Patti DeWitt is a free-lance composer and music educator living in the Houston area. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Henderson State University (Arkadelphia, AR), a Master of Music from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M at Commerce), and completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education at University of Houston in 1998. Her doctoral dissertation is a systematic and sequential program for teaching basic sightreading skills to choral music students.

Dr. DeWitt has taught for 20 years in the public school classroom in Arkansas and Texas, where her choirs earned consistent First Division awards in Concert Performance and in Sightreading. For the past 15 years, she has composed music for the Texas State choral sightreading contest. She has over 100 choral pieces in print with Southern Music Company and Hal Leonard Corporation, as well over 100 self-published pieces. She is the author of the new choral textbook series, The Singing Musician which is currently on the Texas and South Carolina State textbook adoption lists.

Dr. DeWitt is currently self-employed, selling her music literacy products and her choral music. She has presented choral and elementary workshops for music conventions in 24 different states as well as many clinics and staff development sessions for individual schools and school districts in several states. She presented at the European Music Educators Association convention in Kaiserslauten, Germany in April 2004, and in Naples, Italy in October 2007. She is married to Ronald Folkerts of the Netherlands.

"Darla is the Lecturer of Music at Texas A&M University in Commerce, TX.  She earned a Master’s of Music Education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and is a certified teacher trainer for the North American Orff Schulwerk Association.  Darla enjoys writing children’s choir curricula for Lifeway Christian Resources in Nashville , and presenting workshops and clinics for teachers in and around Texas.  When Darla is not busy educating, she enjoys performing!   She has played a variety of roles, from the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, to Rosa in Drood!, to Mary in Vanities.

Previous to his appointment at SFA, Dr. Turner worked in the Houston public schools as an elementary general/choral music specialist. His nine years with the Houston Independent School District included making music with elementary school children (grades K-5th) and middle school students (grades 6th-8th). His classroom pedagogy included Kodály, Orff, Dalcroze, and Gordon.

In addition to his work at the elementary and middle schools levels, Dr. Turner also made music with the children (4-year-olds through 1st Grade) of the Sharon G. Halpin Early Childhood Center. At Halpin, he developed a child-centered music curriculum that blended "best practices" of the National Association for Music Education (MENC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

At SFA, Dr. Turner's responsibilities include teaching graduate and undergraduate early childhood and elementary music methods courses for music majors and non-majors. He works closely with the faculty of the SFA Early Childhood Lab Center and NISD/SFA Charter School providing hands-on experiences for the students in his classes and serves as the children’s primary music specialist.

Dr. Turner is active as a presenter and has conducted sessions at conferences and clinics across Texas and throughout the nation. In addition to presenting, his publications pear in nationally recognized music education journals: Early Childhood Connections, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Teaching Music, Music Educators Journal and Journal of Music Teacher Education.

Due, in part, to the music education profession’s focus on the recruitment and retention of music specialists across the country, Dr. Turner’s current pedagogy and research focuses on how problem-based learning in music methods courses can effect change in how pre-service professionals think about themselves as they prepare for careers making music with children. Over the past five years he has assisted his students in helping children prepare and perform “child-centered” musical compositions and “music student” created compositions.

Aside from academic pursuits, Dr. Turner treasures the company of this wife and daughter, composing, and also enjoys accompanying his daughter while she sings and dances. And, when Texas gets too hot, he and his family visit Alaska.

Although born May 27, 1948 in Washington, Indiana, Leroy Osmon grew up and lived for 44 years in Texas. His early education was in the Texas Public School System, studying clarinet and alto saxophone in a school band. With no formal musical training in composition he entered Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas to study composition with Paul Holmes and orchestration with Charles Wiley. After completing his degree Osmon taught band in East Texas. He went on to complete his Master of Music at Sam Houston State University in composition (studying with Fisher Tull), conducting (Gary Sousa) and musicology (James Marks). While working on his DMA at the University of Houston, Osmon studied composition with Michael Horvit and conducting with Eddie Green. Although Leroy Osmon continued to teach band in the Texas Public School System (retiring after 30 years) and teach an occasional class at the University of Houston, he now composes full time (with over 100 works - 30 published) and teaches part time at the Bach School of Music and the University of Yucatan in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. He and his wife, Dr. Cay Smith Osmon reside permanently in the Myan world

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.

Self employed technician for the last 30 years in a play condition shop.
Band Instrument technician for 40 years.
Piano Technician for the last 31 years.
Charter Member of National Association of Professional Band Instrument Technicians  (NAPBIRT)
Served for 15 years on the Board of Directors of the Piano Technicians Guild, serving as
International President from 1990 to 1992 and 2001 to 2003.
Director Emeritus of the Piano Technicians Guild Foundation.
Past President of the International Association Of Piano Builders And Technicians 2003 to 2005.
Received the Phi Beta Mu Outstanding Contributor Award from Epsilon Chapter in 1995 and again in 2008.
Piano and Band Instrument Technician for Nicholls State University, and for St Charles Parish School System.

Lawrence Gibbs

Associate Professor, Single Reeds, Jazz Studies

MA, Louisiana Tech University; BA, Northeast Louisiana University

Richard A. Baker, Jr. has been the Fine Arts Program Coordinator since October 2002. He is responsible for standards, benchmarks and curriculum development in the arts.  He is currently overseeing the revision of curriculum guidelines for visual and performing arts education.  He earned the bachelor’s degree in music education from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.  He has served the state of Louisiana since 1997.  Mr. Baker transformed a troubled music program in a middle school that had seen a succession of directors over the years.  In the five years he was there, the quality of the program rose to levels never before seen.  The students performed for live television broadcasts and created their own CD.  The band and choir were regularly requested to perform at many community functions.  While teaching, Mr. Baker earned the master’s degree in educational administration from the University of New Orleans.  He has published works on assessment, curriculum, and school law in Basic Education, Principal Leadership, and Educational Leadership. 
Mr. Baker has been an invited presenter at several middle school conferences in Louisiana and Mississippi.  Additionally, he has conducted music clinics in Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, and Michigan.  In October, he reviewed Learning in the Arts grants for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C.  In 2007 the Louisiana Art Education Association honored him with the Distinguished Service Outside the Profession Award.
He is currently pursuing the doctor of philosophy degree at Louisiana State University.  He is an ex-officio board member of the Louisiana Music Educators Association and an executive board member for the Baton Rouge Symphony.  Mr. Baker has performed with the New Orleans Symphony Chorus and the Baton Rouge Symphony Chorus.  He sings with the First United Methodist Choir in Baton Rouge where he served as the interim music director.  Mr. Baker was the music director and conductor for Baton Rouge Little Theatre’s productions of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and CATS! He is currently preparing The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Chicago.

Guy G. Gauthreaux II is a native of Thibodaux, Louisiana and a graduate of Edward Douglas White Catholic High School. He received his bachelor's degree from Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe LA, his Masters degree from Northwestern University in Evanston IL and his doctorate from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge LA. Prior to moving to Washington D.C. to join the United State Navy Band, he taught at Wossman High School in Monroe LA and Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches LA. He has also served on the faculties of the Conservatory of Music at Shenandoah University in Winchester VA, The Catholic University of America in Washington DC., and George Mason University in Fairfax VA.After 20 years, Guy Gauthreaux recently retired as the principal timpanist with the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC, and now resides in Baton Rouge LA. He has studied percussion with Stan Finck, Al W­ojtera, Terry Applebaum, John Raush and Roland Kohloff.He continues to present percussion clinics at music conventions, high schools, and universities throughout the United States (PASIC, Midwest, VMEA, and Armed Forces School of Music) and is an active freelance and recording percussionist in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. His published compositions include solo works for snare drum, marim­ba, and timpani. He has placed three times in the Percus­sive Arts Society Composition Contest (American Suite for Solo Snare Drum placed first in 1989, Time to Remember placed second in 2002, and Capriccio for Solo Timpani placed third in 1998). In 1989, he founded PIO­NEER PERCUSSION, a publishing company that specializes in advanced percussion literature. Most recently, Gauthreaux released his first two solo compact discs entitled, OPEN-CLOSE-OPEN: American Contest Solos for Snare Drum and Rudiments! Rudiments! Rudiments!.