Rob is a busy and versatile trumpet player and is highly regarded as a studio, theatre and jazz musician, performer, educator and band leader.

Dr. Brian F. Wright holds a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Case Western Reserve University and is a former research assistant for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archive. Prior to UNT, Dr. Wright was Assistant Professor at Fairmont State University, where he taught a variety of music history courses and worked extensively with the local chapter of Guitars 4 Vets. Dr. Wright specializes in the history of American popular music.

Applauded by the Salt Lake City Tribune for “maturity beyond his years” and “dizzying technical facility,” Namibian pianist Willem van Schalkwyk has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Southern Africa - most recently in France and Mexico. Willem regularly returns to Namibia for concert appearances, and has performed the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto and the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with the Namibia National Symphony Orchestra, in addition to presenting a solo recital as part of the National Theatre of Namibia’s 25-year anniversary.

Prior to her appointment at the University of  North Texas College of Music, Kristina served as associate professor of conducting and assistant director of choral activities at The Ohio State University, where she conducted the Symphonic Choir, Women’s Glee Club and instructed both undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of conducting and choral pedagogy.

Daniel is honored to be named the new Lecturer in Wind Studies and Athletic Bands and is currently completing his final year of coursework toward a doctor of musical arts degree in wind conducting at Northwestern University, where he studies with Dr. Mallory Thompson.

Andrew Chung is a music theorist who specializes in topics of musical meaning, the philosophy of language, and performativity, with applications in 21st century musical works and social/sonic life. His work centers upon recent music in European festivals of new music, but also includes a focus on the use of music as violence. He is especially interested in the ethics of musical practices, with their entanglements in ecological, semiotic, and feminist thought. Other work of his includes explorations in mathematical music theory and the writings of David Lewin.

Philip Dizack is one of the most important and fluid trumpeters of his generation, successfully meriting the Downbeat Magazine proclamation “[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future”.
Among the most working creative jazz trumpeters in New York City, Dizack has released 3 solo albums and has most recently been featured in the bands of Melissa Aldana, Ben Van Gelder, Dayna Stephens, Eddie Palmieri, Noam Weisenberg and others.

Andrew Trachsel has been appointed as Associate Professor of Wind Studies at the University of North Texas College of Music. He will serve as the conductor of the Symphonic Band and teach courses in graduate and undergraduate conducting.

Justin Lavacek holds a PhD in music theory from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. He has published an approach for interpreting the reshaping of borrowed tenors through creative counterpoint in “Contrapuntal Ingenuity in the Motets of Machaut,” Integral 28/29 (2014-15).  Dr. Lavacek is also author of a book review on Ars nova motets, found in Music Theory Online 22/2 (2016).