All-State Conductors

Steven D. Davis serves as the Rose Ann Carr Millsap Missouri Distinguished Professor of Music at the UMKC Conservatory. His deep commitment to music education has led to invitations to conduct numerous All-State bands and orchestras, including four invitations to conduct the Texas All-State ensembles. Davis has also received international invitations to conduct at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, as well as prominent venues in Bangkok, Beijing, Lisbon, Sydney, Dublin, Vienna, and Salzburg.

For nearly two decades, Davis has been the conductor of the Youth Symphony of Kansas City and the UMKC Conservatory Wind Symphony. He is proudly committed to diversity and regularly participates in commissioning works from established and emerging composers while also collaborating with dancers, choreographers, theater actors, soloists, visual artists, costumers, and lighting designers.

He has been recognized with numerous awards, and both scholarships and buildings have been named in his honor. Additionally, he is a member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. At the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Davis leads the band program at the summer arts camp, where his compelling approach continues to inspire the next generation of musicians.

Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant is the Chair of the Music Department and Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, where she directs the Duke University Wind Symphony. She is also the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Durham Medical Orchestra and serves as Associate Artistic Director of the Mid EUROPE festival. Additionally, she is the Executive Director of the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project and the World Adult Wind Orchestra Project in Schladming, Austria.

Originally from Eberschwang, Austria, Verena began piano lessons at six and later studied the church organ, flute, and bassoon. She made her conducting debut at 16 and studied under Johann Mösenbichler. She earned a bachelor’s degree in symphony orchestra conducting with distinction from the Anton Bruckner Private University in 2005, a Master of Music from Michigan State University in 2007, and a DMA in Wind Ensemble Conducting from The University of Texas at Austin in 2009.

Verena’s transcriptions of John Corigliano’s Grammy-winning work Mr. Tambourine Man and Eric Whitacre’s Sing Gently and Goodnight Moon have been highly praised and widely performed. She also serves as the Music Director and Conductor of the Schwäbisches Jugendblasorchester and the Eifelphilharmonie in Germany, and frequently guest conducts, judges, and clinics internationally. Verena divides her time between Austria and Durham, NC, where she resides with her husband, composer Steven Bryant, and their young daughter.

Albert Nguyen currently serves as the Interim Director and the Director of Bands for the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis. Additionally, he heads the Conducting Area and is the Executive Director of the Summer at the Scheidt Music Camps. Dr. Nguyen’s responsibilities include managing the daily operations of the School of Music, overseeing all aspects of the University Bands program, conducting the Wind Ensemble, leading the graduate wind conducting program, and teaching graduate courses in wind/band repertoire and rehearsal techniques.

Ensembles under Dr. Nguyen’s direction have performed at the CBDNA Southern Division Conference, the TNMEA All-State Conference, and Internationally in Austria and Italy. As a conductor and clinician, he has been invited to work with ensembles throughout the United States, and he frequently gives presentations on the topics of diversity/inclusion and conducting at music conferences, including the Midwest Clinic.

Dr. Nguyen began his professional teaching career as the Director of Bands at Morrilton High School in Morrilton, AR. He holds the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education from Arkansas Tech University and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from The University of Texas at Austin.

Terell Stafford, Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University, has been hailed as “one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player” by piano legend McCoy Tyner.

Since the mid-1990’s Stafford has performed with groups such as Benny Golson’s Sextet, McCoy Tyner’s Sextet, the Kenny Barron Sextet, the Jimmy Heath Big Band, the Jon Faddis Orchestra. Currently he is a member of the GRAMMY award winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (GRAMMY 2009, Best Large Ensemble, Live at the Village Vanguard), as well as a member of the GRAMMY nominated Clayton Brothers Quintet (for Best Instrumental Composition), and the Frank Wess Quintet. Stafford played an integral part on several albums including Diana Krall’s GRAMMY nominated From this Moment On(2006) for which Stafford joined with the Hamilton-Clayton Jazz Orchestra. In celebration of Jimmy Heath’s 80th birthday, Stafford recorded with the Jimmy Heath Big Band for the album Turn Up the Heath(2006). A regular member of drummer Matt Wilson’s group“Arts and Crafts,” Stafford is featured on the album Scenic Route (2007). As a member of drummer Alvin Queen’s band,“Alvin Queen and the Organics,” Stafford is heard on the album I Ain’t Lookin’ at You (2006).

Stafford has also been an integral part of bands led by such venerable artists as Cedar Walton, Sadao Watanabe, Herbie Mann, and Matt Wilson. He has appeared on television (The Tonight Show with Jay Leonard, You Bet Your Life with Bill Cosby) and can be heard on the soundtrack for the feature film, A Bronx Tale. He has also performed as a guest artist with the Billy Taylor Trio on National Public Radio’s Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center.

Stafford played solo trumpet with the Temple University Symphony Orchestra for the premiere performance of“fourth stream…La Banda,” a university-commissioned piece for orchestra, jazz combo and solo trumpet written by GRAMMY winning composer Bill Cunliffe, a former Boyer College faculty member. Recorded on the college’s music label, BCM&D, “fourth stream…La Banda” was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2010 for Best Instrumental Composition.

Stafford is a recipient of Temple’s “Creative Achievement Award.” He is also a clinician for the prestigious Vail Foundation in Colorado and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Program. Formerly, Stafford served as a member of the faculty for the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies and serves on the board of the Jazz Education Network.

Canadian Saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen has led a distinct voice to the creative jazz scene for the last twenty-five years with her large and small ensembles. She is set to release her third jazz orchestra album Harbour (2024) on Justin-Time Records. It features her Montreal-based orchestra, along with guest soloists NY-based Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and electronics, Gary Versace on piano, Chet Doxas on tenor saxophone, Jon Wikan on drums, and and Montreal-based Steve Raegele on guitar. This album captures over a decade of her compositions and commissions, with her sister’s improvisations infused throughout.

“Always a compelling writer, capable of strong lyricism combined with harmonic invention and plenty of narrative twists and turns, Jensen’s music not only impresses on a first encounter, but reveals more with each and every listen.” – All About Jazz

As a Downbeat Critic’s Poll winner for Rising Star Big Band, Arranger, and Soprano Saxophonist, she is constantly in motion as an improviser, composer and bandleader. Her jazz orchestra recordings have gone on to win Juno awards, including Habitat (2014) and Treelines (2011). She is nominated for a 2024 Juno for her latest pandemic-inspired quartet album Day Moon (2023). She has been honoured as a two-time recipient of SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Jazz Composer Award. Habitat received the coveted 5 stars in Downbeat, along with Jazz Album of the Year. In 2017, Jensen was awarded The Prix Oscar Peterson from the Montreal International Jazz Festival for her exceptional contributions to jazz in Canada.

Jensen’s latest Montreal quartet released the Juno-nominated album Day Moon in 2023 to rave reviews. She also works with the quartet collective CODE with Montreal-based Jim Doxas-drums, Adrian Vedady-bass, and Lex French-trumpet. They released Genealogy in 2020 and are set to release CODE-Red in fall 2024 on Justin-Time Records. She continues to collaborate in quintet settings with her sister and their ensembles Infinitude featuring Ben Monder, along with Swedish composer and pianist Maggi Olin.

Jensen’s music has taken her all over the world through commissioning, performance and conducting opportunities. In 2023 she was honoured to conduct and arrange for the HR Big band-Frankfurt with Mark Turner and his music. The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra released the suite East Meets West in 2024, where Jensen was commissioned to compose as well as being featured on saxophone, along with Vancouver composer and conductor Jill Townsend. Over the past decade she has been invited guest artist with Frost School of Music, The New School, University of Michigan, UMO Jazz Orchestra-Finland, Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, and Luxembourg Jazz Orchestra.

Jensen has performed with Jeremy Pelt, Phil Dwyer, Ben Monder, Gary Smuylan, Geoffrey Keezer, Lenny Pickett, and Donny McCaslin, Helen Sung, as well as directing Terrence Blanchard with the Orchestre National Jazz de Montreal. She is founding artistic director and conductor of the Canadian National Jazz Orchestra, as well as the past artistic director of Orchestre National Jazz de Montreal (ONJ), who commissioned and recorded her suite Under The Influence (2017) as well as her ever evolving project equal=orchestra (2022).

In 2022 Jensen joined the Eastman faculty as professor of jazz studies, where she teaches jazz composition and arranging, along with directing the award-winning Eastman Jazz Ensemble. She continues to work between Montreal and New York, where she has previously been on faculty at McGill University, Purchase College (NY), University of Sherbrooke, Université de Montreal. Teachers and mentors include Kenny Werner, Jim McNeely, Dick Oatts, Remi Bolduc and John Hollenbeck.

Omar Carmenates is currently the Professor of Percussion at Furman University in Greenville, SC where he oversees all aspects of the percussion program including classical, jazz, and world percussion studies. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from Florida State University, a Master of Music Degree in Percussion Performance from the University of North Texas, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Central Florida. Under his direction, the Furman University Percussion Ensemble has become known for its performances and recordings of ecoacoustic music, helping promote Furman’s standing as one of the nations academic leaders in sustainability. Most recently, the ensemble received major support from the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability to collaborate with composer Matthew Burtner on the premiere recordings of his Six Ecoacoustic Quintets and Avian Telemetry, a new interdisciplinary work written expressly for the ensemble. Students of the ensemble have also presented interdisciplinary performances and research at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Ecomusics and Ecomusicologies conference, the nief-norf Summer Festival Research Summit, the International Conference on Romanticism, and the Esri International GIS User Conference.

Dr. Andrea Venet is a percussion artist, soloist, educator, and composer, and is Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of North Florida.

As an international soloist, chamber musician, and clinician, she has performed nationally and internationally in South America, Europe, Canada, and Japan. A decorated teacher, she was awarded the UNF Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. Andrea is commissioned regularly; her compositions have been performed nationally and internationally. World premieres include the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Drumily Percussion Group (Taiwan), and by Grammy-Award winning Third Coast Percussion. Her duo, Escape Ten, has performed and lectured at over 40 universities, at five international conferences, and were featured on NPR’s “Performance Today”.

You can hear Venet on albums This Prismasonic Rock I Stand (Mark Records), Our Favorite Things (Ravello), Colours of a Groove (Escape Ten), and Revelations (DrGlockenAV). Andrea is an artist for Malletech, Black Swamp Percussion, DREAM Cymbals, & Remo. You can find her music and more at www.andreavenet.com.

Helen H. Cha-Pyo, in her seventh season as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts, has elevated the organization to new heights, serving nearly 2,000 students across 13 New Jersey counties. She oversees the New Jersey Youth Symphony, New Jersey Youth Chorus, Paterson Music Project, and the Wharton Performing Arts School. Under her leadership, Wharton Arts has expanded its jazz program and is dedicated to amplifying the voices of underrepresented composers through innovative concert programming and new commissions, supported by prestigious grants from organizations like New Music USA and Chorus America. Cha-Pyo’s previous roles include Music Director and Conductor of the Empire State Youth Orchestra (NY), where she founded ESYO’s CHIME program, providing music education for underprivileged youth in Schenectady, NY. ESYO established the Helen Cha-Pyo Golden Baton Award and Scholarships for students who embody her passionate commitment to music as a means to uplift and enrich communities. She has held academic positions at Montclair State University and Rutgers University.

A sought-after guest conductor and clinician, Cha-Pyo has conducted All-State and Regional Festival Orchestras nationwide, as well as orchestras and choruses internationally. As a committed arts leader and music educator, she has received The Dove Leadership Award, the Angelos Artist Award, and the Eastman Centennial Award. Learn more at helenchapyo.com.

Named Musical America’s April 2023 New Artist of the Month and recognized for his “profound artistry” (The San Diego Union Tribune), Sameer Patel is one of America’s most exciting conductors. Patel is the Artistic Director of the San Diego Youth Symphony and is also the Music Director and Orchestra Conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus. Formerly, he served as Associate Conductor of the Sun Valley Music Festival and Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony.

Recent performances include concerts with the orchestras of Chicago, Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, New Jersey, Baltimore, Princeton, Sarasota, Florida, Phoenix, and Grand Rapids. Patel has also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra. As a devoted teacher, he has conducted and taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, and has served as a clinician and conductor with All-State and Honor orchestras across the country.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Patel studied with and assisted some of the greatest conductors of our time, including Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniele Gatti, Mei-Ann Chen, Larry Rachleff, and Gustavo Dudamel.

American conductor Rachel Waddell’s leadership demonstrates her innate ability to transform vision into action. Rachel believes by uplifting, celebrating, and reflecting the artistry of our neighbors, orchestras become the creative heartbeat of our communities.

Rachel serves as the Director of Orchestras at Colorado State University. In 2024 her contributions to music education were recognized when she was named a quarterfinalist for the 2025 Grammy Music Educator Award.

Rachel maintains a busy profile in the professional and academic worlds. She was named a Music Director Finalist for the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted orchestras around the world including the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Rochester, Las Vegas, and Fort Wayne Philharmonics, the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland’s Suburban Symphony.

Rachel’s interest in the constantly evolving role of orchestras led her to co-found Conductors for Change, Inc., a 501(c)(3).

Rachel holds a DMA in Orchestra Conducting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has also studied at the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute, the Vienna Opera Academy, and at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, where she was selected by Yannick Nézet-Séguin to lead the Orchestre Métropolitain.

To learn more about Rachel Waddell please visit www.rachelwaddellconductor.com.

Originally from Bakersfield, California, Jimmy Cuellar began his mariachi career as a teenager alongside his father Jaime Cuellar and was a founding member of Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar. His dedication to his musical craft drove “El Pollo” to fine-tune his skills on the violin, guitarron, vihuela, guitar and guitarra de golpe, securing him a ten-year tenure with Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano. In subsequent years, Jimmy accompanied well known Latin recording artists Yolanda del Rio, Mercedes Castro, Humberto Herrera, Lila Downs, Vikki Carr, Aida Cuevas, Eugenia Leon, and Jose Feliciano as well as has been an instrumental member in various recoding productions, including the 2010 release of Ry Cooder and The Chieftains, San Patricio.

Beginning In 2005, Jimmy saw Grammy success when he was a featured artist on the Grammy Award winning album cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins. The following year “Llegaron Los Camperos: Concert Favorites of Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos” received a Grammy nomination for “Best Mexican Album”. 2008 added to his Grammy success with “Cien Por Ciento Mexicano” by Pepe Aguilar with 2009 rounding out a Grammy award to add to his mantle for Best Regional Mexican Album with “Amor, Dolor, y Lagrimas”.

Composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, three-time Grammy Award nominated and three time Grammy Award Winner, Mr. Cuellar understands the importance of education. Having received his Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in 2009, “El Pollo” decided to continue his musical education and enroll with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he is pursuing a Masters in Music Composition. His talents as an educator as well as nationally-regarded expert in the genre have earned Jimmy a yearly seat as an adjudicator for the statewide Mariachi Competition held in Texas. Mr. Cuéllar is the director of the mariachi program at Redlands University and the director of the new school CUE Music, in Montebello, CA, where he teaches classes on mariachi and other genres of Mexican music.

Richard Bjella has distinguished himself as a conductor, clinician, choral pedagogue, and choral arranger around the world. In 2014 Bjella was appointed Artistic Director of the San Antonio Chamber Choir. Their most recent CD, UNFROZEN: A Baltic Christmas received Grammy attention in 2018.

He retired from Texas Tech University in 2017, but previous to his work in Lubbock, Bjella served 25 years as Director of Choral Studies at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, leading the Concert Choir in an acclaimed performance at the 2009 National ACDA Convention. The Texas Tech University Choir has been celebrated for its excellence in Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall, at TMEA convention appearances, and at the 2013 ACDA Convention.

Bjella has presented workshops at several ACDA national and regional conventions and has been a headliner for countless events from Alaska to Florida for teachers and students alike. It has also been his honor to conduct and present masterclasses around the world and at over 400 festivals and workshops in 34 states, including several appearances at Lincoln Center, Orchestra Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He has also presented workshops and conducted in SOUTH KOREA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, LITHUANIA, COLUMBIA, HAITI, ESTONIA, and ITALY. He conducted the forward European tour for the Texas Choral Directors to Vienna, Prague, and Budapest in June- July 2024.

He is also active in the promotion of creative choral programming and is a contributing writer for The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy (2017) with his chapter, The Art of Successful Programming: Study, Selection, and Synthesis.

Bjella was the recipient of a ‘2017 Professing Excellence Award’ at Texas Tech University and the Lawrence University teaching award in 2008. This award is given to outstanding faculty who go “above and beyond,” both inside and outside the classroom, to impact student learning and academic success. He was also honored to receive the ‘Morris Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the Wisconsin Choral Directors.

Dr. Amanda Quist recently joined Western Michigan University’s Irving S. Gilmore School of Music as Director of Choral Activities. Before accepting the position at WMU, Dr. Quist served as Director of Choral Studies for the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she led the graduate program in choral conducting, and was director of the award-winning Frost Chorale. Previously, Quist was Chair of the Conducting, Organ, and Sacred Music Department at Westminster Choir College. She is the recipient of Westminster Choir College’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Mazzotti Award for Women’s Leadership. Prior to her post at Westminster, Dr. Quist was Director of Choral Activities at San José State University, and taught high school and middle school vocal music in Michigan. Quist earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas, and her Doctoral Cognate from UNT is in Voice Pedagogy and Science.

The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Classical Review have described Amanda Quist’s work as “transformative, beautifully prepared, gripping,” “bridging the vocal and instrumental textures with perfect intonation,” and “leaving the audience breathless.” Dr. Quist has collaborated in choral preparations with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Spoleto Festival. Her early music ensemble, Westminster Kantorei, won first place in the 2018 American Prize for Choral Performance. Under Quist’s direction, Kantorei was invited to perform at the American Choral Directors Association’s (ACDA) Eastern Division Conference, Boston Early Music Festival, American Handel Festival, and Interkultur, and released its first commercial recording in 2017, Lumina, distributed by Naxos. Quist’s other honors include the James Mulholland National Choral Award and the Audrey Davidson Early Music Award.

Dr. Quist frequently serves as a guest conductor, and she is regularly invited to headline conferences and serve as a lecturer in the United States and abroad. A professional member of the GRAMMY recording academy, Quist recently served on the Choral GRAMMY Screening Committee for the 64th awards ceremony. Dr. Quist’s research is published in the Choral Journal, Lexington Books, and GIA Publications. Her choral compositions are published by Walton Music and GIA, and the Amanda Quist Choral Series is published by Walton Music and Gentry Publications.

Dr. Anthony Trecek-King is a renowned choral conductor, scholar, and media personality with over 20 years of experience. Currently, he serves as a Resident Conductor with the Handel and Haydn Society and Artistic Director of Berkshire Choral International. Known for his dynamic performances and collaborative style, he has worked with numerous prestigious artists and ensembles, conducting in world-class venues such as Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. Dr. Trecek-King’s projects have garnered awards including a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy. He holds degrees in cello performance, orchestral conducting, and choral conducting, and has appeared on radio and television programs. He resides in Boston with his partner Melanie and their cat.

Sharon Paul holds the Robert M. Trotter Chair of Music at the University of Oregon, where she currently serves as the Department Head of Music Performance and Director of Choral Activities. Her teaching includes graduate courses in choral conducting, repertoire, and pedagogy, along with conducting the internationally award- winning Chamber Choir.

The University of Oregon Chamber Choir has garnered international attention in recent years by placing first or second in five international competitions, most recently winning first place in two categories at the World Choir Games in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2024.

Dr. Paul has presented interest sessions at regional, state, division, national, and international conferences. She appears frequently as adjudicator, clinician, conductor, teacher, and honor choir director throughout the United States and abroad. In 2019 she received Oregon ACDA’s Podium Award for “outstanding contributions to the choral arts,” and in the fall of 2014 she received the University of Oregon’s Fund for Faculty Excellence Award.

In March 2020, Oxford University Press published Dr. Paul’s book, Art & Science in the Choral Rehearsal, which features many of the creative and evidence-based teaching strategies she has cultivated over her career.