Karen Fannin, Hendrix College

Karen Fannin is Assistant Professor and Director of Bands at Hendrix College, where she leads the Wind and Percussion division, conducts the Wind Ensemble, and teaches conducting, low brass, and courses in twentieth-century music and fundamentals of music.  In 2008, she founded the Festival of Winds Honor Band for high school musicians held at Hendrix College each May.  Dr. Fannin is also Music Director and Conductor of the Little Rock Wind Symphony, an ensemble of professional and semi-professional musicians.  Dr. Fannin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting and Literature from the University of Colorado, where she studied with Allan McMurray.  She received a Master of Music in Conducting from Northwestern University, where she was a student of Mallory Thompson and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Northern Iowa, where she studied euphonium with Jeffrey Funderburk.  Upon graduation from UNI, Dr. Fannin was awarded the Purple and Old Gold Award for Conspicuous Achievement in Music.

Prior to her studied at CU, Dr. Fannin served as Director of Bands at Lockport Township High School in suburban Chicago, where she instituted a composer-in-residence program.  A native of Iowa, Dr. Fannin also held the position of Director of Bands in the Lynnville-Sully Community Schools.  Dr. Fannin maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician.  Her paper "Tracing the Lineage of Nadia Boulanger through American Wind Repertoire" was selected for presentation at the 2007 National Convention of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She has also been selected to present her research in creating a behind-the-scenes concert at a Creativity Across the Curriculum conference of the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) in Salem, Oregon in October 2008.  Dr. Fannin has presented on topics such as communication in music as well as parallels between the ensemble and business.  She will also be a contributing author to the seventh volume of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series published by GIA.

Dr. Fannin's professional affiliations include Pi Kappa Lambda, College Band Directors National Association, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Music Educators National Conference, Arkansas Bandmasters Association, Arkansas Music Educators Association, and the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association. 

Tom Bennett, Retired

Tom Bennett was Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Houston's Moores School of Music. He holds degrees from Texas Tech University and Southern Methodist University. Prior to his appointment in 2000 to the University of Houston, Bennett was Director of Bands at East Texas State University, and had conducted an array of high school bands throughout Texas, several of which won auspicious honours and awards during his tenure. Bennett is the recipient of the Leadership and Achievement Award from the Texas Music Educators Association and the Ross Perot Outstanding Teacher Award from the Richardson Independent School District. He was presented with the Grainger Medallion by the International Grainger Society, in recognition of his significant contribution to the advancement of the music of Percy Grainger. The award was presented in conjunction with the production of Volume IV of the University of Houston Wind Ensemble's survey of Grainger's music. Bennett is a member of the Texas Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association, Texas Music Educators Association, and Phi Beta Mu honorary band fraternity. He is active nationally as a clinician and adjudicator.

Thomas V. Fraschillo, University of Southern Mississippi

Director of Bands
Professor of Music

D.M.A., University of South Carolina
M.M.Ed., The University of Southern Mississippi
B.M.Ed., The University of Southern Mississippi

Thomas V. Fraschillo has served as catalyst and mentor for the music profession in the area of Wind Music for 38 years. His influence on extremely high standards of performance has been felt by virtually every wind music organization in the Southeast and his performances serve as models throughout the world whether in the professional or academic arena. Through his recent recordings, The Music of Luigi Zaninelli and L’Orchestra di fiati-University of Southern Mississippi Wind Ensemble (recorded in Italy with the USM Wind Ensemble), and his publishing, conducting, and lecturing in the United States, Europe, and Australia he is considered an international musician/scholar.

His most recent publications, a translation from the original Italian of Alessandro Vessella’s Studi di strumentazione (Instrumentation Studies) published by BMG Ricordi, Milan, and distributed in the United States by Shawnee Press, and La Tecnica dell’orchestra contemporanea (The Technique of Contemporary Orchestration), by Alessandro Casella and Vittorio Mortari, published by BMG Ricordi and distributed in the United States by Hal Leonard Publications, have put his name in music libraries of the entire English speaking world. The translation of the Casella/Mortari makes available an English version of probably the most significant music publication on writing for orchestra in Europe after the Second World War. Further Dr. Fraschillo serves as a frequent conductor and lecturer in Italy as an American scholar. It should be noted that he lectures in Italy in the Italian language.

His most recent conducting in Italy has been with La banda dell’esercito/The Italian Army Band from Rome.  One of his most significant engagements with them occurred in the summer of 2002 and signaled a very important milestone for the Italian Army in that Dr. Fraschillo was the first American born conductor to have been invited to appear in a public performance by what is considered Italy’s most prestigious military concert band. The concert with Dr. Fraschillo conducting was the opening concert of the International Festival in Spoleto, “The Festival of Two Worlds, Festival dei due mondi.” His appearance was enormously significant for conductors of bands in that the opening performance featured such international artists as Gian Carlo Menotti, the renowned composer who organized and began the event some 30 years ago, the Orchestra and Giuseppe Verdi Chorus of Milan with Ricardo Chailly conducting, and the famous Italian actress, Claudia Cardinale whose work was being displayed in a film retrospective.

In 2005, the Melbourne, Australia, Summer Youth Music Program invited Dr. Fraschillo to be their guest conductor for a week long session, and in 2006 he returned to be guest lecturer for the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association followed by another week of guest conducting with the Melbourne group.  His performance in the Melbourne Town Hall received significant acclaim by critics in the Australian press, something normally reserved for strictly professional performances.

Dr. Fraschillo has devoted a significant amount of his career to the education of young people in the urban and rural environments of Mississippi.  For example his ten-year tenure at Meridian High School was highlighted by an invitation to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious music event for wind and string educators. The invitation was only the second to have been given to a band from Mississippi until now. In December, 2001, a former USM student of Dr.Fraschillo, Mohamad Schuman of Stone County High School, was the third conductor to take a group from Mississippi to perform for this international audience. Further Dr. Fraschillo’s students have broken barriers not before reached, for he taught and helped place the first two African-American female students from Meridian, Vanessa Cox and Melanie Thomas, in the Mississippi All-State Band. Not only were they the first minority female members, but they were also the first African-American young women to be in the very highest positions in the group.

Dr. Fraschillo has attained a level of international leadership that has significantly elevated the awareness of bands by professional musicians from throughout the USA, Europe, Asia, and Canada in that he has served as President of the world’s largest organization for band directors, the National Band Association, and now serves as its Executive Secretary/Treasurer. As president of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, Dr. Fraschillo follows in this office a long line of distinguished conductors. Further he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago based Sudler Foundation, a foundation that enhances the music education and experiences of young people through the John Philip Sousa Honor Bands and various competitions for young conductors, e.g., the Sir Georg Solti International Young Conductors Competition in honor of the late Sir Georg Solti, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Under his leadership the University of Southern Mississippi’s Wind Ensemble has been featured on frequent public radio broadcasts in Mississippi, on Performance Today, a program of PRI (Public Radio International), and has performed for many regional and national conventions including two of the American Bandmasters Association and three of the College Band Director’s National Association. In 1998, he brought the national convention of the American Bandmasters Association to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for its annual meeting. As a result of all of the above he is constantly in demand as a conductor and lecturer throughout the world and attracts a steady stream of graduate students to USM to study in its Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting degree program.

Presently, Dr. Fraschillo served as the president of the National Band Association, the world's largest organization for band directors. Other memberships include the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the Mississippi Bandmasters Association, Phi Beta Mu, Phi Delta Kappa, and various fraternal organizations. In all of these organizations, Dr. Fraschillo has served in various capacities. Other than the presidency of the NBA, his most recent appointments have been as the CBDNA president in the Southern Division and first vice-president of the NBA. As a clinician and adjudicator, he is constantly in demand.

MUCS Guy G. Gauthreaux II (Ret.)

B.M., Northeast Louisiana University; M.M., Northwestern University; D.M.A., Louisiana State University. Teachers include Al Wojtera, John Raush, Roland Kohloff and the late Stan Finck. Taught at Wossman High School in Monroe, La.; Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches; Shenandoah University; and the Catholic University of America. Soloist and former Concert Band Unit Leader of the United States Navy Band.

Dr. Glen J. Hemberger, Southeastern Louisiana University

Glen J. Hemberger is Associate Professor of Music, Director of Bands, and conductor of the Wind Symphony at Southeastern Louisiana University. As a clinician, conductor, and lecturer, Dr. Hemberger has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, and Australia.   Prior to his appointment at Southeastern in 1999, he served as Associate Director of Bands at Oklahoma State University, on the ensemble and conducting faculty at the University of Rhode Island, and as Director of Bands at Thornton High School in Colorado.

Dr. Hemberger received the Bachelor's degree in Music Education and Master of Music degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying with Allan McMurray, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting and Repertoire from the University of North Texas where he was a student of Eugene Migliaro Corporon.

Professor Hemberger has given educational workshops and seminars for numerous schools and professional associations, including the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, the Beijing Band Directors Association, the Society for American Music, and state conventions of the Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island Music Educators Associations. He has conducted a variety of musical ensembles around the globe, including the National Taiwan University Wind Orchestra, the Melbourne Youth Symphonic Wind Band, the New Orleans Civic Symphony Orchestra, and the United States Coast Guard Band. Dr. Hemberger is the first American to ever conduct the Chinese Military Armed Police Band housed at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In recent years, he has adjudicated the Yamaha European Open International Band Festival and the Norwegian School Band Championships held in Hamar, Norway, the Norwegian National Wind Band Championships in Trondheim, and served as guest conductor for the Association for Music in International Schools Festival Honor Band at the American School of The Hague, The Netherlands.

He has appeared as a conductor at regional conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, and the Percussive Arts Society, as well as the 1996 international conference of the Asia and Pacific Band Directors Association in Hong Kong. His performances have been heard and seen on radio and television broadcasts including Georgia Public Radio, and NPR.

Dr. Hemberger has collaborated in performances with many of the world's most respected instrumentalists, including John Bruce Yeh, Philip Smith, Brian Bowman, Scott A. Hartman, Ed Shaughnessy, and Eugene Rousseau. He has received praise for his innovative programming and quality performances from numerous composers including Karel Husa, Frank Ticheli, Richard Prior, and Mark Camphouse. He is active in commissioning new works and has conducted many premiere performances, including the Concertino for Horn and Wind Symphony, premiered at the 2004 Southern Division Conference of the CBDNA/NBA in Atlanta, Georgia with virtuoso Eric Ruske. Dr. Hemberger's service to the music profession has most recently been recognized with the 2004 Hammond Regional Arts Award. He is a contributing research associate to five volumes of the educational series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Dr. Hemberger is a member of Phi Beta Mu, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and has been listed in Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in the World, and the millennium edition of Who's Who in America.

Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, Lamar University

Eduardo Garcia-Novelli is a native of Argentina and the Director of Choral Activities at Lamar University. After serving for six years as Assistant Director of the National Young People Choir of Argentina and a fruitful high school choral directing career in Buenos Aires, including several international tours, Eduardo moved to the United States to pursue graduate studies. He graduated with distinction with a Master of Music from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Houston. While in Houston, Dr. Garcia-Novelli served for five seasons as Assistant Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus. In that capacity he helped in the preparation of large choral-symphonic pieces for world-renowned conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Peter Schreier, Hans Graf, Hugh Wolf, Helmut Rilling, and others. At the University of Houston Dr. Garcia-Novelli founded the University Men's Chorus, and conducted the University Women's Chorus and the Moores School Chamber Singers. Prior to coming to Lamar University Dr. Garcia-Novelli served as Director of Choral Activities at Lee College in Baytown, TX. He guest-conducted Clear Lake Symphony and Baytown Symphony orchestras. Also a church musician, Eduardo served as Director of Music Ministries in churches in his home country, in NJ and in Houston. Dr. Garcia-Novelli is a national prize winner for the "La Nacion" (Argentina) and the American Choral Directors Association (US) competitions. His wife Maria Fernanda is a periodontist; they have two children: Matea and Camila.

Debbie Pesnell

Debbie Pesnell is Vice-President of Operations and Marketing of the MIDI for Kids After-School Music Program and All Aboard the Music and Math Connection Pre-School Program.  She also acts as the liaison officer with MIDI for Kid’s partner – J.W. Pepper and Sons.  She is a twenty-year Texas public school music teacher having had experience at every level both in the classroom and music administration.  Her last fourteen years of teaching in Burleson ISD found her teaching thousands of amazing students including our first American Idol –  Kelly Clarkson. 

Debbie also has experience in the commercial music industry having worked as vocal director for Six Flags Over Texas, Show Choir Camps of America, Brightleaf Music Workshop and directing the Texas Showdown Show Choir Camp at Texas Christian University. Debbie’s mission statement for her newest endeavor is, “Teaching children to learn to love life through music” has always been very important to her and the MIDI for Kids and All Aboard After-School Music Programs are the perfect tools to do just that.  The MIDI for Kids and All Aboard After-School Music Programs are unique programs teaching children the traditional world of notation reading and incorporating the excitement of the garage band in learning to play familiar tunes by ear.  This program comes to a school at no cost whatsoever, being completely funded by class tuition.  MIDI for Kids is a collaborative effort between three companies:  MIDI for Kids After-School Music Program, All Aboard the Music and Math Connection and the J.W. Pepper and Sons Music Company.