Adjudicators Meet the Calgary Festival Adjudicators
Jazz Bands
Greg Bush
Originally from Montreal, Greg holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University and a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance from McGill University. Prior to moving to Nanaimo to join the music faculty at Vancouver Island University. Greg was Director of Jazz Studies at Abilene University in Texas. He has also been a member of the music faculties at McMaster University and Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario and Red Deer College in Red Deer, Alberta.
In addition to his broad teaching experience Greg has also enjoyed a career as a busy freelance jazz trumpet player, arranger, and composer. He's had the good fortune of playing in big bands and orchestras that have accompanied many fine jazz artists, and as the leader of his own groups has performed his original compositions in jazz clubs, concert halls and jazz festivals in Canada and abroad. Greg has released a CD entitled Cause and Effect, which features his original music.
As a teacher, Greg is committed to sharing his love and knowledge of music and jazz with young people of all ages. To quote the great jazz drummer Art Blakely, "Yes sir, I'm going to stay with the youngsters - it keeps the mind active."
Jenny Kellogg
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 won 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 Northwest.
Jenny holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Trombone Performance and Music Composition from the University of Idaho and a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas.
Jenny plays in the Spokane area with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra, Bob Curnow Big Band, and Brassworks Northwest among others. She is a regular substitute in other musical organizations such as the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. She is currently Director of Jazz and Trombone Studies at Eastern Washington University where she directs the top EWU jazz ensemble, the EWU Concert Jazz Orchestra and hosts the EWU Jazz Dialogue Festival. Jenny is in great demand as a guest artist and clinician throughout the US and Canada.
Gordon Towell
Gordon Towell is the coordinator of jazz studies at Loyola University New Orleans. In this capacity he directs the award winning jazz ensemble, teaches improvisation, arranging, composition, jazz combos and jazz history. Before this position Gordon was the director of jazz studies at Morehead State University. Gordon, originally grew up in Calgary, Alberta Canada and holds a BEd in music education from the University of Alberta, an MM in jazz studies from Indiana University and a DME with a cognate in jazz studies from the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has shared his expertise with students at the Morehead State University, University of Cincinnati, Indiana University, Keyano College, Grant MacEwan College, and numerous public schools.
He also finds time to adjudicate, guest solo and perform with national and international artists, and conduct throughout Canada and the U.S. His saxophone performance can be heard on Outlier, Sketch Pad, Ask Me Now, Blue Duck Suit, and Still Friends, which are all available through cdbaby.com. He is also featured on many other recordings with the DOJO Jazz Orchestra, Wycliffe Gordon and the John Mahoney Big Band. These CDs have been featured on NPR, CBC, and CKUA radio stations.
Gordon is a recipient of the 2001 Morehead State University's Distinguished Creative Productions Award. He is a Conn-Selmer clinician and plays Selmer saxophones and clarinets.
Concert Bands Grades 2-6
Bill Kristjanson
Bill Kristjanson is currently a sessional instructor at the University of Manitoba teaching music education courses. He taught at Vincent Massey Collegiate, Glenlawn Collegiate and Minnetonka schools for many years. He has served as a Divisional Music Consultant and is Past-President of the Manitoba Music Educators’ Association. Bill has been invited to present at the International Association of Jazz Educators’ Conference, the Canadian Music Educators Conference, and provincial and music education conferences in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. He has conducted the Provincial Junior Honour Band, Intermediate Honour Band, Honour Jazz Band at the International Music Camp. Bill is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing teaching excellence and service to music education including, the “Manitoba Band Association Award of Distinction,” “Manitoba Jazz Educator of the Year Award” and a “CMEA Builders Award”. Bill’s teaching philosophy revolves around, “finding something good, and help it grow.”
Special thanks to Conn-Selmer for partial sponsorship of Bill Krisjanson as an adjudicator for the 2018 Alberta International Band Festival.
Mark Lane
Mark Lane recently retired after 12 years as the Associate Director of Bands and Professor of Music Education at Central Washington University. Previously, Mark taught high school for 27 years in both Oregon and Washington. Mark holds a BA from Eastern Washington University and a MA from the University of Oregon. He has served on both the Oregon Music Education Association and the Washington Music Educators Association Boards. In Washington, Mr. Lane served 14 years on the WMEA Board of Directors and was President from 2008-2010. Mark served as the Northwest Division President of the National Association for Music Education from 2013-2015 and was on the National Executive Board of NAfME for three years. He was liaison on the National Collegiate Advisory Board for National Association for Music Education from 2012-2017.
Educator of the Year five times and has received three Citations of Excellence from the National Band Directors Association. In 2001, Mark received the Sudler Order of Merit of the John Phillip Sousa Foundation and was inducted into the BANDWORLD Legion of honor.
Since his appointment at CWU in 2006, he received the 2012 Crystal Apple Award from the CWU Education Department. Mark was recently inducted into the Washington Music Educator Association’s Hall of Fame and was honored as the Washington Music Education Association/Washington Interscholastic Activities Association 2015 Music Educator of the Year, the 2016-2017 Outstanding Music Educator Award for the Northwest Region by the National Federation of High School Associations, and most recently was awarded the 2017 NAfME Northwest Division Distinguished Leadership Award.
Special thanks to Conn-Selmer for fully sponsoring Mark Lane as an adjudicator at the 2018 Alberta International Band Festival
Dr. Angela Schroeder
A native of Alberta, Dr. Angela Schroeder is currently Associate Professor of Music in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta. She is the Director of Bands, the Area Coordinator for the Winds and Percussion, oversees all areas of instrumental ensembles, and conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Summer Band. She teaches undergraduate courses in conducting and wind band education, and works with graduate students in instrumental conducting. She previously taught conducting at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Angela is also the conductor of the St. Albert Community Band, an ensemble that is currently in their 47th concert season. This ensemble recently completed their first overseas tour, performing throughout Austria and Germany.
Dr. Schroeder completed undergraduate degrees in Music and Education at the University of Calgary, majoring in Secondary Music Education, with performance studies in piano and trumpet. She also completed the Diploma of Fine Arts in Wind Band Conducting under the supervision of Glenn Price. After a teaching career at various secondary schools in the Calgary area, she entered the Long Term Residency program at The Banff Centre, where she studied and performed on piano, trumpet and as a conductor. Angela entered the Master's program in Wind Conducting at Northwestern University in 2002, where she studied with Mallory Thompson and earned the Master of Music in Conducting. In 2007, she completed the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Band Conducting at the University of North Texas, under the supervision of Eugene Corporon.
Angela Schroeder is well known in the Alberta music education community, not only through her teaching and conducting both in schools and in community music organizations, but through her involvement as an executive director of the Alberta Band Association for several years. Angela has performed on cornet with the Mill Creek Colliery Band and was the Principal Trumpet for the Concordia University Orchestra for seven seasons. Angela has guest conducted and adjudicated numerous wind bands in festivals and clinics throughout Canada, the United States, Austria, Germany, Australia and Thailand. She is a contributor in eleven volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, which profile wind literature for all levels of instrumental instruction, published by GIA. She is joyfully married to husband Geoffrey and mother to her brilliant sons, Joshua and Jonah.
Ronnie Wooten
Ronnie Wooten is currently Professor of Music, Conductor of the Wind Ensemble , and Coordinator of Instrumental Music Education at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting, wind instrument literature, and instrumental music education techniques and methods.
A native of North Carolina, Wooten received the Bachelor of Music Education Degree (cum laude) from East Carolina University, the Master of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees in Conducting from Michigan State University, and has pursued additional conducting studies at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada), Campbell University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Michigan. His principal conducting teachers include: Eugene Corporon, Kenneth Bloomquist, Herbert Carter and Robert Hause. Dr. Wooten holds professional memberships in the National Association for Music Education, Illinois Music Educators Association, Mid-America Bandmasters Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Psi, and the College Band Directors National Association.
Dr. Wooten maintains an active schedule as guest conductor, adjudicator, lecturer and consultant for conducting and instrumental music education and has conducted honor bands and clinics in 29 states thus far, as well as in Canada, Ireland, Peru and the Caribbean. He has served as guest conductor of the US Army Field Band at Ft. Meade, the International Music Camp, the Provincial Honor Band of Alberta, Canada, and as Resident Orchestra Conductor for the International Conference: “A Multicultural Celebration of Diversity in Music, in Flagstaff, Arizona. Dr. Wooten has also served as Music Execution Judge and clinician for the Kiwanis International Music Festival in both Toronto and Ottawa, Canada; music execution judge for the Red Deer Festival of Bands in Alberta, Canada, and the Optimist Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Recently he presented a workshop entitled “The Maestro at Work” for PanTrinbago, the international governing organization for Steelbands and Orchestras at the National Academy of Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, where he also served as adjudicator for the National Steelpan Championships; has presented research for the Mid West International Band and Orchestra Clinic, College Band Directors National Association, Illinois Music Educators Association, Kentucky Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, the Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education, the People of Color in Predominantly White Institutions Conference, and The National Association of Black Cultural Centers.
Previously, Dr. Wooten was invited to deliver the keynote address for the Rhode Island Music Educators Association Conference and served as Artist-in -Residence at the University of Louisville for their annual Festival of African American Music. Under his direction, the NIU Wind Ensemble has performed for the Illinois Music Educators Association Conference, and at the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music Conference.
Concert Bands Grade 1
Rob Billington
Rob Billington has been teaching at Rocky View Schools (Cochrane) for 23 years. His first five years were at Mitford Middle School where his bands earned many festival Gold Awards and were frequently invited to perform at large events, including teachers’ conventions and middle school conferences. While at Mitford, Mr. Billington was awarded a Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (certificate of achievement).
Mr. Billington then founded the music program at Bow Valley High School where he has directed concert bands, wind ensembles, jazz ensembles, jazz combos, percussion ensembles, choirs, chamber choirs, and pit bands. In addition to earning several Gold Awards, his bands have earned “Most Outstanding High School Band” and “Adjudicators’ Choice” awards on three different occasions.
Mr. Billington’s community music work has included founding the Cochrane Music Society and directing all of their ensembles (Band on the Bow, Riverside Jazz, and Choral Waves) for most of their first 14 years. He also taught at the Calgary Regional Summer Band Workshop for 12 years. In addition, he has worked many times as a guest conductor, clinician, and an honor band conductor. When he’s not making music, Mr. Billington enjoys sailing, kayaking, and teaching karate.
Jane McLauchlin
Jane McLauchlin knew at a young age she wanted to be a teacher. Along with growing up in a house full of music, the decision to pursue a career as a music teacher became clear during a Grade 7 band class. Since then, she has had a successful career teaching Junior High School Concert and Jazz Band, Elementary and General Music and African Drumming in Calgary for more than 25 years. She is presently teaching at the North Campus of the Arts Centred Learning Program at Sir John Franklin School. She also pursued a lifelong ambition by participating in a teacher exchange in Australia a few years ago.
Her bands have won numerous awards and have travelled extensively throughout Alberta and British Columbia. She recently commissioned renowned composer and arranger, Victor Lopez, to write a composition in collaboration with the Sir John Franklin Band entitled ‘Erebus and Terror: The Lost Ships”, greatly appreciating the opportunity to meet him, along with other favorite composers recently in Chicago. She enjoys the opportunity to guest conduct at events locally and provincially, such as at the Calgary Summer Band Workshop in 2016 and for the upcoming 2018 Northern Alberta Junior High Honour Band in Edmonton. She has also spoken at both the Calgary and Edmonton Teachers’ Conventions.
She is an active member in the Westwinds Music Society Adult Band Program, believing strongly in lifelong learning by playing a variety of instruments in both a high level Wind Orchestra and Jazz Band. She has toured through China and Eastern Europe with Westwinds and attends an annual adult Band Camp in Canmore with renowned guest conductors. Jane is inspired by her students every day and takes great joy from watching these young people grow into accomplished, confident musicians with a love and appreciation for this wonderful, life changing experience called ‘band’.
Nate Waters
Nate Waters teaches instrumental music at Westmount Charter School in Calgary to students in Grades 5-12. In addition, he is an active clinician and guest conductor at schools and music camps in Calgary and area, serving on faculty at both the Calgary Summer Band Workshop and Vic Lewis Band Festival. He has a MMus in Saxophone Performance and a BMus in Secondary Music Education from the University of Calgary, as well as a BEd in Secondary Music Education from the University of British Columbia. In 2014, UBC awarded him with an Outstanding Practicum Award for his work at Magee Secondary School in Vancouver, B.C., and William Aberhart High School in Calgary. The son of two educators, Nate has constantly been inspired by young people for their ambition and their honesty.
Nate is also active as a saxophonist in Calgary across several genres. He was a 2013 finalist in the RBC Concerto Competition playing alongside the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and has had his writing published in Critical Voices, a peer-review musicology journal. Nate also performs in jazz groups around the city, most recently collaborating with the University of Calgary's Monday Night Jazz Series. This past year, his quartet released an EP of his original compositions entitled Fact Contrafact.