Natasha Thurmon teaches Kindergarten through fifth grade general music, choir, strings, recorder, and Orff ensemble at Boldt Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. She has degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. She completed her Orff certification training at Trinity University in San Antonio, where she now teaches recorder. Thurmon is past president of the Central Texas Orff chapter, has served on several subcommittees for the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA), and currently serves on the Recorder Teacher Apprenticeship Panel. She has presented numerous local and regional workshops, including for many Orff chapters. She has also presented at state conferences and the national AOSA conference. In addition to these many roles, Thurmon serves on the executive board and professional development committee for her local American Federation of Teachers association.
Mark Rohwer is the director of choral activities at Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas. He holds degrees in music education from Northwestern University, the Eastman School of Music, and The Ohio State University. Under Rohwer’s direction, Flower Mound High School choirs have received consistent and numerous awards at concert and sight-reading contests in Texas. They have also received outstanding performance and best-in-class awards at festivals throughout the country. Choirs from Flower Mound High School have performed at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference and the American Choral Directors Association Southwestern Divisional and National conventions. Rohwer is an active member of the Texas Music Educators Association and currently serves as president of Region Two. He is also a member of the Texas Choral Directors Association and was the high school division vice president from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, he has served as a guest lecturer for part of the summer master’s degree program at the University of North Texas.
Gary Hill is a professor of music and the director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University. He taught at Arizona State from 1999 to 2019 and is one of the most sought-after guest conductors and clinicians in the instrumental music education field. As a conductor, he has made appearances in more than a dozen countries and throughout the United States, including performances with myriad honor bands, numerous college and university wind bands and orchestras, and many professional ensembles. He has also been a conductor at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and at conferences of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. As a clinician, Hill has presented hundreds of workshops on conducting and rehearsal technique for music teachers of all levels and has worked with thousands of bands and orchestras and their teachers. Hill is currently a Conn-Selmer educational clinician.
Natasha Thurmon teaches Kindergarten through fifth grade general music, choir, strings, recorder, and Orff ensemble at Boldt Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. She has degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. She completed her Orff certification training at Trinity University in San Antonio, where she now teaches recorder. Thurmon is past president of the Central Texas Orff chapter, has served on several subcommittees for the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA), and currently serves on the Recorder Teacher Apprenticeship Panel. She has presented numerous local and regional workshops, including for many Orff chapters. She has also presented at state conferences and the national AOSA conference. In addition to these many roles, Thurmon serves on the executive board and professional development committee for her local American Federation of Teachers association.
Mark Rohwer is the director of choral activities at Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas. He holds degrees in music education from Northwestern University, the Eastman School of Music, and The Ohio State University. Under Rohwer’s direction, Flower Mound High School choirs have received consistent and numerous awards at concert and sight-reading contests in Texas. They have also received outstanding performance and best-in-class awards at festivals throughout the country. Choirs from Flower Mound High School have performed at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference and the American Choral Directors Association Southwestern Divisional and National conventions. Rohwer is an active member of the Texas Music Educators Association and currently serves as president of Region Two. He is also a member of the Texas Choral Directors Association and was the high school division vice president from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, he has served as a guest lecturer for part of the summer master’s degree program at the University of North Texas.
Gary Hill is a professor of music and the director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University. He taught at Arizona State from 1999 to 2019 and is one of the most sought-after guest conductors and clinicians in the instrumental music education field. As a conductor, he has made appearances in more than a dozen countries and throughout the United States, including performances with myriad honor bands, numerous college and university wind bands and orchestras, and many professional ensembles. He has also been a conductor at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and at conferences of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. As a clinician, Hill has presented hundreds of workshops on conducting and rehearsal technique for music teachers of all levels and has worked with thousands of bands and orchestras and their teachers. Hill is currently a Conn-Selmer educational clinician.
Tennessee Shakespeare Company is the first and only professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern playwrights/composers; and to providing innovative education, training, and outreach programming.
Brad Foust is the Bartlett City Schools District Fine Arts Specialist and serves as chair of the Tennessee Council of Visual and Performing Arts Supervisors.
Creative Director Otto Gross has performed with various artists including multi-Grammy Award winners Bobby McFerrin and David Sanborn. Otto has toured the U.S. and other countries, leading musicians in performances of all sorts with his animated and engaging style.
Kimberly VanWeelden, professor of music education at Florida State University, is a choral and general music specialist. She currently serves as the international chair of the Special Music Education and Music Therapy Commission of the International Society for Music Education. She is also past national chair of the Children with Exceptionalities Special Research Interest Group of the National Association for Music Education.
Andrew McMasters is an actor, director and entrepreneur with more than thirty years of experience in the arts. He is the lead training designer and facilitator for ImprovMindset, which provides presentation support and messaging, as well as team building and communication training, all over the world. He has worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies including Amazon, Microsoft, GE, Hasbro, Google, Valve, Nike, and Apple. McMasters is a founder of a non-profit theatre that he managed for twenty-five years. He is dedicated to experiential learning, providing opportunities for self-discovery and driving innovation in our everyday lives. Visit his website at www.ImprovMindset.com.
Leah Towle is a teaching artist focused on fostering student autonomy and activating students' artistry. She teaches youth and adult in creative drama, improv, stage combat, and STEAM at the Lawrence Arts Center, and theater, music, and art at First Five Years Preschool. She has trained through the Lincoln Center Education Teaching Artist Learning Lab, participated in the Kennedy Center Teaching Artist Development Series, holds stage combat actor certifications through Dueling Arts International and the Society of American Fight Directors, and has a degree in elementary education from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas.
Gary Chapman is an artist and professor of painting and drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Chapman has had more than seventy solo exhibitions with institutions including the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the Arts Center of St. Petersburg in Florida, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Georgia, and the Indianapolis Art Center. He has also participated in numerous group and invitational exhibitions with regional, national, and international venues. Chapman was awarded and named a Joan Mitchell CALL Legacy Artist in 2013 and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a 1996 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting from the Southern Arts Federation. His work has been reviewed extensively and is published in more than twenty catalogs and books, including the four editions of <em>New American Paintings.
Matthew Reinhart is a world-renowned children’s book author, illustrator, and paper engineer who’s best-known for designing the seemingly impossible in his acclaimed pop-up books. He created The New York Times bestselling Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to The Galaxy, Cinderella: A Pop-up Fairy Tale, Dc SuperHeroes: The Ultimate Pop-up Book, and Mommy? with the legendary Maurice Sendak. His series of non-fiction titles, the Encyclopedia Prehistorica trilogy and the Encyclopedia Mythologica trilogy, have been translated into several languages and enjoyed by readers all over the world. His most recent book releases include Nightmare Before Christmas: A Petrifying Pop-up for the Holidays, Harry Potter: A Pop-up Guide to Hogwarts, and Star Wars: The Ultimate Pop-up Galaxy.
