Wenatchee, Yakima, Southwest Washington and Lake Sammamish Symphonies as well as several youth orchestras. She envisioned and led a ‘flash mob’ of string players in joining her during the cadenza of Mozart's G Major Concerto with the Everett Philharmonic.

Ms. Rehkopf gave the world premiere of Maria Newman's beautiful violin concerto, Lux Aeterna, which she recorded at Capitol Records. During the 2017-2018 season, she and her cellist husband John Michel performed Brahms’ Double Concerto for memory in Seattle, Olympia and Ellensburg, and also performed the last movement at the Kennedy Center.

She is Professor of Violin at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where she has taught since 1990. Her former students play in many orchestras and receive awards as outstanding teachers in higher education, the public schools and private studios. Before her position in higher education, Ms. Rehkopf enjoyed performing great literature with various professional orchestras, including serving as Associate Principal Second of the Honolulu Symphony.

Professor Rehkopf began violin at age 4 in the Suzuki Method, and had a week of lessons with Dr. Suzuki in 1976. She received her degrees from the University of Michigan on a full tuition scholarship, studying with Camilla Wicks and Angel Reyes, and studied further in London with David Takeno. As Kairos has expanded into a more collaborative chamber ensemble, she revels in juxtaposing classical music with other art forms and collaborates regularly with choreographer Shauna Goddard Barger from Los Angeles. She and her cellist husband John Michel enjoy reading chamber music with their three highly amusing sons.

Ross Salvosa begins his position as Lecturer of Piano/Piano Pedagogy at CWU in September 2022. An active performer, pedagogue, teacher, and adjudicator, he brings decades of experience to his role.

To Salvosa, piano pedagogy is a means to guide students towards self discovery and personal development so they can live and experience their lives to the fullest and contribute to their communities in the most meaningful way. He has given piano pedagogy lectures and masterclasses internationally, including for the Steinway Young Artist Program in Canada, BC Registered Music Teachers Association, Kenosha Music Teachers Association, Piano League, Cultural Center of the Philippines, University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Philippine Suzuki Association, and the Manila Piano Series.

Salvosa has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, where he was a recipient of the Mildred Johnson Scholarship award, and his Master and Bachelor of Music degrees were obtained under full scholarship at the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Among his illustrious mentors are Sara Davis Buechner, Corey Hamm, Roberta Rust, Kenneth Broadway, Ralph Markham, Emilio Del Rosario, Reynaldo Reyes, Mauricia Borromeo, Ruby Pilante-Salvosa, Abelardo Galang II, and Jose Artemio Panganiban.

An active member of the Music Teachers National Association, Ross is currently serving as chair of the MTNA Poster Sessions Committee and he is also a member of the 2023 MTNA Conference Planning Committee, in addition to being on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force of the Washington State Music Teachers Association. He was the chairman and artistic director of the Music Without Borders Society in Vancouver, BC from 2013 to 2018.

Ross is also on the advisory board of the Seattle International Piano Festival and Competition, where he also serves as adjudicator and outreach coordinator, and he has been on the juries of numerous competitions, among them the Conero IPPA International Piano Competition, Oregon Music Teachers Association Young Artist Competition, Steinway-Canada Young Artist Piano Competition, Vancouver International Festival of Russian Music, Philippine National Music Competition for Young Artists, and the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines Festival and Competition.

Ross has an expansive repertoire of solo, chamber, and concerto works, and he is a proponent of music by underrepresented composers. He is in the process of recording an album of Gamelan-inspired Filipino piano music with MSR Classics, as well as the complete Chopin Op.10 Études and the Stravinsky-Agosti Firebird.

Degrees:
Ph.D. 2011, Musicology, University of Oregon
BA. Music 2003, Music Theory and Composition, Point Loma Nazarene University

Honors:
College of Arts and Humanities Outstanding Research Award, CWU
Faculty Research Award, Office of Graduate Studies and Research, CWU
Coleman Foundation Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship
Igniting the Flame Award for Creative Teaching, The Experiential Classroom
Finalist, Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award, Society for American Music
Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Music, University of Oregon
University Outstanding Scholar in Music, University of Oregon

Mark Samples is a musicologist with interests in popular music, music industry studies, American music in the 20th and 21st Centuries, and arts entrepreneurship. Prior to his appointment at CWU, he held appointments at Millikin University and Millsaps College. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Western music history, ethnomusicology, jazz, film music, popular music, and arts entrepreneurship, among other topics.

Samples's current book project, Sway: How Promotion has Shaped American Music, explores the influence of branding, marketing, and advertising on the production of music since 1850, and covers wide-ranging case studies from Jenny Lind to Joan Baez, Duke Ellington, and Arcade Fire. His research has appeared in Musical Quarterly, the Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd Ed., and The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre and Popular Music (OUP, 2018, winner of the Ruth A. Solie Prize for collected musicological essays). He has given research presentations at regional and national meetings of the American Musicological Society, and at Seattle’s Experience Music Project, Yale University, Boston University, and the International Musicological Colloquium in Brno, Czech Republic, among others. He was also a supplemental author for The Oxford History of Western Music, College Edition, by Richard Taruskin and Christopher Gibbs.

Selected Publications
2018. Samples, Mark C. “Timbre and Legal Likeness: The Case of Tom Waits” in The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre and Popular Music, eds. Robert Fink, Melinda Latour, and Zachary Wallmark. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018, 119–140.
2018. Samples, Mark C., and Sara Theis. “The Entrepreneurial Life: Creating Value in the Theatrical and Performance Industry.” In Arts Entrepreneurship, eds. J. Mark Munoz and Julienne Shields.
2017. Samples, Mark C. “The Humbug and the Nightingale: P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind, and the Branding of a Star Singer for American Reception.” Musical Quarterly 99, 3–4: 286–320.
2013. Samples, Mark C. “Distinguishing Aida Inside and Outside Egypt.” In The Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera Seria: Metamorphosis of the Opera in the Imperial Age. Ed. Petr Macek and Jana Perutková. Prague: KLP, 2013, 259–263.

A faculty member of Central Washington University, since 2011, Dr. Melissa Schiel teaches applied voice, diction and vocal pedagogy. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance from the University of Maryland; a Master of Music in Voice Performance from University of Toronto; and, a Bachelor of Music, Distinction in Voice from McGill University. A passionate and energetic teacher, she received a 2009 Award for Teaching Excellence for her work at the University of Maryland.

Schiel has performed with numerous orchestras in the Pacific Northwest including: Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Rainer Symphony Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Seattle. She has performed at Aspen Summer Music Center, Tanglewood Music Center, Boris Brott Festival, Northwest Mahler Festival and Mountain View International Festival of Song.

On the stage, she has sung Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Olga (Eugene Onegin), The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), Maddelena (Rigoletto), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), The Old Lady (Candide) and Mrs. Herring (Albert Herring). Schiel has also performed numerous oratorio works including: Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Passionate about early music, Dr. Schiel enjoys frequent collaborations with the CWU baroque ensemble Musica Antiqua.

Her performance highlights include: Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’éte, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, De Falla’s El Amor Brujo, Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, Mahler’s Symphony No.2, and Verdi’s Requiem. In 2007, she premiered the role of Estelle Oglethorpe in Later the Same Evening: an opera by American composer John Musto. The opera was inspired by the art work of American painter Edward Hopper which was presented in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Her recent performances in the 2016-17 season include: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Yakima Symphony and Schubert’s Rosamunde with Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers.

Dr. Melissa Schiel is a continuing member of the Voice Foundation and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). In 2010, she was a chosen participant of the NATS Internship Program at Stetson University. Currently, she is President of the Inland Empire Regional Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and remains an active recitalist, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the region.

Leslie Schneider teaches full-time elementary music at Valley View Elementary in Ellensburg. She previously taught in the Yakima School district as a traveling teacher in four elementary schools for three years and has worked in the Ellensburg School District for 22 years. She graduated from LaCenter High School and studied piano lessons from Beulah Cheever for 9 years, participating in national and international piano auditions throughout high school.

Leslie won Clark County’s piano solo contest in 1969 and was a featured soloist at her graduation and at a county-wide recital. Leslie received her BA and MA in Music Education from Central Washington University, along with classes from Clark College and Portland State University. She was elected as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda in 1995. In 2002, her 3rd graders won a $10,000 contest from Oscar Mayer that helped stock her music room instruments, technology and materials. She was named Ellensburg’s Teacher of the Year in 2006. And for the past several years, she has worked with Music Express Magazine and the Hal Leonard Company as a Star Teacher.

Her performance groups have been featured in MENC’s World’s Largest Concert twice, and once at the WMEA Yakima Conference. She works with ESD 105’s Artfusion project as a trainer for the state music CPBA’s and has donated her music composition unit lessons to ESD 105 for their training sessions.

Vijay Singh is an active performer, composer, teacher, conductor, and clinician residing in Ellensburg, Washington where he is Professor of Music at Central Washington University. A graduate of Willamette University (B. M. Ed/Clarinet & Voice) and Portland State University (Masters in Choral Conducting/Vocal Performance), he has been rapidly gaining international attention for his eclectic musical compositions, performances, workshops, and conducting appearances. Vijay’s teaching experiences have included work at public secondary schools, community college, and university levels. He currently teaches voice, choral arranging, jazz pedagogy, directs the University Chorale, and award-winning CWU Vocal Jazz 1, and oversees the vocal jazz program (3 jazz choirs). Vijay’s student ensembles at CWU have been honored as some of the finest in the nation with invitations to perform at prestigious national IAJE, MENC, and ACDA conventions. Vocal Jazz 1 performed at the national ACDA conference in Chicago, IL March 11, 2011, and most recently, at the 2013 national Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference in Atlanta, GA. As a composer, Vijay writes for all levels in both the classical choral and jazz idioms. His compositions (over 170 currently in print) are widely available from a number of publishers and he often writes on commission for some of North America’s finest ensembles. Vijay’s “MASS with Orchestra” received it’s world premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City May 30th, 2011.

An active performer, Vijay has appeared as featured bass-baritone soloist with such notable groups as Male Ensemble Northwest, Choral Cross Ties, the Oregon Symphony, the Robert Shaw Chorale, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Clark Terry, the Disciples of Groove, and as a member of the award-winning a cappella jazz quartet Just 4 Kicks. He has appeared in professional opera and musical theatre productions, and maintains an active career in oratorio, recital, and contemporary music.

Vijay served 4 years as National Repertoire and Standards Chair for Jazz Choirs in the American Choral Director’s Association and is in demand as a guest conductor of All-State and Honors choirs. He has conducted All-State choirs in over twenty-five states and has the distinction of conducting both All-State Concert Choirs and Jazz Choirs within the same year. Vijay has served as adjudicator/jurist at international festivals in Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. The recent recipient of a thirteenth ASCAP Composer’s Award, Vijay is also a member of ACDA, MENC/NAfME, ASCAP, JEN and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Bret Smith is a teacher educator, conductor, and cellist who specializes in instrumental music education. He holds degrees in music and systematic musicology from the University of Washington,where he worked with James C. Carlsen and Barbara Reeder Lundquist, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy in music education from the University of Michigan, where his mentors were Robert L. Culver, James O. Froseth, Richard J. Colwell, and Anthony Elliott. He teaches courses in string pedagogy and methods, curriculum and assessment, music theory, and the psychology of music, as well as serving as faculty advisor and Master Teacher for the CWU Preparatory Strings program, which received a National String Project Consortium grant through the NAMM Foundation in 2008.

Dr. Smith taught instrumental and vocal music from elementary to high school in Washington state, and was a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Music. He has served on the Executive Boards of the Washington and Maryland Music Educators Associations, and the faculty of the Maryland Summer Youth Music camp and the Laughing Horse Youth Orchestra Festival. He has conducted numerous honor orchestras, including the Prince George’s County High School Honor Orchestra in Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. He has participated in the Aspen and Marrowstone music festivals, the International Institute for Chamber Music, and the International Workshop, where he studied conducting with William LaRue Jones and Marvin Rabin. His presentations include the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Eastern and Northwest Division conferences of the National Association for Music Education, the American String Teachers Association national conference, the West Virginia, Colorado, and Washington Music Educators Association state conferences, the Asia- Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, Integrating Curriculum, Theory, and Practice: A Symposium on Assessment in Music Education held in Gainesville, FL, and the Violin Society of America national conference. He frequently provides in-service sessions in the public schools, adjudicates orchestra festivals, and serves as a consultant for private and public arts organizations. He is currently a Research Advisor for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards and past chair of NAfME’s Special Research Interest Group on Assessment.

Smith is co-author, with James O. Froseth, of the innovative string method Do It! Play Strings published by GIA Publications. In addition to incorporating sequential pedagogy into authentic, diverse musical repertoire, he performed all the cello models and produced and mixed the 8 CDs that define the curriculum. His research interests include student motivation and personal investment in instrumental music study, personality and music teaching and learning, and the assessment of musical learning. He has published articles in Psychology of Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, the Journal of Research in Music Education, and the American String Teacher and contributed chapters to all three volumes of the popular book series Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra.

Since 2010, Bret Smith has been part of the production team for Synergia Northwest and served as arranger, performer, and orchestra conductor for these unique benefit concerts. The 2012 Music Matters Live! event focused on Washington State’s specialty license plate approved by the Legislature that year. These concerts bring together student and professional players as well as some of the region’s stellar contemporary artists. Past collaborators include Alan White (Yes, John Lennon), Tracy Bonham, John Popper, Queensryche, Vicci Martinez, LeRoy Bell and His Only Friends, Geoffrey Castle, BRAD, Howard Leese, Roger Fisher, Steve Fossen, Michael DeRosier, Somar Macek, Caspian Coberly, and many more.

He enjoys performing as a member of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra cello section, on electric cello with several pop, rock, and folk groups, on tenor banjo in the early jazz duo RetroPotential and the Dixieland band Crash and the Invaders, as the lead guitar player in the classic rock band Short Term Memory, and various instruments on numerous recording sessions. He frequently collaborates in other ensembles with CWU colleagues on cello, baroque cello, bass, guitar, mandolin, and banjo.

Dr. Jeffrey Snedekerhas taught in the Music Department of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, since 1991. His duties have included teaching horn, music history, and brass literature and pedagogy, performing with the CWU Faculty Wind Quintet and the CWU Faculty Brass Quintet, and directing the CWU Brass Choir and CWU Horn Ensemble. The CWUHE maintains an active outreach program for public schools, and has been an invited performing ensemble at numerous horn and music educator conferences, including the 28th (Eugene, OR), 30th(Banff), 33rd(Kalamazoo, MI), 40th(Denver), 43rd(San Francisco), 47th(Los Angeles), and 50th(Muncie, IN) international workshops of the International Horn Society. Dr. Snedeker has served as Interim Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Associate Chair of the Music Department, and Chair of CWU’s Faculty Senate, as well as on numerous department, college, and university committees. He has received recognition for his teaching, scholarship, and service, including 2006 CWU Faculty Member of the Year, 2008 CWU Phi Kappa Phi Scholar of the Year, 2012 Washington Music Educators Association Higher Education Music Educator of the Year, 2012 CWU Distinguished University Faculty for Service, 2014 Washington State Representative Timm Ormsby Faculty Citizenship Award, and the 2014 National Phi Kappa Phi Artist Award. In 2018, Dr. Snedeker was inducted into the WMEA Hall of Fame.

Jeff is active in several national and international organizations, serving on the Board of Directors of the Historic Brass Society, the Washington Music Educators Association Advisory Board (elected to two terms as Higher Education Curriculum Officer), and the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society. He was elected President of IHS in 2006, re-elected in 2008 and again in 2016, and has served the society in many other capacities, including as Publications Editor (1998-2003) and Book and Music Reviews Editor (2003-2016).

As a performer, Jeff has received a number of honors, most notably First Place in the Natural Horn Division of the 1991 American Horn Competition. Jeff currently serves as Principal Horn with the Yakima Symphony. Jeff has been a featured artist, clinician, lecturer, conductor, and host of regional, national, and international conferences on six continents for the International Horn Society, Historic Brass Society, Northwest Horn Society, Washington Music Educators Association, among others, and given concerto appearances, traditional recitals, natural horn performances, and jazz gigs all over the US, and in Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Finland, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, and Brazil. He has also organized and hosted a wide range of events, including early music, brass, and horn workshops. He has held positions and played extra horn with regional, metropolitan, and festival orchestras in Washington (including Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera), Oregon (including the Oregon Symphony), Utah (including the Utah Symphony Orchestra), Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico, Virginia, and Michigan. He has also performed with Early Music Vancouver and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of Vancouver, BC, and the Seattle Classical Players, among other period-instrument groups. Jeff has also performed on film and video game scores with Seattlemusic, Seattle Film Institute, and others, including Mirror, Mirror, Underworld: Awakening, Worlds of Warcraft 6, and Arkham Origins.

Jeff has published over 50 articles on a variety of musical topics in scholarly and popular journals, including seven entries in the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary. With pianist Marilyn Wilbanks, Jeff released his first solo recording in 1996, Musique de Salon: 19th-Century French Music for horn and piano, which includes music for natural and early valved horns with fortepiano, and has received much critical acclaim. A second successful recording devoted to jazz, First Times, was released in 1998, and features the horn in settings ranging from horn/bass duo to fronting a big band. His third and fourth solo recordings were released in 2010—The Contemporary Natural Horn, the first ever CD devoted to this literature, and a second jazz CD Minor Returns: Tributes to the Horn in Jazz. His most recent recording, Twelve Etudes for Second Horn, op. 57, by Jacques-François Gallay, is the first-ever “side-by-side” recording, featuring these etudes on both the natural horn and the modern valved horn, serving as a unique pedagogical and artistic resource. All of his recordings have received very favorable reviews, and are available on Amazon.com and iTunes. Jeff has also been featured on recordings of the works of Douglas Hill and Lowell Shaw.

Jeff completed a BA in music and mathematics at Heidelberg College (1980), a Master of Music in horn performance at the University of Michigan (1981), a Master of Arts in music history at The Ohio State University (1985), and a Doctor of Musical Arts in horn performance and historical musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991). He lives in Ellensburg, Washington, with his extremely patient wife and two talented sons.

Mia Spencer, soprano, is an active performer in concerts and recitals ranging from opera to Broadway, oratorio and chamber music. She has been a featured soloist with a number of orchestras in the Northwest including the Yakima Symphony, Wenatchee Symphony, Bozeman Symphony and Tacoma Youth Symphony. Mia and her husband Andrew Spencer were invited to perform at the 2006 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and in 2000 the Spencers joined composer Mark Polishook in Krakow, Poland for premiers of works by Dr. Polishook.

Recent performances include soprano soloist for Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915; Handel’s Messiah; Haydn’s Creation; Brahms’ Requiem; “Anna” in The King and I;“Marian” in The Music Man; and soloist with Central Michigan University Wind Ensemble. She is often heard in CWU’s Musica Antiqua recitals.

A founding Board Member of Valley Musical Theatre, she served as Musical Director for their 2006 performance of “Anything Goes” and 2007’s “Side by Side by Sondheim”. In 2001 she was selected as one of 12 Interns for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Summer Intern Program. In addition to

her vocal performing, Mia is often seen on stage as an accompanist and chamber musician. She has been an accompanist for a number of CWU’s Opera productions and was Musical Director and keyboard player for CWU Theater’s 2005 presentation of the musical Working

Ms. Spencer earned a B.M. in Piano from the University of Puget Sound and her M.M. in Vocal Performance from Central Washington University. From 2002-2005 she was a member of the Voice Faculty at Central Michigan University.

A product of the Seattle schools, Norm Wallen began his professional playing career in the late ‘60s, and performed as a sideman with a veritable “Who’s-Who” of high-profile professional entertainers.

Norm is a graduate of Central Washington University with degrees in Music Education, Music Performance, and a Master’s Degree in Music Theory and Composition. He was principal trombonist for the Yakima Symphony Orchestra for ten years, performed for four years with the Seattle Seahawks Orchestra, and also with numerous classical ensembles, jazz, rock, and show groups.

During his tenure as a music teacher, Norm has taught for the Seattle, Yakima, and Tumwater schools, and directed the award winning Pierce College Jazz Ensemble. In 2005 he founded his own professional 17-piece big band, the Olympia Jazz Senators.

Norm Wallen has composed and arranged nearly 2.000 works, and was among the first composers anywhere to embrace computer technology. Well over half of his compositions and arrangements were written on professional commission, and many are published by his own company, Peerless Nerd Publishing.

Perhaps the most prolific and diverse composer/arranger in the Northwest, performances by school groups annually number in the thousands at festivals and contests on all seven continents (including Antarctica,) in audience with the Pope, presidents, and in many of the most famous concert venues worldwide. His music has been a program staple at annual JEN, MENC, ACDA, ASTA, IAJE conference since the ‘70s.

Since moving to Ellensburg in 2010, he teaches adjunct music classes for Central WA University.

Kendra Wheeler is a saxophonist, educator, chamber musician, and collaborator, with academic emphases in musicology and music theory. She has been an active advocate for music education; as well as, for the inclusion, visibility, and support of underrepresented and marginalized groups within classical, contemporary, and new music disciplines. Moreover, her dissertation entitled “Working at the Intersection of Music and Identity to Build Inclusive Communities” builds on the contributions of thinkers such as Stuart Hall, Simon Frith and Audre Lorde in order to explain how identity is expressed in every aspect of our musical output and that music and identity cannot be separated from one another.

Within Wheeler’s artistry and teaching she aims to promote, advocate, teach and perform new works that embrace a multitude of cultures and perspectives. It is also important to her that she and her students have the opportunity to study, read, and engage with diverse scholars and scholarship. Wheeler also embraces finding new mediums for the saxophone through interdisciplinary collaborations. To this end, she is a member of Alecto Duo, along with Kakia Gkoudina (composer, electronics, visuals). While often political in nature, Alecto Duo’s work is audiovisual, consisting of elements of contemporary music and cinematic tradition. The audiovisual nature of Alecto’s work, as well as the way that we try to form our narratives—on the meeting point of musical and extra musical traditions—is a core part of who we are. The duo was formed in 2018 and since has performed in Croatia at the World Saxophone Congress, Cincinnati Ohio and the 2018 Biennial NASA Conference, and The Women Composers Festival in Hartford, Connecticut. Please visit the Alecto Duo website or YouTube page.

Wheeler is a Légère Reeds Endorsing Artist and has been the recipient of numerous scholarships, grants, and awards including prizes from PanAmerican International Saxophone Competition, North International Music Competition, Thursday Musical, Vandoren Emerging Artist, and Downbeat Magazine. She received her Master of Music degree in saxophone performance under Preston Duncan from the University of Minnesota where she also received her Bachelor of Music Education degree under Eugene Rousseau. In the Fall of 2018, Wheeler began her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree at Michigan State University under the study of Joseph Lulloff. As of Spring 2021 she is ABD, awaiting to defend her dissertation. For the Fall semester of 2020, Wheeler was the Visiting Professor of Saxophone at the Crane School of Music, at SUNY Potsdam.

Chris Bruya has been involved in music education since 1983, teaching high school, community college and university, the last 20 years at CWU, retiring in 2021 as Emeritus Professor of Music. While at CWU he pioneered an improvisation sequence, built a small-group program, and the jazz big band was recognized as one of the finest in the country, performing at the Montreux, North Sea and the Next Generation jazz festivals and three JEN conferences. In 2015 the band placed first at the Next Generation Festival, which included a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival the following September. In 2015 the band was featured on Barney McClure’s CD Show Me! and the Seabreeze Records 2008 release In A Mellow Tone. Most recently the jazz band won the undergraduate Asynchronous Recording category of the 2022 Downbeat Magazine Student Awards based upon work completed during Covid protocols, his final year at CWU. There are over 150 live-recorded YouTube videos of the band, recognized worldwide as some of the strongest examples of the big band literature. Bruya has served on WMEA, OMEA and IAJE boards in both Oregon and Washington, has presented at numerous regional conferences, directed honor bands in New York state, Nevada, and Texas, while in retirement remaining in demand as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the Northwest and beyond. In 2016 WMEA honored him with the Collegiate Educator of the Year award, and in 2022 inducted him into the WMEA Hall of Fame.

Larry Gookin is Distinguished Professor and Emeritus Professor of Music at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. He served for 34 years as Director of Bands before retiring from CWU in 2015. Prior to teaching at Central, Professor Gookin taught band for ten years in Montana and Oregon public schools.

During his tenure at Central, the CWU Wind Ensemble performed by invitation at major conferences and conventions, including the College Band Directors National Association Conferences in Boulder and Seattle, the Music Educators National Conference in Minneapolis, the Western International Band Clinics in Seattle, the Western/Northwestern CBDNA Division Conferences in Reno, the Northwest Division NAFME conferences, and numerous WMEA State Conferences.

Larry Gookin has received numerous honors and awards. He has served as president of the Northwestern Division of the CBDNA, as well as Divisional Chairman for the National Band Association, and Vice President of the Washington Music Educators Association. He is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and the WMEA Hall of Fame, and he is a past recipient of the NBA “Citation of Excellent Award,” the First Chair of America “Mac” Award, the ASBDA “Standbury Award,” the WIAA/WMEA teacher of the year award, and the University of Oregon’s School of Music Distinguished Alumnus Award. Gookin was also named CWU Distinguished Professor of Teaching, and while at Central, he served as Associate Chair and Coordinator of Graduate Studies. He is former principal trombone of the Eugene and Yakima Symphony Orchestras, and is Emeritus Artistic Director and Conductor of the Seattle Wind Symphony.

Professor Gookin received the M.M. in Music Education from the University of Oregon School of Music in 1977 and the B.M in Music Education and Trombone Performance from the University of Montana in 1971.

Professor Gookin has appeared as clinician, adjudicator, and conductor in the United States, Canada, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist and remains active as a conductor and music educator. Gookin resides in Ellensburg, Washington with his wife Karen, who is Emeritus Professor of English at CWU and recently retired on piccolo and flute from the Yakima Symphony Orchestra.

Arts commission honors Peter Gries

By PAT MUIR. Ellensburg Daily Record, April 3, 2003

Surely there must be someone more deserving - that's what Peter Gries thought when he learned he had been named City Arts Treasure by the Ellensburg Arts Commission.
Gries, chairman of Central Washington University's music department, said he didn't understand how he had been selected for the honor, which is given annually to someone who has contributed to the local arts scene. "I used to do an awful lot in the community, direct high school musicals, direct summer plays. So I used to do a lot of that," he said. "But since I became chair of the music department, I've been there 12 hours a day. "Gries became chairman of the music department in 1999, but before that he had been involved in music and theater in the community for 25 years. So maybe this honor is kind of a lifetime achievement award, he said. "In that sense, I guess it's OK," Gries conceded. "That's the only excuse I can think of."
Oh, there's another thing, too.
Peter's wife, Peggy Gries, is also a CWU music instructor. Like Peter - at least before he became chairman of the department - she is active in the community. For Christmas 1988 she organized Lessons and Carols at Grace Episcopal Church, an event she has reprised each year since then. "You might say I was significant in supporting arts in the community by marrying my wife and bringing her here," he said.
That's modesty talking, though. In addition to his work at Central, which itself has contributed to the local arts scene, Gries has coordinated community concerts, acted in Laughing Horse Theater productions and helped with Central theater productions.
"I played a role in the musical arts in this community for almost 30 years," he said. But since taking over the top spot at the CWU department, "I've just had no time to be active in the community as much as in previous years." In nominating him for the honor, Becky Craig, president of the Laughing Horse Arts Foundation, wrote a letter including praise from several local arts supporters. "His community work is excellent. So He has also been instrumental in bringing outside arts groups to the valley," wrote Jim Hawkins, the CWU professor and world-renowned puppet maker who was City Arts Treasure last year. CWU music professor Hal Ott wrote that Gries had contributed far beyond the scope of his job at Central.
"He has made this community a better place to live," Ott wrote.
Cathy Gibb, who herself often participates in local musical theater productions, wrote that Gries is more than qualified for the award.
"Peter is the type of Renaissance man that exemplifies this award," she wrote. "He spends so much of his time encouraging others in the arts as well as participating in artistic endeavors himself that the award would be well-deserved." Gries said he has attended previous City Art Treasure receptions, but never expected to be so honored himself. Now that he has been, it's still hard for him to believe, he said.
That's not to say he doesn't appreciate it.
"I'm really touched by the award," he said. "It really is quite an honor."

Mark Lane, Emeritus Professor of Music at Central Washington University, retired from teaching in 2017 after a 39-year career as a music educator. Mark Lane served as the Associate Director of Bands and Professor of Music Education at Central Washington University from 2006-2017. Previously, Mark taught high school for 27 years in both Oregon and Washington. Mark currently works for Conn-Selmer Inc. Division of Education as the Educational Support Manager for the West Region. Mark holds a BA from Eastern Washington University and a MA from the University of Oregon. He has served on both the Oregon Music Education Association and the Washington Music Educators Association Boards. In Washington, Mr. Lane served 14 years on the WMEA Board of Directors and was President from 2008-2010. Mark served as the Northwest Division President of the National Association for Music Education from 2013-2015 and was on the National Executive Board of NAfME for three years. He was liaison on the National Collegiate Advisory Board for National Association for Music Education from 2012-2017.

Mr. Lane has been awarded Educator of the Year five times and has received three Citations of Excellence from the National Band Directors Association. In 2001, Mark received the Sudler Order of Merit of the John Phillip Sousa Foundation and was inducted into the BANDWORLD Legion of honor.

Since his appointment at CWU in 2006, he received the 2012 Crystal Apple Award from the CWU Education Department. Mark was recently inducted into the Washington Music Educator Association’s Hallof Fame and was honored as the Washington Music Education Association/Washington Interscholastic Activities Association 2015 Music Educator of the Year, the 2016-2017 Outstanding Music Educator Award for the Northwest Region by the National Federation of High School Associations, and recently was awarded the 2017 National Association for Music Education’s Northwest Division Distinguished Leadership Award. In 2017, Mark also received the Distinguished Educator Award was inducted into the Northwest Bandmasters Association.

His bands have performed at conferences in both Oregon and Washington. In addition, his groups have performed twice in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade and twice at the Bands of America (Music for All) National Concert Band Festival. Mark was the Music Director of the Washington Ambassadors of Music, leading biennial European tours with over 500 high school musicians from the State of Washington in 2010 and 2012. Mark is a frequent clinician and adjudicator and has conducted, presented clinics and adjudicated throughout the US and in Canada and Europe.

Linda Marra, mezzo-soprano, Central Washington University Professor Emerita of Music, retired in December, 2010. She taught at Central since 1984 and was the Coordinator of the Voice Area for many years. In 2007 she received the Outstanding Teacher award from the College of Arts and Humanities for her excellence in applied voice and course teaching. Dr. Marra also served as vocal director and coordinator of many opera productions at CWU, including Mozart’s, The Magic Flute, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, The Impresario, and Puccini’s, Gianni Schicchi. She also produced a number of opera scenes programs. As an active performer of concert, recital and oratorio repertoire she is credited with a list of more than 150 performances.

Dr. Marra was District President of the Inland Empire Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, a position she has held three times, and she also served as District Governor. She hosted several NATS Student Auditions and a NATS Summer Intern Program. Her students did consistently well at competitions and went on to performing and teaching careers and/or further graduate studies. She represented Central Washington at the International Congress of Teachers of Singing in Vancouver, British Columbia and attended numerous other national and international conferences over the years. In January 2009 she was a presenter at the 4th Annual Physiology and Acoustics of Singing Conference in San Antonio. Also in 2009, she presented a lecture/recital of suffragist songs in celebration of the Washington State Women's Suffrage Centennial, first at the opening of the celebration at the Sarah Spurgeon Gallery and then at a celebration of women in county government at the Hal Holmes Center in Ellensburg.

Dr. Marra received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado (1984) where she studied with celebrated teacher, Barbara Doscher. She also holds the Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan (1972). There she studied voice with Eva Likova and sang opera roles under conductor, Josef Blatt and director, Ralph Herbert. Her BA in Music Education is from Queens College in New York City (Feb. 1966) Her early voice teachers were Cesare Longo and Maria Winkler. She also sang at Carnegie Hall in the All-City High School Chorus of New York City for two years under Peter J. Wilhousky. At the age of 15, she sang on a concert for Fordham University Radio. She held a coveted position as an usherette for the New York Philharmonic during her undergraduate student days.

Linda Marra started her teaching career as a New York City public school vocal music teacher, and she also taught in the Willow Run school district in Michigan. She began her college teaching career at Western State College of Colorado. There she directed operas and musicals for nine years and taught voice and voice-related courses. While in Colorado she performed for four summers with the Colorado Opera Festival in Colorado Springs and appeared in nine different operas covering major roles under New York City and Metropolitan Opera lead singers. She has fond memories of Hanya Holm’s encouraging support of singers as a director of opera. Marra also performed at the Aspen Music Festival for three summers. She sang with the select Aspen Chamber choir under John Nelson and Fiora Contino. Her love for hiking and the outdoors came as a result of her experiences in Aspen. In Michigan she was President of the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, and she was a professional choir singer for the Kirk in the Hills cathedral in Bloomfield Hills. She also performed as a soloist for the finale of Bernstein’s Candide featuring Barbara Cook at a University of Michigan Choral Union concert.

Linda Marra has sung for master classes of Elly Ameling, Max Von Egmont, Adele Addison, Thomas Paul and Paul Sperry, and she attended a summer workshop on vocal pedagogy with Richard Miller. She also studied in Aspen one summer with Leslie Guinn. That summer (1980) she performed a new work on the Aspen Composers concert.

She was a soloist at the Chelan Bach Feste and the University of Washington International Conference on Women in Music, and a guest recitalist at the University of Idaho, Whitman College, Yakima Valley Community College, Shoreline Community College, Walla Walla College and Western State College. She also performed as soloist with all the CWU Ensembles over the years, including a special performance with the Wind ensemble at the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, Washington. She was alto soloist for a Yakima Symphony Chorus and Orchestra performance of Handel’s, Messiah at the Seasons Performing Center in Yakima. She also performed recitals for the St. Michael’s Church concert series in Yakima and for the Yakima Ladies Musical Club.

Dr. Marra performed a solo faculty recital every year for 25 years at CWU, often performing them off campus as well. She regularly performed on CWU Faculty concerts, and served as coordinator for a number of concerts. In 2006, she was alto soloist for the CWU Chorus and Orchestra performance of Szymanowski’s, Stabat Mater. In 2007, she was a soloist for the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the CWU Orchestra and Chorus.

Dr. Marra has often been in demand as a presenter, an adjudicator and a clinician. She has been the vocal judge for the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions more than once, the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside in Bellevue, WA, Artist Trust of Seattle, Washington State Solo Competition (numerous years) and the King County and the Wenatchee State Solo Qualifying Competitions. She was a presenter at a NATS Summer Intern Program and at a regional NATS Meeting. She also served as secretary for the Ellensburg Chapter of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Her music honorary society affiliations include, Pi Kappa Lambda and Delta Omicron. She also served as President of the CWU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, the academic honor society. Marra, being of Greek and Italian parentage, was also a member of Sigma Epsilon Phi, a sorority/fraternity of students of Greek parentage at Queens College in New York.

Dr. Marra has had notable experience in administration at CWU. From 1986-1988 she served as Director of the prestigious CWU William O. Douglas Honors College, and she served as Assistant Chair of the Department of Music from 1991-1994. In 1990 she was on the CWU Team for the Lilly Foundation Workshop on the Liberal Arts. Dr. Marra attended the Bryn Mawr Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration in 1993 on a CWU institutional grant. She also served on a team of professors and administrators who participated in a two-week workshop on Cultural Pluralism at Evergreen State College. In 1994 she was one of the top three candidates for the position of Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at CWU. She also served as the CWU Institutional Representative to the American Council on Education program to help further women in higher education administration. She served on the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Senate Code Committee, the General Education Committee and numerous other university and departmental committees. In the area of public service, she served as a member of the City of Ellensburg Arts Commission and the Northwest Public Radio Community Advisory Board. She chaired the University Art Selection and Permanent Collection Committee from 2005-2008. Under her leadership a complete inventory of all art on the CWU campus was finalized.

Her teaching assignments have included, Studio Voice, Opera Production, Opera Workshop, Pedagogy, Vocal Literature, Diction in Foreign Languages for Singers, Opera History, Seminar in American Musical Theatre, History of the Vocal Art, Class Voice, and a short course in Oratorio. She also taught Music Methods for Classroom Teachers at CWU and in Colorado and Introduction to Music and Fundamentals of Music in Colorado along with voice and opera courses.

Dr. Sidney L. Nesselroad is an Emeritus Professor of Music, now teaching only applied voice in a part-time capacity. As a professor of Music, 1978-2002, he also taught, at various times, Intro to Music (102), Intro to Musical Studies (104), First YearTheory, Diction, History of Opera, Vocal Lit, Vocal Pedagogy, directed choirs and opera productions, and once even served for two years as Chair of the University Faculty Senate.

Since retirement, he has remained active in the National Association of Teachers of Singing, attending regional competitions and national conventions. He has a long standing interest in voice science, particularly the non-invasive use of technology to monitor and display the actions and sounds of the singing voice. Even though retired, his teaching still reflects a leaning toward the most up to date, state of the art knowledge of the profession, along with the intention of continuing to contribute meaningfully to the field.