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Brian Balmages, Composer |
Brian Balmages is known worldwide as a composer and conductor who equally spans the worlds of orchestral, band, and chamber music. His music has been performed by groups ranging from professional symphony orchestras to elementary schools in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House, Toronto Centre for the Arts, and many more. He is a recipient of the A. Austin Harding Award from the American School Band Directors Association, won the 2020 NBA William D. Revelli Composition Contest with his work Love and Light, and was awarded the inaugural James Madison University Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Visual and Performing Arts. In the same year, he was commissioned by his other alma mater, the University of Miami, to compose music for the inauguration of the institution’s 6th president, Dr. Julio Frenk. His music was also performed as part of the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service, which was attended by both President Obama and Vice President Biden.
As a conductor, Mr. Balmages enjoys regular engagements with all-state and regional ensembles as well as university and professional groups throughout the world. Notable guest conducting appearances have included the Midwest Clinic, Western International Band Clinic, Maryborough Music Conference (Australia), College Band Directors Conference, American School Band Directors Association National Conference, numerous state ASTA conferences, Teatro dell’Aquila (Italy), and others. He is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and has taught instrumental conducting at Towson University where he also served as Assistant Director of Bands and Orchestras. Currently, he is Director of MakeMusic Publications and Digital Education for Alfred Music and MakeMusic.
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Jenny Kellog, Eastern Washington University |
Trombonist and composer Jenny Kellogg’s musical career has taken her around the world to China, England, Italy, and Peru. Jenny participated in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Residency Program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Stean’s Summer Music Institute at Ravinia, and she played lead trombone in the Disneyland Resort All-American College Band. From Fall 2011 to Spring 2013 she held the solo trombone chair in the Grammy-Nominated One O’Clock Lab Band. The “Lab 2012” and “Lab 2013” albums feature her large jazz ensemble compositions. She writes on a regular basis for high school and college-level jazz ensembles throughout the country.
Jenny holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Trombone Performance and Music Composition from the University of Idaho, a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas, and is working on a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kentucky. Jenny plays in the Spokane area with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra, Brassworks Northwest, and Son Dulce Live Salsa among others. She is a regular substitute in other musical organizations such as the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. She is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Jazz and Trombone Studies at Eastern Washington University where she teaches trombone and directs the top jazz ensemble. Jenny is in great demand as a guest artist and clinician throughout the US and Canada.
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Dr. Kate Skinner, University of Idaho |
Jazz pianist and vocalist Kate Skinner maintains an active performing, composing, and teaching career in the western United States. A native of Ogden, Utah, Skinner pulls influences from the bluegrass and classical roots of her childhood into both her songwriting and performing as a jazz musician. In her teenage and college years, Kate delved into R&B, funk, and hip hop, genres that also continually find their way into her musical explorations helping to create her own unique voice. Part of this unique voice is an obsession with alternative keyboard instruments and a study of the great keyboardists of jazz, rock, and funk.
As a pianist, Skinner is in demand in a variety of performance styles and has performed with the Downbeat-award-winning jazz band from the University of Northern Colorado, Jazz Lab Band I among many other established large and small jazz ensembles. Her work as a vocalist has seen much success among a wide audience of listeners across genres. Kate’s compositions and playing have won multiple awards, including a Downbeat award for Outstanding Vocal Performance and a Jazz Education Network award for composition.
Skinner is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, where she directs Jazz Band II and teaches multiple courses in jazz studies. She holds M.M. and D.A. degrees in Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado.
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Dr. Nicole Lamartine, Central Washington University |
Dr. Nicole C. Lamartine serves as Director of Choirs at Central Washington University, where she acts on her values of empowering the next generation of choral educators and cultivating excellence in 21st century choral performance. She conducts the well-known CWU Chamber Choir as well as Vox Divina and teaches courses in conducting and choral music education. Recently, she conducted the 2023 Idaho International Choral Festival High School Honor Choir.
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.
An active performer, Dr. Lamartine 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.
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Dr. Joel Neves, Michigan Technological University |
Joel Neves enjoys a dynamic and versatile career as an opera, ballet, and orchestra conductor and educator.
Joel is Director of Orchestral Activities at Michigan Technological University where he conducts the award-winning Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, the KSO was awarded 2nd Place nationally in the American Prize in Orchestral Performance for its recordings of Jupiter (The Planets) and Sinfonia antartica. He has also served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pine Mountain Music Festival, a professional classical and opera festival in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Joel is a frequent guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Entre Ríos in Argentina and made his professional conducting debut in China with the Hubei Symphony Orchestra and Wuhan Normal University. Joel recently guest conducted the Utah All-State Orchestra in Abravanel Hall and the University of Hawaii at Manoa Symphony Orchestra in Oahu. He will conduct the Idaho All-State Orchestra and Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu in Transylvania, Romania in 2024.
Equally adept at theatre, Joel has directed numerous opera, ballet, and music theatre productions. He conducted How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying at Southern Utah University, Bizet’s Carmen with the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Amahl and the Night Visitors, Swan Lake, South Pacific, and West Side Story at Michigan Tech. He has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the Minnesota Ballet three times.
A strong advocate for college conductors, Joel served as national President of the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the only professional service organization for conductors of university orchestra programs in North America. During his term of service, he made a special focus on repertoire for college orchestras, especially contemporary music and music by women composers.
Neves was Assistant Conductor of the Orchestra of Southern Utah from 2006-2009 and has conducted the Orquestra de Cadaqués (Spain), Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, Bard Festival Orchestra, and the orchestras at Brigham Young University, Northern Arizona University, and Metro State University of Denver. In 2010 he was invited as guest conductor of the Kentucky Music Educators Association All-Collegiate Orchestra. Conducting teachers include Gustav Meier, Larry Rachleff, Timothy Russell, William Reber, and Kory Katseanes.
Joel received a Doctor of Musical Arts in orchestral, choral, and opera conducting from Arizona State University and bachelors and masters degrees from Brigham Young University. He resides in Houghton with his wife (soprano, Lara Neves) and daughter.
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Dr. Edith A. Copley, Northern Arizona University |
Edith A. Copley is a regents’ professor emeritus at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where she taught from 1990-2021. As director of choral studies, she conducted the highly acclaimed Shrine of the Ages Choir and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and graduate choral literature. The Shrine of the Ages Choir performed at state, regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Association for Music Education. NAU choral ensembles under her direction toured internationally to Western Europe, the Peoples Republic of China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Bulgaria, Istanbul, Estonia, and Latvia.
Prior to her NAU appointment, Dr. Copley taught secondary choral music for seven years in Iowa and four years overseas at the American International School in Vienna, Austria. While completing her doctoral degree in choral conducting at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, she served as the assistant and interim principal conductor of the May Festival Chorus, one of the oldest symphony choruses in the United States that regularly performs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops.
Dr. Copley served for 23 years as the artistic director of the Master Chorale of Flagstaff (MCF), a 100-voice, auditioned community chorus. As chorusmaster for Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Copley conducted numerous major choral/orchestral works, including Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Britten War Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana, Bach B Minor Mass, Mozart Requiem and Mass in C Minor, and Duruflé and Fauré Requiems.
Dr. Copley is an active member of NAfME and a life member of American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). She has served ACDA in many leadership roles, including president of the western region, president of Arizona ACDA, state and regional newsletter editor, and interest session chair for the 2011, 2019, and 2021 national conferences. She is currently ACDA National Vice President.
Dr. Copley has received numerous awards, including NAU School of Performing Arts Centennial Teacher of the Year, Arizona Music Educator of the Year, Arizona ACDA Outstanding Choral Director, and the Weston H. Noble Award from her alma mater Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Dr. Copley is in high demand as a conference clinician, festival adjudicator, and guest conductor in the US and abroad. Dr. Copley has conducted international choral festivals in Germany, the Netherlands, Tasmania, Japan, Luxembourg, Australia, China, Turkey, England, Oman, Ireland, and Austria. She will conduct the Association for Music in International Schools Honor Choir in Paris in March 2024.
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