Col. Arnald D. Gabriel retired from the United States Air Force in 1985 following a distinguished 36 year military career, at which time he was awarded an unprecedented third Legion of Merit for his service to the United States Air Force and to music education throughout the country. He served as Commander/Conductor of the internationally renowned U.S. Air Force Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants from 1964 to 1985. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the USAF Band at a special concert held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Col. Gabriel served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, from 1985 to 1995, as Conductor of the GMU Symphony Orchestra and as Chairman, Department of Music for eight of those years. In recognition of his ten years service to the university, he was named Professor Emeritus of Music.

 
Director Emeritus Colonel John R. Bourgeois, USMC (Ret.), was the 25th Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. His acclaimed career spanned nine presidential administrations, from Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton.
Bourgeois is a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. He joined the Marine Corps in 1956 and entered “The President’s Own” as a French hornist and arranger in 1958. Named Director of the Marine Band in 1979, Bourgeois was promoted to colonel in June 1983. He retired from active duty July 11, 1996.
As Director of “The President’s Own,” Bourgeois was Music Adviser to the White House. He selected the musical program and directed the band on its traditional place of honor at the U.S. Capitol for four Presidential inaugurations, a Marine Band tradition dating to 1801. He regularly conducted the Marine Band and the Marine Chamber Orchestra at the White House, appearing there more frequently than any other musician in the nation.
Under Bourgeois’ leadership the Marine Band presented its first overseas performances in history, traveling to the Netherlands in 1985 where “The President’s Own” performed with the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy. In February 1990, Bourgeois led the Marine Band on an historic 18-day concert tour of the former Soviet Union as part of the first U.S.-U.S.S.R. Armed Forces band exchange. He also directed the Marine Band on 16 nationwide tours, bringing the music of “The President’s Own” to the American people.

Anthony Parnther is Musical Director and Conductor of the Orange County Symphony in Anaheim, California. In addition to his duties with the O.C. Symphony, Mr Parnther serves as the Founding Conductor of the Appalachian Brass Orchestra as well as the newly formed Orange County Wind Symphony He is also the Artistic Director of the Anaheim Music Festival and the founding Artistic Director of the Wind Symphony Conducting Institute.
A multifaceted musician, Anthony has been featured as a conductor and performer in virtually every musical medium from ballet to opera, and musicals to chamber groups and has performed alongside or conducted in concert such noted artists as Jon Faddis, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Sheridan, Ronald Rhomm, Doc Severinsen, Marvin Stamm and many others. An advocate of new music, Anthony recently led the Appalachian Brass in concert at the International Brass and Chamber Music Festival at the University of Louisville, where they performed and premiered works by leading and upcoming composers Eric Ewazen, Lauren Bernofsky, Anthony Plog, Brian Sadler and others.
 

Don Caneva, (1936-2008) a third-generation band director, joined the Coastal Communities Concert Band in 1988. His life has been dedicated to music as both a director and an educator. He has taught music at every school level from elementary through college. His formal education includes a Bachelor of Music Education degree from DePaul University and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Hawaii. He has also taken advanced studies at the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, and Northern Illinois University.
During Don's 10-year tenure as the Director of Bands at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, his band performed at numerous prestigious events which included "The Tournament of Roses Parade " - Pasadena California, "The Cotton Bowl Parade" - Dallas, Texas, "The Orange Bowl Parade" - Miami, Florida, and "The College All-Star Game"- Chicago, Illinois. The Hersey Symphonic Winds' concert performances included: "The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic" - Chicago, Illinois, "The Mideast Instrumental Music Conference" - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, "The Northwest Band Clinic" - Moorhead, Minnesota (3 times), and "The American Bandmasters Association Convention" - Evanston, Illinois.

GUEST SOLOISTS

Dale Underwood Acclaimed by the Washington Post as "the Heifez of the alto saxophone," is internationally recognized as one of the foremost classical saxophonists of our time. Mr. Underwood has toured extensively throughout the world as a featured soloist, performing in every state in the continental United States, Alaska as well as in England, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Italy, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, Canada, Austria, Hungary and for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
A frequent guest soloist with leading orchestras throughout the United States and abroad, Mr. Underwood has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, Australian Wind Orchestra, and the National Conservatory Orchestra in Sao Paolo, Brazil, among others. In 1993, Mr. Underwood made his Carnegie Hall debut in a program featuring Claude T.Smith's Fantasy and A Gershwin Fantasy (both written especially for Mr. Underwood). In addition to being a sought after soloist, Mr. Underwood is also a noted recording artist. He has amassed a prolific discography of classical and contemporary works by leading composers Paul Creston, Jay Chatterway, Robert Muczynski, and Maurice Whitney. His vast repertoire includes all of the standard saxophone concerti, as well as over thirty original works written especially for him by noted American composers such as Walter Hartley, Clare Grundman, Jay Chattaway, Alan Vizzutti, and Ralph Martino.
Jim Self is a Los Angeles freelance musician, a veteran of over 1400 motion picture scores, hundreds of television shows and records, and is tuba soloist on many prominent movies. His tuba was the "Voice of the Mothership" in John Williams score to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Recent films include War of the Worlds, Lemony Snicket, Legend of Zorro, King Kong, Ice Age/Meltdown, Eight Below, X Men 3, All the King’s Men and Evan Almighty.
He is Principal Tuba/Cimbasso with the Pasadena and Pacific Symphonies, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera and Opera Pacific orchestras. Self holds degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Catholic University and a DMA from the University of Southern California--where he teaches tuba and chamber music.
His major tuba teachers were William Becker, Harvey Phillips and Tommy Johnson. Jim is a past president of The International Tuba/Euphonium Association, a former member of The U.S. Army Band, Washington, D.C and was on the faculty at the University of Tennessee. His compositions and arrangements include works for solo tuba, brass quintet, band, orchestra and other brass, woodwind and string chamber music. Jim has produced nine solo jazz and classical recordings.

Helen Goode-Castro graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, England with an Honors Degree and a Professional Performers Diploma in Clarinet. She furthered her studies at the Royal College of Music where she received the Artist Diploma.
While in London she performed with several European Orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, and Söd-Bayerische Philharmonie, Germany. She moved to Los Angeles to study with Gary Gray at UCLA where she obtained an MFA in Clarinet Performance and then began studies at USC on a MDA with Yehuda Gilad and Michele Zukovsky. She was a finalist in the Boosey and Hawkes Clarinet competition in Chicago and won a position with the Sarasota Opera Festival Orchestra for 1996 and 1997.
Since moving to LA, Helen freelances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angles Master Chorale, Mozart Camerata, Santa Barbara Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Inland Empire Symphony, California Philharmonic and Long Beach Symphony. She recently recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London where she performed the Tone Poem for Clarinet and Orchestra by Charles Fernandez.
Ms. Goode-Castro is currently on the faculty at California State University, Long Beach and California State University, Los Angeles. She also teaches at the Los Angeles county High School for the Arts.

Trombonist Alex Iles has enjoyed a varied and successful career in many musical settings. He is an active member of the musically diverse Southern California freelance performing and recording community.
Alex began his musical career while a student at UCLA, as a member of the Disneyland All American College Band. He has studied trombone privately with Roy Main, Ralph Sauer, Byron Peebles and Per Brevig. Since graduating from UCLA, he has gone on to enjoy his musical life as an in-demand trombonist/low-brass performer.
Among the varied palette of artists with whom Alex has performed and/or recorded are: Joe Cocker, James Horner, Henry Mancini, Alan Jackson, The Tonight Show, Hans Zimmer, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Johnny Mathis, Lalo Shiffrin, Natalie Cole, Danny Elfman, Ray Charles, Trevor Rabin, Harry Connick Jr., Robbie Williams, Terence Blanchard, John Williams, and Prince. He has played in the pit orchestras of numerous Los Angeles productions of Broadway shows including: The Lion King, Phanom of the Opera, Chicago, West Side Story, The Producers and Hairspray.
He has toured as lead and solo jazz trombonist with the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson big bands [with whom he has recorded twice]. Today, he performs and records as a regular member of many of the top big bands and jazz groups in the L.A. area including Bob Florence's Limited Edition, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, The Tom Kubis Big Band. He has also recorded and performs with the The Bill Cunliffe Sextet and The David Roitstein Group.

David Jackson was featured soloist at several recent engagements, including performances at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Music at Gretna in Mt. Gretna, PA, and with the Ann Arbor Concert Band. He was also guest soloist with Los Angeles Symphonic Winds, both in Los Angeles and at the Mid Europe Festival in Schladming, Austria. Other recent solo performances include the Interlochen World Youth Wind Symphony and with the Idyllwild Festival Wind Ensemble at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
In addition to these performances, Professor Jackson recently performed master classes and recitals at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the University of Minnesota, UCLA, California State University-Northridge, and Pepperdine University.
An advocate of new music, Jackson has commissioned and performed the world premieres of numerous works for the trombone. He also has performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Michigan Opera Theater, the Fort Worth Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, and the Spoleto, Italy Festival Orchestra. A respected chamber musician, Jackson has performed with the Galliard Brass, the Music of the Baroque, and the Brass Band of Battle Creek.Professor Jackson is Associate Professor of Trombone at the University of Michigan. He also has been a faculty member at Baylor University, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Toledo. He is a member of the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and of Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project. In the summers, he teaches and performs at the Hot Springs Music Festival and the Idyllwild Arts Festival.

David Pinto has been active in the field of music performance and education for over forty years. Beginning his career as a concert pianist, performing in solo recitals as well as soloist with symphony orchestras (Long Beach Symphony, Glendale Symphony, Nevada Symphony), David then branched out to work in the popular and jazz mediums, working in TV, Theatre and Film as a pianist, conductor and arranger (Love Boat, Sonny and Cher Show, Captain and Tenille, Ann-Margret, etc).
David is also a computer programmer specializing in making mainstream music applications accessible to blind musicians. Among his celebrity clients are Dianne Shur, Ronny Milsap, Kevin Kern, Marcus Roberts, and the late Ray Charles. His work with blind musicians has recently been featured twice on CBS's 60 minutes.
 

When he was eight years old, Larry Zalkind jumped at the chance to enter the music program at his local elementary school. Inspired by his favorite group, the Tijuana Brass, he had always wanted to play the trumpet. But there were no trumpets left, and his school music teacher Nora Graham settled the issue by declaring, “You look like a trombone player to me!” His fate sealed, Zalkind carried the enormous trombone case home from school with the help of a fellow third grader. After studying with Harold Diner and Norman Bernstein, Zalkind entered the California Institute of the Arts Youth program in eighth grade, where he coached chamber music with Los Angeles Tubist Tommy Johnson. By the age of 17 Zalkind was a student at USC, where he studied with Robert Marsteller and completed his bachelor’s degree in music education and master’s degrees in music performance. Other highly influential teachers during that time were Ralph Sauer, Byron Peebles, Jimmy Stamp, Tommy Johnson, Arnold Jacobs, Terry Cravens and Dennis Smith. In the fall of 1981, while pursuing his doctorate at the University of Michigan, 25-year-old Zalkind won the audition to become Principal Trombonist for the Utah Symphony, a position he has held ever since.

Chris Tedesco has distinguished himself as a one of the top call trumpet players on the music scene in Los Angeles since 1987. Equally at home performing classical trumpet, lead trumpet or jazz solos, chamber music or orchestral pieces, Chris’s sound has been heard on numerous recordings for Movies, TV shows, TV Commercials, CD recordings, and live dates with some of the biggest names in the industry. He is also very active in the “business end” of music as a musician contractor/project manager for some of this recorded and live work as well.
Early trumpet training in his hometown of Niagara Falls New York included studies with Ron Mendola, and then Chuck Lirette of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Awards for All County band and Jazz Band were awarded for 6th through 12th grade, along with All State Band and Jazz Band, and finally National Honors Band in his senior year. For his senior concerto concert Chris performed the Arban’s “Carnival of Venice” to a packed house and multiple standing ovations. Chris’s University training included one year at the State University of New York at Fredonia for one year under William Dederer and four years under Gil Johnson, (former principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1958-75) at the University of Miami in Florida for four years. After completing a bachelor’s degree in Music and Music Business, Chris freelanced in Western New York in the Artpark Theater Orchestra, which allowed him the chance to play with members of the Buffalo Philharmonic, The National Ballet of Canada and the Martha Graham Dance Co. A short stint on the road with the Glenn Miller Band and over a year with The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra along with cruise ships brought him to Los Angeles in 1987 where he has been freelancing ever since.

Flutist Susan Greenberg enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, symphony player, and recording artist. The Los Angeles Times has described her playing as "brilliant," "elegant" and "supple," and has lauded her "panache" and "musical projection." As a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, she has been a frequent soloist on both flute and piccolo, most recently opening the orchestra's 2006-07 season with a concerto for flute, alto flute and piccolo written for her by Gernot Wolfgang. Previously, she had premiered a concerto written for her by Bruce Broughton. Ms. Greenberg has also appeared as guest soloist with the San Francisco and Oakland Symphonies, the Santa Monica Symphony, the Napa Valley Symphony, and at the Hollywood Bowl. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, L.A. Opera, New York City Opera, American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, as well as at the Casals, Ojai and Martha's Vineyard Music Festivals. Ms. Greenberg was the principal flutist for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra's tour of Japan, and has received the "Most Valuable Player" award on the flute from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences.