IWBC - Key Persons
Amy Cherry is currently a freelance musician and trumpet teacher in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. She holds a B.M. in Trumpet Performance from the University of Illinois and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Trumpet Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Cherry will act as a visiting professor at Delaware State University in 2016. She served as Assistant Professor of Music at Western Carolina University from 2008-2014, and has previously held the position of Instructor of Trumpet at Morehead State University, Wright State University and East Tennessee State University.
She has served as Principal Trumpet with the Asheville Lyric Opera, Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Spartanburg Philharmonic, and Third Trumpet with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the Kingsport Symphony, the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Opera, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dayton Opera, the Lexington Philharmonic, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Flat Rock Playhouse, Mannheim Steamroller, the Monarch Brass Ensemble, the Athena Brass Band, and the Summit Brass Ensemble. Amy is an active chamber musician interested in reaching new audiences and expanding the repertoire for brass instruments. To achieve those goals she founded the Balaton Chamber Brass in 2010 with her husband, trombonist Dan Cherry. Their debut album, Changing Times & Colors was released in 2015 on the Albany Records label.
Amy Gilreath has won the respect and praise of musicians and audiences the world over for her beautiful sound and expressive interpretations. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to perform in Cuba, Italy, Mexico, Russia, England and given multiple other performances throughout Europe as well as appearances at International Trumpet Guild Conferences and International Women's Brass Conferences. Amy is currently a member of Stiletto Brass Quintet, Monarch Brass Ensemble, the Consortium Brass Quintet and has been a past member of the Monarch Brass Quintet, Dallas Brass, Velvet Brass, Battle Creek Brass Band and Keith Brion's New Sousa Band. She has performed with many renowned musicians including Doc Severinsen, former band leader of the Tonight Show Band with Johnny Carson; Italian jazz trumpet artist Andrea Tofanelli. Ron Romm, founding member of the Canadian Brass; and jazz trumpet artist Marvin Stamm. Amy is a founding member of Stiletto Brass Quintet which has given performances at many festivals, performing art series, universities, and public/private schools. Stiletto has also been guest artist with the Bradenton-Sarasota Pops Orchestra as well as the Heartland Festival Orchestra and released two recordings: Stiletto Brass Quintet with Doc Severinsen and Scarpe !. Serving as Principal Trumpet of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra since 1999, Amy also holds the Principal Trumpet position with Sinfonia da Camera in Champaign Illinois. In addition, she has also performed as an extra and a sub with the St. Louis Symphony. Amy can also be heard on her solo CD Enjoying Life and on various Sinfonia da Camera recordings released by Albany Records.
As a long-standing faculty member of Orvieto Musica, a chamber music festival held in Orvieto Italy and the current Director of the Festival's Trumpet Fest, Amy has taught and performed with many trumpet professors and students from the US who have attended the festival throughout the years. As the Director of TrumpetFest, she conducts the trumpet ensemble, presents master classes for the participants, and performs on the TrumpetFest concerts.
In 2021 Amy joined the School of Music faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign teaching trumpet and coaching chamber music. In 2019 Dr. Gilreath retired as Professor of Trumpet at Illinois State University after serving on the faculty since 1990. During her time there she was the first faculty member to be awarded the Illinois State University Outstanding Creative Arts Award for her numerous national and international performances as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral musician and many publications in international journals. She was also a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the School of Music. Her students have also won numerous awards, teach throughout the United States at universities and public schools, and are performing in Canada, Portugal, Finland, and Saudi Arabia, and in the United States Army Band, the United States Coast Guard Band, and numerous military field bands throughout the US. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Women's Brass Conference and has served twice on the Board of Directors for the International Trumpet Guild. Amy has also been a featured artist in the highly acclaimed international brass magazine "The Brass Herald."
Growing up in a time when young girls did not play the trumpet, let alone pursue a musical career in trumpet, Amy is proud of her role of helping break the glass ceiling of this long time stigma. After receiving her Doctor of Musical Arts and a Masters in Performance from the University of Illinois, Amy was one of the few women to hold a full time university trumpet professor position in the 1990's, and the first woman trumpet professor at Illinois State University. In 2010 the dream of traveling to Russia became reality and while there, she became the first woman soloist to perform at the International Romantic Trumpet Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Amy also presented a recital and masterclass at the famed Moscow Conservatory.
Angela M. Wellman is an award-winning trombonist, scholar, music educator, and activist. She began playing trombone in elementary school and began playing professionally at age 18 and after two decades she turned her attention to her main passion-teaching. In 2005 she founded the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPC) to ensure that Black children and adults have access to culturally resonant, affordable music education. OPC centers Blackness in the development of American musical culture and identity and since opening its doors 16 years ago, has become one of the Bay Area's vanguard institutions in community music education and cultural preservation. Angela is a recipient of multiple local and national awards including the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship, the City of Oakland "Cultural Key to the City," the"Jazz Hero Award" from the Jazz Journalists Association, the Arhoolie Award from the Arhoolie Foundation, the 2020 Caffie M. Greene Community Building Award from UPSurge! NY, and the County of Alameda 2021 Arts Leadership Award. Angela completed undergraduate studies at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri's Kansas City and received a Master's degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. She is presently completing her dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where her research explores the impact of racism and white supremacy on access to music education for Black students.
After twenty-four years as principal trombone with the Grand Rapids Symphony - a job she attained at the age of 19 - Ava Ordman moved to the Detroit area to work as a psychologist and continue as a freelance trombonist. While working in Grand Rapids at age 41, Ordman returned to school to pursue a degree in Counseling Psychology. Armed with her new MA, LLP, she began work at the Guidance Center in Southgate while also working as a substitute trombonist with the Detroit Symphony and Michigan Opera Theater orchestras and teaching low brass at Oakland University.
Ordman had taught at several colleges and universities in the Grand Rapids area while in the orchestra, but it had never been in her mindset to pursue a full-time position at the university level. That changed when the professorship in trombone opened at Michigan State University in 2002. Ordman decided to "go for it" with the possibility of once again making another career shift. Chosen as the Professor of Trombone at Michigan State University later that year, it didn't take long for Ordman to know that this was where she was supposed to be.
In addition to her professorial duties, Ordman continues to pursue and enjoy a varied life as a performer. She is principal trombone of both the Lansing Symphony and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Orchestra. She also performs regularly with the Beaumont Brass, which is the faculty brass quintet at Michigan State University, and the Monarch Brass, which is the flagship brass ensemble of the International Women's Brass Conference. Yet perhaps what Ordman enjoys most is performing as a soloist.
She has been a featured soloist with many orchestras throughout the United States, including her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony performing Donald Erb's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra. Ordman has been a featured artist at several International Trombone Festivals; the International Brassfest in Bloomington, IN; the American Trombone Workshop in Fort Myer, VA; and many International Women's Brass Conferences held throughout the United States. Ordman also performed the world premieres of Steven Smith's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra with the Eugene Symphony and Libby Larsen's Mary Cassatt for Mezzo-Soprano, Trombone, and Orchestra with the Grand Rapids Symphony. Both of these works were written for Ordman and, along with Donald Erb's Concerto, have been performed by her throughout the United States. Ordman's most recent venture, however, has been to form a consortium of trombonists and conductors to commission a new trombone concerto by David Biedenbender. This work "Their Eyes are Fireflies," received its world premiere on March 22, 2018 with the Michigan State University Wind Ensemble and was performed again by Ordman in the 2018-19 season with the Lansing Symphony, Michigan Philharmonic and Grand Rapids Symphony.
Another recent milestone for Ordman was the release of her first solo CD in January 2017 entitled, It's About Time: Music for Trombone by Women Composers" on the Blue Griffin label. She is also the featured trombone soloist on a Koss Classics' CD of concertos by Donald Erb and on the CD entitled Simple Gifts, the Music of Frank Ticheli.
In February of 2018, Professor Ordman was named the recipient of the 2018 Neill Humfeld Award for "Excellence in Teaching" by the International Trombone Association. When asked what is most important to Ordman in her life as a teacher, she says, "I consider it a privilege to be involved in the lives of young people who are developing and evolving as both musicians and as people. I hope that I have been able to help them in some way on their journey, because they have certainly enriched mine."
Ordman earned her Bachelor and Master degrees in Trombone Performance from the University of Michigan in 1975 and her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology at Western Michigan University in 1998. Her primary teachers were Mark McDunn, Frank Crisafuli, Glenn P. Smith, Glenn Dodson and Arnold Jacobs.
Ordman is a Bach Performing Artist.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
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- Member of the Emeritus Board
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- Noteworthy Newsletter Editor
Dan Burdick (he/him), pioneering queer brass artist, is excited to be the euphonium and tuba faculty member at the State College of Florida. He tours internationally with his instrumental music theatre shows, Tuba Voce: Tales from the Gay Tuba Songbook and More Tales from the Gay Tuba Songbook. He studied instrumental music theatre with Abbie Conant at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen in Germany and tuba performance at the University of Michigan and Boston University.
Dan has performed with the Canadian Brass, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Keith Brion's New Sousa Band, and numerous professional brass quintets. He was the Principal Tuba of both the Boise Philharmonic and the Erie Chamber Orchestra. Featured solo concerts include the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Linz, Austria, multiple International Women's Brass Conferences, the British Institute Library in Florence, Italy, the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and a series of 15 concerts at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada.
Dan was a tenured Associate Professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and has taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Kentucky at Lexington, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in tuba performance from the University of Michigan. Dan's teachers include Fritz Kaenzig, Sam Pilafian, Abbie Conant, Angie Hunter, and Roger Bobo.
As a diversity educator, Dan has presented Safe Zone, Cultural Competency, and Diversity education at numerous educational institutions. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Burleigh Legacy Alliance and an advisor for the Chromatic Brass Collective. Dan serves as the Executive Director of the Sarasota Pops Orchestra and lives with his family in Bradenton, FL. Find out more about Dan at www.danburdick.com.
Dr. Deanna Swoboda - tubist, educator, entrepreneur, and Associate Professor of Music at Arizona State University. She is a former tubist of Dallas Brass and creator and performer of a recruiting video and educational music workshop called "Band Blast Off." Deanna has co-hosted (2012) and hosted IWBC (2019) conferences as well as host for ITEC 2023. Deanna is a Past President of the International Tuba Euphonium Association, is an Eastman Tuba Artist, and is Assistant Director of Graduate Studies in Music at Arizona State University. Swoboda's research interests include creative and social entrepreneurship in the context of music and music curricula, with a focus on equity through all strands of music education. You can explore her tuba artistry on CDs Deanna's Wonderland, Shamanic Journey, Table for Three, Fanfare and Flourish, Games for Brass.
Dr. Wendy K. Matthews is a music educator, researcher, conductor, and trumpet player. She serves at Kent State University (Kent, OH) as the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Assessment in the College of Arts, Professor of Music Education, and director of the Kent State Youth Winds. She holds degrees from George Mason University, the University of Maryland-College Park, and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University Conservatory of Music. Prior to joining Kent State University's faculty, Dr. Matthews was an Associate Professor in Music Education at Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) and led the music department at Northern Virginia Community College (Alexandria, VA) as an Assistant Dean. She has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses and conducted ensembles at Georgetown University, University of Maryland, and George Mason University. Additionally, Dr. Matthews taught elementary and secondary school instrumental music in Virginia and Maryland.
Her college ensembles have performed at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, the Michigan Music Conference, and International Trumpet Guild International Conferences. As a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, Dr. Matthews is in demand worldwide. She has guest conducted numerous honor bands, including the American Schools Honor Band, New Delhi, India; Ohio Music Educators Association Honor Bands, District 5, 6 7, Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association District XVI and III; Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1; the American School Band Director Association Honor Band - Ohio Chapter; Kentucky Music Educators Association District 7; and the Duplin County (NC) Honor Bands.
Dr. Matthews' research interests include oral histories of pioneering women brass players with solo careers and in professional orchestras and military bands, research in group dynamics in large ensembles, and various topics in music teacher education. She is the co-author of the Basic Conducting Techniques published byRoutledge Music and author of a chapter in the Routledge International Handbook of Music Psychology in Education and the Community. She has also published in numerous journals, including the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, International Journal of Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Journal of Band Research, and the International Trumpet Guild Journal.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Faye-Ellen Silverman began her music studies before the age of four at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York City. She first achieved national recognition by winning the Parents League Competition, judged by Leopold Stokowski, at the age of 13. She played her winning composition in Carnegie Hall (main hall) - her professional piano debut - and also appeared on the Sonny Fox Wonderama TV program. She holds a BA from Barnard, cum laude and honors in music, and an AM from Harvard and a DMA from Columbia, both in music composition. She spent her junior year of college at Mannes College. Her teachers have included Otto Luening, William Sydeman, Leon Kirchner, Lukas Foss, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Jack Beeson. Seesaw Music, a division of Subito Music, publishes about 100 of her compositions. She became a published composer at age 24 and an ASCAP member at age 25. Layered Lament is recorded on New Focus Recordings; Stories for Our Time is recorded on MSR Classics; Zigzags is available on two recordings, one on Crystal Records (Velvet Brown) and the other on a CD available from record outlets (Joanna Ross Hersey); Taming the Furies is available on Capstone, and Passing Fancies, Restless Winds, and Speaking Alone are on New World Recordings. Two entire CDs of her chamber works are on Albany Records. The first, Manhattan Stories, has Translations, Dialogue, Dialogue Continued; Taming the Furies (second recording of this work), Love Songs, and Left Behind. The second CD, Transatlantic Tales, a co-production with the German-Danish guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann, contains Processional, 3 Guitars, In Shadow, Wilde's World, Danish Delights, and Pregnant Pauses. Oboe-sthenics, her first recording, was released on Finnadar-Atlantic. The LP is out of print, but can still be found.
Silverman's awards include the selection of her Oboe-sthenics to represent the United States at the International Rostrum of Composers/UNESCO, resulting in international radio broadcasts; winning the Indiana State [Orchestral] Composition Contest, resulting in a performance by the Indianapolis Symphony; a Governor's Citation; and having September 30, 1982 named Faye-Ellen Silverman Day in Baltimore by Mayor Donald Schaeffer. Additionally, she has been the recipient of a National League of American Pen Women's biennial music award, yearly Standard Awards from ASCAP (now known as ASCAPlus) since 1983, several Meet the Composer grants, and an American Music Center grant. She has been a fellow at Fundación Valparaiso (chosen as an artist-in-residence grantee), VCCA-France, several times a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a resident scholar at the Villa Serbelloni of the Rockefeller Foundation, a Composers' Conference Fellow, a Yaddo Fellow, and a MacDowell Fellow. She is currently a Founding Board Member of the International Women's Brass Conference (for which she has served as composer-in-residence), a founding member of Music Under Construction, a composers' collective, and a Board member (Secretary) of New York Women Composers.
The Baltimore Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the International Experimental Music Festival in Bourges, ISCM - Korea section, Nieuwe Oogst (Belgium), Grupo Musica Hoje (Brazil), the Corona Guitar Quartet (Denmark), Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), the Monday Evening Concert series (L.A.), Voices of Change (Dallas) and the Aspen Music Festival are among the groups that have performed Dr. Silverman's works. She has received paid commissions from Julie Landsman (French horn), Nicole Abassi (trombone). the IWBC for the IWBC Conference 2014 for SymbiosisDuo, the Phoenix Concerts, Edinboro University Chamber Players, Seraphim, Philip A. De Simone (in memory of Linda J. Warren), Larry Madison, Thomas Matta, the International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, the Con Spirito woodwind quintet, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore, and a joint commission from the American Brass Quintet, the Catskill Brass Quintet, the Mt. Vernon Brass Players, and the Southern Brass quintet (under the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program). She has also created pieces at the request of flutist Nina Assimakopoulos (Laurels Project), Sergio Puccini (Argentina), the Corona Guitar Quartet of Denmark, and Volkmar Zimmermann (Denmark), among others.
She is currently on the faculties of Juilliard and New York University and teaches privately. Prior teaching experience includes New York University (School of Professional Studies), the Mannes School of Music (College of Performing Arts, The New School), Eugene Lang College (The New School), the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, several branches of the City University of New York and Columbia University.
Silverman has lectured in Europe and throughout the United States, often as a visiting composer. European engagements have included lectures at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw sponsored by the Maestro Foundation (April 2014), and a lecture to members of the Lithuanian Composers Union and composition students from the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy followed by pre-concert talks and a radio interview (May 2009), sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and guest composer at Donne in Musica (4th International festival) held in Fiuggi, Italy (September 1999). In the United States, she has been a visiting composer at the Aspen Music Festival, Capital University, Edinboro University Indiana State University, the International Women's Brass Conference, the Philadelphia Arts Alliance, Southern Methodist University, SUCO at Oneonta (1st Festival of Women Composers), Tidewater Festival, University of North Texas, University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to cite a few examples.
Silverman is also the author of several articles, record reviews for The Baltimore Sun, and the 20th century section of the Schirmer History of Music. An accomplished pianist as well, former student of Irma Wolpe and Russell Sherman, she has recorded for Radio Cologne (WDR), and has performed at the International Festival of Experimental Music in Bourges, the Library of Congress, and as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
- History
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
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- Ginger Turner Retired from 27 Year Tenure Performing With the United States Army Field Band. Her Career Has Included Playing Principal Trumpet, Performing Featured Solos
Ginger Turner retired from 27 year tenure performing with The United States Army Field Band. Her career has included playing principal trumpet, performing featured solos with the concert band, leading a brass quintet and presenting numerous master classes nationwide. She was the designer and coordinator of the widely-used instructional video, A Trumpeter's Resource. Turner also developed the program "Building a Better Brass Section through the development of the Brass Quintet" which has been presented at major music conferences around the country. This program has created opportunities for students to excel while providing leadership training in one lesson plan, emphasizing individual responsibility in learning. A longstanding and active member of Monarch Brass, Turner has enjoyed playing and touring with the ensemble since 2008.
Passionate about education, Turner has been involved with the International Women's Brass Conference since 2003. She currently serves as a board member, chair of the Susan Slaughter Solo Competition and the Ginger Turner Ensemble Competition, and annually produces the Holiday Brass Concert in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ms. Turner has studied with greats of the trumpet world such as Marie Speziale, Susan Slaughter and René Hernandez. She holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education and a Masters Degree in Trumpet Performance from Arizona State, studying with David Hickman.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music of the Baroque
Jennifer Marotta is a Los Angeles based musician who teaches trumpet at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. As an active freelance musician, she regularly performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the St. Louis Symphony.
Marotta is currently a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music of the Baroque in Chicago. She was a member of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band from 2001 to 2005.
Originally from Naperville, Illinois, Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Master of Music degree from DePaul University, where she studied with Barbara Butler and John Hagstrom.
Marotta was a visiting trumpet professor at UCLA in 2016 and was Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Kennesaw State University from 2006 to 2012. She was also a visiting professor at Illinois State University in 2006 and was an artist-in-residence at Emory University from 2006 to 2010.
Jennifer, along with Thomas Hooten, is the most recent editor for Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, published by Carl Fischer. Jennifer is a Yamaha Artist.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Laurel Bennert Ohlson, National Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal Horn, has appeared as a concerto soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and Virginia Chamber Orchestra, and in numerous solo engagements across the U.S. and South America. She was a member of the Capitol Woodwind Quintet from 1986-2012, and has been a member of Eclipse Chamber Orchestra since 1992. Ms. Ohlson premiered Truman Harris'Concertino for Horn and Chamber Orchestra with Eclipse in 1999 and recorded the Concertino for Naxos in 2006.
Ms. Ohlson is on the faculty at The Catholic University of America and is an active performer and teacher through the NSO's Youth Fellowship Program, Summer Music Institute, and American Residencies. She has also presented master classes and Wagner tuba clinics at International Horn Society Symposiums, IHS Regional Workshops, and International Women's Brass Conferences. She has served on the IWBC Board of Directors since 1991.
Ms. Ohlson presents "History of the Horn" lecture demonstrations for audiences both young and young-at-heart, performing on at least a dozen horn-related instruments including the alphorn, shofar, conch shell, natural horn, Wagner tuba, and the ever-popular garden hose. A graduate of Boston University School for the Arts, Ms. Ohlson received her degree in horn performance with a minor in mathematics. She is forever grateful to her primary teachers Charles Kavalovski, Arthur Berv, Eugene Rittich and Jacob Glazer.
Job Titles:
- General Manager
- Membership
- Social Media
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Marquita Reef is a music educator in St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a position at Metro Academic and Classical High School where she teaches a variety of subjects to include the Concert Band, Beginning Winds and Percussion, Music History, Jazz History, and Classical Guitar. In addition to her board duties with the IWBC, she is also a board member for the St. Louis Low Brass Collective.
She received her degrees from the University of Denver-Lamont School of Music, and DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
Growing up on a walnut farm in Springfield, Ohio with " blue grass" and "gospel" music in her genes, Nancy Joy played horn, trumpet, cello, sang in the choir and had lead theater roles during her public school education.
Nancy Joy received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Wittenberg University School of Music in Springfield, Ohio, studying with Dr. Richard Chenoweth and then completed a Master of Music in Horn Performance at New Mexico State University, studying with Dr. Warner Hutchison. Nancy is currently in her twenty fifth year as Horn Professor at New Mexico State University. In her first year at NMSU, Nancy created a horn choir, called the "NMSU Corno Crew" which is very active in premiering new works. The NMSU Horn Choir has appeared as a premier performing ensemble at the following International Horn Society (IHS) Symposiums: 1999 in Athens, GA., the 2000 Symposium in Beijing, China; the 2005 Symposium in Tuscaloosa, AL; and the 2008 Symposium in Denver, CO.
Ms. Joy is Principal Horn of the Las Cruces Symphony at NMSU, and Second Horn of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and El Paso Opera Company. Recent solo performances include the performances locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Nancy has appeared as a guest artist at the International Horn Symposiums (IHS) in Rochester, NY; Kansas City, MO.; Tuscaloosa, AL.; Capetown, South Africa; Denver, CO; Macomb, Illinois; Brisbane, Australia; and San Francisco, CA; Denton, TX; in Memphis, TN; in London, England and Los Angeles, CA. Elected from the IHS membership, Ms. Joy served as a member of the Advisory Council and has completed her two terms of office. She is currently the International Horn Society's International Symposium Coordinator.
Nancy was the Featured Guest Artist at the International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) "Holiday Brass" in Baltimore, MD in November 2011 and a contributing guest artist at the IWBC symposium in 2012, 2014, 2017 & 2019. At IWBC 2012, Ms. Joy commissioned and performed the world premier of "Trio for Flute, Horn and Piano, Op. 54" by Linda Holland with Nancy's trio, entitled Allura. Nancy was also a Featured artist at the Brazilian National Horn Symposium, in Natal, Brazil in September 2014. She also performed with the Spanish Brass Luur Metales and taught at the Spanish Brass Symposium (SBALZ) in Alzira, Spain in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Ms. Joy has served as a featured clinician at several NMMEA All-State Music Festival giving clinics on horn pedagogy. She is the owner of the "Horn of Joy" music studio teaching private lessons to beginning horn students through high school level and is a requested clinician and solo performer in the southwest. Nancy is also on the board of directors for the Interactive Video Audition Service International (IVASI) and presents clinics and demonstrations internationally, along with giving Breathing Gym Clinics in Germany, South Africa, and Colombia and all over the USA. Ms. Joy was elected to the board of the International Women's Brass Conference, serving on various committees for the organization.
Natalie Mannix is an avid soloist, chamber musician, orchestral performer and educator. She is currently Associate Professor of Trombone at the University of North Texas and trombonist with the Stiletto Brass Quintet. Previously, she was Principal Trombone in the Delaware Symphony for 14 years, and a member of the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC for over nine years where she performed with the brass quintet, concert and ceremonial band.
Dr. Mannix has appeared as guest artist and clinician at colleges and conferences throughout North America, including the 2018, 2016 and 2013 International Trombone Festival, the International Women's Brass Conference, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and the American Trombone Workshop. She has performed with the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, the Washington Opera and Kennedy Center Orchestras, the Washington Trombone Ensemble, the Monarch Brass, and several regional orchestras and brass ensembles. A new music advocate, she has commissioned several works for trombone and continues to perform and promote music by emerging composers.
Her recent recordings include a solo album, Breaking Ground: A Celebration of Women Composers and chamber music CDs: Scarpe! with the Stiletto Brass Quintet, And If All Were Dark with Dave Taylor and the Washington Trombone Ensemble, Mozart's Requiem with the Dallas Chamber Choir and Orchestra, the grammy-nominated Interchange: Concertos by Rodrigo and Assad with the Delaware Symphony and LA Guitar Quartet; and Shadowcatcher: Music for Winds, Brass and Percussion.
An avid brass pedagogue, Natalie has adjudicated international solo and ensemble competitions and serves on the Executive Board and as chair of the Advisory Council for Diversity for the International Trombone Association and on the Board of Directors for the International Women's Brass Conference.
Natalie received her degrees from the University of Michigan, The Juilliard School and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Catholic University. She is a performing artist for the Edwards Instrument Company.
Raquel Samayoa leads a dynamic and engaging career as a teacher, chamber musician, recitalist, adjudicator and solo performer. She is Associate Professor of Trumpet, and Co-Conductor of the UNT Brass Band at the University of North Texas College of Music. Dr. Samayoa is a founding member of Lantana Trio, a Brass Trio comprised of UNT Brass Faculty. Dr. Samayoa was previously on faculty at Tennessee Tech University and Northern Kentucky University.
Her performances have taken her to leading venues in the United States, Russia, Finland, Australia, China, Spain, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. As a member of the award-winning Seraph Brass, she frequently tours the US and abroad performing concerts and engaging in educational outreach performances. Dr. Samayoa is a Yamaha Performing Artist and a Denis Wick Artist and Clinician.
As a pedagogue, clinician, and proponent of diversity in the arts, she is regularly invited to give masterclasses, recitals, and panel discussions at universities and professional conferences, most recently the College Music Society Southern Conference, Midwest Clinic, Historic Brass Society Symposium, International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) and the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Conference. She has been a guest artist at the Brass Day of the Moscow Conservatory (RUS), Brass Day of the Melbourne Conservatorium (AU), South Texas Brass Symposium, 2019 Dallas Trumpet Workshop, 2021 Interlochen Trumpet Intensive and 2022 Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. She also recently served as a juror for the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Her articles have been published in The Instrumentalist, The Brass Herald and the ITG Journal. In January 2020, Dr. Samayoa released her first publication with Mountain Peak Music entitled Dueling Fundamentals for Two Trumpets. She released her 2nd solo album entitled, Trumpet Songs, with Summit Records in 2021. Raquel will release a new album under the MSR label as a member of Lantana Trio in the Fall of 2022. This album will feature music for brass trio by underrepresented composers. Raquel is a member of the IWBC Board of Directors and served as a co-host for the 2022 and 2014 IWBC.
Dr. Samayoa holds the DMA in Trumpet Performance from the University of North Texas where she studied with renowned trumpet pedagogue, Keith Johnson. She earned the MA and Bachelor's degree in Music Education from West Texas A&M University where she studied trumpet with Mr. David Ritter and Wind Conducting with Dr. Gary Garner.
Susan Slaughter joined the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in l969 and four years later became the first woman ever to be named Principal Trumpet of a major symphony orchestra. She has been on the faculty of the Grand Teton Orchestra Seminar, the National Orchestra Institute, The Texas Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival.
In 1992 Ms. Slaughter founded the International Women's Brass Conference, an organization dedicated to provide opportunities and recognition for women brass musicians. As a fund-raising effort to support the International Women's Brass Conference, Ms. Slaughter organized and has produced the very popular Holiday Brass concerts, which are now in their third decade, and are performed each December. Additionally, Baltimore, MD also produces a Holiday Brass concert to help support the ever growing International Women's Brass Conference.
In 1996, Ms. Slaughter founded Monarch Brass, an all female brass ensemble which has performed in the United States and Europe to critical acclaim. In 2003, they released their first recording titled ‘Monarch Brass.'
Theresa Hanebury, trumpet, has been a member of the Houston Ballet Orchestra since 1983 where in addition to playing with the orchestra she also now serves as Music Librarian and Pianist Manager. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Hartford, Hartt School of Music in 1983. Ms. Hanebury toured extensively with Texas Opera Theatre from 1984 to 1987, and has performed with the Texas Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Fort Worth Symphony, Lubbock Symphony and the Imperial Brass.
In addition to her positions with the Ballet Orchestra, Ms. Hanebury currently performs with the Athena Brass Band, Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and the Ambient Brass Quintet. She performs with Monarch Brass Ensemble, Houston Chamber Orchestra and the American Pops Orchestra and also serves as Personnel Manager for these groups. She works extensively as a musician's contractor in the Houston/Galveston area for many churches, schools and touring shows. In addition Ms. Hanebury frequently performs as a soloist and teaches trumpet privately in the Houston area.
Job Titles:
- Editor for Arban 's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet
Job Titles:
- Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Penn State University
Velvet Brown is professor of tuba and euphonium at Penn State University. Prior to joining the faculty in 2003, she taught at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) and Ball State University (Indiana), and served as an associate director of University Bands at Boston University.
Brown enjoys a professional career as an international soloist, chamber ensemble performer, recording artist, conductor, and orchestral player. She is currently the principal tubist of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra and the Altoona Symphony Orchestra. She has served as principal tuba with the River City Brass Band, guest principal with the Lahti Philharmonic in Finland, and as a substitute or additional tubist with the Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, San Francisco Women's Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. She has garnered high praise as a founding and current member of the Stiletto Brass Quintet, Monarch Brass Ensemble and Quintet, the Junction Tuba Quartet, and the Pennsylvania Brassworks. Brown is also a founding board member of the International Women's Brass Conference.
She has released four solo CDs, and has collaborated on several other recordings as a soloist and ensemble member. Brown is a Besson/Buffet/Melton/Meinl Weston/Denis Wick performing artist.