TYLER AUSTIN, FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

Dr. Tyler Austin (He/Him/His) serves as Director of Bands in the F. Ludwig Diehn School of Music at Old Dominion University. He conducts the ODU Wind Ensemble and administers all aspects of the university’s concert and athletic band programs. He teaches wind literature and the undergraduate conducting sequence, mentors undergraduate conductors, and leads a graduate conducting studio.

Dr. Austin is Music Director & Conductor of the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble and Principal Guest Conductor of the Virginia Wind Symphony; these community ensembles are largely composed of music educators, military musicians, and freelance musicians based in the Hampton Roads region. Dr. Austin maintains an active guest conducting and lecturing schedule on the national level and abroad. In Summer 2024 he will host the inaugural Tidewater Conducting Summit and ODU Band Director’s Workshop – two interwoven summer programs for conductors and music educators that will feature pedagogical clinics, performance opportunities, and coaching sessions with internationally-recognized conducting mentors and wind musicians.

Dr. Austin works to redefine the role of the 21st-century wind conductor as Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of Newfound Chamber Winds (NFCW), an international ensemble of performers who come together to present concerts and educational outreach programs. A committed advocate of new music, Dr. Austin has commissioned and premiered over 40 works for winds. In Summer 2016 he founded the NFCW Composer Commission Project to fund the composition of original works for chamber winds and to produce professional recordings of these works.

In October 2023, Dr. Austin served as Principal Conductor and as a conducting clinician for the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. He is Director of Operations and Staff Conductor with the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival in Vienna, Austria, where he guest conducts the internationally-acclaimed Ensemble PHACE. He is Director of the Conducting Program for the Sofia Symphonic Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he lectures on conducting and leads the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their festival performance series dedicated to newly-composed works.

Dr. Austin completed a D.M.A. in Wind Conducting at Michigan State University under Dr. Kevin Sedatole. He holds an M.M. in Bassoon Performance from the University of North Texas under Professor Kathleen Reynolds, and a B.M. in Music Education from Susquehanna University. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He holds honorary memberships from Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.

EVAN HARGER, ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

Dr. Evan Harger serves as Music Director of the UNC Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he teaches a seminar entitled “What is a Work of Art?” An advocate for new music and living composers, Dr. Harger has served as a Staff Conductor for Global Arts United festivals in Bulgaria, Austria, and Brazil. Additionally, he holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Newfound Chamber Winds.

Dr. Harger’s creative activity focuses on reconceptualizing the role of the conductor as essentially the ‘producer’ of an ensemble. Through conceptualizing the Conductor as Producer, we move from a popular model of conducting where Score Study is the process by which a Conductor ‘decides' an interpretation and then ‘imparts’ that interpretation to the ensemble – to a model of conducting that sees Score Study as the equally rigorous study of possibilities in performance, and which stresses the agency of the constituency of the ensemble, rethinking what ‘authority’ looks like in a collaborative ensemble. It also stresses the additional essential roles of the conductor which include: administrator, psychologist, mentor, listener, galvanizer, spokesperson, advocate, teacher, and mediator – which have often been overlooked under past historical concepts of authority.

Equally comfortable in front of orchestras, wind ensembles, brass bands, chamber orchestras, and other large instrumental ensembles, Dr. Harger advocates for reinvigorating the concept of ‘instrumental conducting’ pedagogy – rather than distinct wind and orchestra pedagogies – and believes that ones’ conducting gestural technique benefits from experiencing the unique challenges of many different ensembles. Rather than embracing the rather simplistic contrary notions of ‘all conducting is the same’ or ‘there are different techniques for different ensembles’, he prefers the idea that ‘different ensembles have different acoustic, articulative, and phenomenological properties which create unique technical challenges worth exploring.' He’s proud to be an alumnus of the Michigan State University conducting studio, under the tutelage of Prof. Kevin Noe – and is thrilled to be returning to Norfolk, VA this summer.

E. Yuji Jones is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting with Dr. Kevin Sedatole at Michigan State University. Prior to studying wind conducting, he served as Co-Director of Bands for the Marion City Schools Band Department in Marion, Ohio for seven years. Jones co-taught and conducted the sixth, seventh and eighth grade Grant Middle School concert bands, conducted the Harding High School concert band, woodwind choir, musical pit orchestra, and served as assistant director of the marching band. Students and ensembles under Jones’s direction have received numerous superior ratings at Ohio Music Educators Association Solo & Ensemble and Large Group Adjudicated Events at both the district and state levels. Prior to his appointment at Marion City Schools, Jones taught middle school band and general music in Southern Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee. Jones received his Master’s degree in wind conducting with Dr. Jamie Nix at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. He earned his Bachelor of Instrumental Music Education with an emphasis in Instrumental Conducting from Indiana University- Bloomington, receiving high honors.

Jones has served as a guest clinician for Ohio area school bands, band festivals, is an active honor band conductor, and presented at the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA) and Indiana Music Educators Association (IMEA) state conferences on multiple topics. Jones currently serves as the Education Coordinator for the Newfound Chamber Winds. He is responsible for having NFCW artists engage with music students throughout the Mid-Atlantic via original and unique educational experiences. Students have worked with NFCW artists both virtually and in-person, connecting them with musicians who hail from across the US and Canada.