Band - Wendy Reeves
Wendy Bauer Reeves is in her thirteenth year as Band Director at Sells Middle School and her seventeenth year as Assistant Director of the Dublin Coffman Marching Band. Prior to teaching middle school band, she taught choir and general music for five years, also at Sells. Mrs. Reeves graduated from The Ohio State University School of Music in 1993, and received her Master of Arts in Music Education from OSU in 1998. At OSU, she played tuba in concert ensembles and sousaphone in The Ohio State University Marching Band. She is collecting data for a research project that will eventually lead to a Ph.D. in Music Education. She enjoys performing on her tuba with the Worthington Civic Band. Mrs. Reeves was honored to be selected as a clinician for the Ohio Music Education Association State Conference, the Michigan Music Conference, the American School Band Directors Association Region 3 Conference, and the Capital University Complete Band Director’s Workshop and has enjoyed conducting honors bands in Ohio, Indiana and Georgia. Mrs. Reeves is a member of the American School Band Directors Association and the Ohio Music Education Association.
Chorus - Ron Hendrix
Ron Hendrix is the choral director and AP music theory instructor for Carolina High School and Academy in Greenville, South Carolina. Ron has taught choral music in an inner-city high school setting for the last 16 years. Ron has also taught band, music appreciation and more recently, AP music theory. Ron earned his Bachelors Degree in Music from Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida and the Masters of Music Education Degree from Boston University.
Ron's area of educational expertise is inner-city secondary education - teaching students of generational poverty. His areas of musical expertise are vocal and choral music, music theory, as well as popular music culture and history.
General Music - Katie Carlisle
Katie Carlisle, Ph.D., is assistant professor of general music education at Georgia State University in Atlanta, offering programs at the baccalaureate, masters and Ph.D. levels. Her school music teaching experience focused on general music, spanning pre-K through 12th grade in public and private school, urban and rural settings. In addition, she has taught early childhood music (pre-natal through age five) in a variety of community and private contexts.
Dr. Carlisle has articles published in journals such as Music Education Research; Arts Education Policy Review; Gender, Education, Music, and Society; and the Canadian Music Educators Journal. She has book chapters in Volumes 2 and 4 of the Canadian Music Educator Association Biennial Series: Research to Practice. She is the director for the Center for Educational Partnerships at Georgia State University. Initiatives through the center with partnership K-12 schools include the nationally recognized arts integration program, Sound Learning, the ongoing arts-focused curriculum integration project Inspire, professional development workshop/lectures, and the Johnny Mercer Foundation American Music 1900-1950 Partnership.
Guitar - Glen McCarthy
Glen McCarthy graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and an emphasis in Music. In 1976, after traveling internationally with the band “Hickory Wind”, he settled down to teach at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia. Though he was originally hired as an assistant band director, Mr. McCarthy (“Mr. Mac” as he is known to his students), saw the need to involve a more diverse student population in the courses the music department offered. In order to do this, Mr. Mac implemented two beginning guitar classes. Over the years, the highly successful guitar program at Robinson has become an integral part of the music curriculum. The Robinson Guitar Ensemble has consistently been awarded superior ratings at adjudicated festivals. The Ensemble was the first high school guitar ensemble to perform at the annual Guitar Foundation of America convention. Robinson High School was the first recipient of the Guitar Accessories Manufacturers Association’s effort to recognize innovative guitar programming in the United States.
As Mr. McCarthy’s guitar program at Robinson has grown, so has his reputation. He has been “instrumental” in developing guitar curriculum throughout much of Fairfax County. He has taught Guitar Methods, required for all Music Education majors at George Mason University, for over 15 years. He has been a guest clinician at Virginia Tech, Roanoke County, Loudoun County, and the Virginia; Southern Division; and National Music Educators Conferences. In the 2003-2004 school year, Mr. Mac was nominated for Fairfax County Teacher of the Year. His most recent guitar teaching venture has been as the selected instructor at the educational center of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Over the summer, as a member of the National Guitar Task Force, he teaches workshops throughout the country.
Glen McCarthy is particularly proud that many of his students have gone on to enjoy successful music careers. Among those are Martha Ann Masters http://www.marthamasters.com/ who in 2000 won the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, Tony Lopacinski http://www.facemusic.net/ who has played with numerous contemporary artists and Keith Owens and Michael Ward; both teaching high school guitar in Fairfax County Public Schools.
Mr. Mac continues to play in big band, bluegrass, Celtic, country, funk, German, Hawaiian, jazz, musicals, praise bands, rock, and numerous wedding groups and ensembles.
Jazz - Thomas Matta
Thomas Matta boasts a body of work as a musician that spans an impressive spectrum of genres, styles, and disciplines. An active performer, Thomas has performed extensively across North America, Europe, and New Zealand, and is one of the most sought-after bass trombonists in Chicago's recording studios, concert halls, theater pits and other live-music venues. Thomas has performed and recorded with a diverse array of talents including the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Frank Mantooth Jazz Orchestra, the Rob Parton Big Band, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, the Mulligan Mosaics, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Art Garfunkel, Jimmy Heath, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Fulcrum Point, The Colorado Symphony, Concertante di Chicago, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.
His compositions and arrangements of have been performed and recorded by premier orchestras, big bands and chamber ensembles worldwide – many of which are published by Kendor Music, Doug Beach Music, Andel Editions, and the UNC Jazz Press. He is proud to have contributed scores to the repertoire of jazz luminaries such as Phil Woods, Randy Brecker, Bill Reichenbach, Jon Faddis, Jeff Hamilton and Clark Terry, to name a few.
The Tom Matta Big Band, comprised of a veritable “who’s who” of Chicago’s thriving jazz scene, is an ensemble dedicated to the performance of music written for and by members of the band. The future is promising for an increasing itinerary of appearances at clubs, festivals, and educational settings by this stellar big band.
Thomas was appointed Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in 2007, where he previously taught as an adjunct faculty member since 1995. At DePaul he teaches the undergraduate and graduate courses in Jazz Composition & Arranging, Applied Jazz Composition & Arranging, Applied Tenor and Bass Trombone, coordinates the Jazz Combo program, and conducts the Jazz Orchestra.