Gary Barton received the B.M.Ed. from the University of Louisiana - Monroe and the M.S.Ed. from Indiana University.  He currently teaches at the Baker Sixth Grade Campus in LaPorte, Texas where he also works with all aspects of the middle school and high school band programs.  His thirty years of teaching have included positions in Meridian, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.  In addition, Mr. Barton served as an Adjunct Instructor of Euphonium and Tuba at Arkansas State University for five years.  He served as a member of the faculty of the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic for High School Students for twenty-five years.  Mr. Barton is a past-president of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association and the East Central Mississippi Band Directors Association.

Mr. Barton has been published in The Instrumentalist, The Texas Bandmasters Association Review, The California Music Educators Sonata, The Leblanc Bell, British Columbia Band Talk, Conn-Selmer Keynotes, and The NBA Journal.  He served the National Band Association as Southwestern Division Chairman (1998-2002 and 2004-2006), Board Member (2000-2002), and Second Vice-President (2002-2004).  He was the 1996 Baker Campus Teacher of the Year and was a 1998 inductee into the Band World Magazine Legion of Honor.  Mr. Barton holds memberships in Phi Beta Mu, the American School Band Directors Association, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the Association of Concert Bands, the Texas Music Educators Association, and the Texas Bandmasters Association.  Mr. Barton has made presentations on the campuses of Kansas State University, Marshall University (WV), Plymouth State University (NH), Mississippi State University, Georgia Southern University, Henderson State University (AR), and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic.

Billl Brent is currently the director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts and Director of Bands at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. During his twenty-four year tenure at Northwestern, the band program has grown from forty-eight members to more that 300 and the Wind Symphony has performed at the College Band Directors National Association Southern Region Conference. Under his leadership, the School of Creative and Performing Arts has been endowed with over $2.5 million in private scholarship funds, received more that $3 million in grants and has had two academic professorships established. 

Prior to his arrival at Northwestern, Mr. Brent taught school in the Austin Independent School District in Austin, Texas. While serving as Director of Bands at McCallum High School, the band was twice named in the top five in the University Interscholastic Leaague State Marching Contest and the Symphonic Band was named in the top ten in the Texas Music Educator's Association honor band competition. Mr. Brent Holds the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Texas, Austin. He is a member of the Louisiana Music Educators Association, Music Educator'sNational Conference, Texas Music Educator's Association, The Texas Bandmaster's Association, and Phi Beta Mu.

Richard C. Crain served as Director of Music for the Spring Independent School District in a suburb of Houston, Texas, for 21 years.  He currently serves as a frequent clinician, adjudicator, lecturer, consultant, and evaluator of music programs throughout the United States and Canada.   Crain previously served as Band Director of award-winning band programs at Westfield High School, Spring High School, and Belton High School.  His bands won prestigious invitations such as performing a concert at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago and marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Los Angeles and also won honors at marching and concert festivals in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, and Colorado.  All of his bands consistently received first divisions at UIL and ranked in the TMEA top ten bands of Texas.  During his tenure as Director of Music for the Spring ISD, the music programs of that district received state and national honors and recognition.  He “retired” in 2000 after 44 years in music education in Texas.  

Crain serves as Vice President on the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic Board of Directors, of which he has been a member since 1991.  He served as the Executive Secretary for Region IX UIL Music contests from 1994-2005.  He has been the Festival Coordinator for the National Concert Band Festival since its debut in 1992 and was inducted into the Bands of America Hall of Fame in 2005.  Crain is Past President of the Texas Bandmasters Association, Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, and the Texas Music Adjudicators Association.  He previously served as the Region Chairman and the Band Chairman for Region IX and Region VIII.  He has been the International Executive Secretary of Phi Beta Mu since 1977 and is included in the Phi Beta Mu Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame. He is also a contributing author for Band Expressions, published by Alfred Publications.  

The Richard C. Crain Fine Arts Building at Spring High School was named in his honor in 2000.  His awards include Texas Bandmaster of the Year by the Texas Bandmasters Association and Outstanding Music Educator award from NFIAA on both the state and national levels. In 2002, he received the “Distinguished Faculty Award” from the Spring High School Alumni Association.  He previously served as Orchestra Director and Choir Director for several Texas churches and directed the Houston Police Department Band for one year.  He currently serves as Director of the North Harris College/Community Band and the Spring Baptist Church Orchestra.  Early in 2006, he was elected to membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association and in the summer of 2006, Crain received the Music Administrator Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Bandmasters Association.

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.

Dr.William Hochkeppel is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.  Previously, he held similar positions at Butler University (Indianapolis) and Eastern Washington University, and also served on faculty at Northwestern University (IL) and Findlay College (OH).  A native of New Jersey, he holds the bachelor and master’s degrees from Northwestern University, and earned the Doctor of Music Education degree from Indiana University.  His training included conducting studies with John P. Paynter and Ray E. Cramer, and applied saxophone with Frederick Hemke and Eugene Rousseau.  In 1977, Hochkeppel won first prize in the National Saxophone Competition, and was a semifinalist in the 1978 Concours Internationale in Gap, France.