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CBDNA Sessions 
 

Thursday, February 20

CBDNA Presenter

Born in Tatuí (São Paulo, Brazil), Giovani Briguente began his musical studies at the age of 11 in the Conservatory of Tatuí, a distinguished music school in Latin America. Briguente earned degrees in Flute Performance and Conducting (Conservatory of Tatuí), History (University of Sorocaba), and Flute Studies (Technical School of Arts of the State of São Paulo). 

 
As a teacher, Briguente taught World History, Brazilian History, and Art History at Mackenzie Private School, and Music Theory, Music History, and Ensemble Practice (band and orchestra) at the Conservatory of Tatuí. 
 
In 2013, he founded with Dario Sotelo and directed the Camerata Corelli, a semi-professional string ensemble.
 
From 2013 to 2015, Briguente performed over 70 concerts as the professional piccoloist of the Symphonic Band of the Conservatory of Tatuí.
 
In 2014, Briguente won the second prize in the National Wind Band Composition Contest with his piece “Revolução Francesa” [French Revolution], grade-6 category.
 
In the United States, Briguente earned his master’s degree in Wind Band Conducting at the University of Minnesota Duluth under the tutelage of Mark Whitlock while working as a teaching assistant. His duties included teaching conducting classes, directing the UMD Pep Bands, and assisting the UMD Marching Band. Briguente directed summer camps, honor band festivals, and the UMD Concert Band with Mark Whitlock. Briguente was also the principal flute of the UMD Symphonic Wind Ensemble and second flute and piccolo of the Twin Ports Wind Orchestra.
 
Briguente is now pursuing his DMA in Wind Band Conducting at the University of Michigan (Class of 2020) under the tutelage of Michael Haithcock. As a graduate assistant, he worked for the Michigan Marching Band, Maize Star Athletic Events, Volleyball Band, Campus Band, and for the Center of Global and Intercultural Studies in the study abroad program "Arts and Music in Vienna".

CBDNA Presenter

An award-winning conductor, Dr. Westover has conducted wind ensembles and orchestras nationally and internationally. He was awarded First Prize by the jury of the 2019 Warsaw Wind Ensemble Conducting Competition. Dr. Westover’s work has been described as “elegant, bold, vibrant, inspiring and centered,” by Augusta Read Thomas. 

Prior to his current appointment as assistant professor of music at Denison, Dr. Westover led wind ensembles, orchestras and operatic performances at Bethel College (KS), the University of Oklahoma, and the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. He has received acclaim for his performances with educational and professional ensembles.

Dr. Westover has presented his scholarship on Vincent Persichetti and Beethoven at Hong Kong Baptist University and the conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik. He has conducted across the United States and in the People’s Republic of China and Poland. Since 2017 he has been a frequent winner of the American Prize for Conducting in the choral, orchestral, and wind ensemble divisions. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Oklahoma and the Master of Music in Wind Conducting from the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.


Friday, February 21

CBDNA Presenter
Dr. Michael S. Butler is the Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Since arriving at UWSP, the UWSP Symphonic Wind Ensemble has been recognized twice by CBDNA as one of the finest small university wind ensembles in the nation, first in 2017 and second in 2019. The ensemble was also selected through blind peer review to perform at the 2019 Wisconsin Chapter of the National Band Association conference.
 
Dr. Butler is an active clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor for wind bands nationally and internationally. In 2016, he guest conducted the United States Army Band Pershing’s Own. He has collaborated with numerous composers including John Mackey, Wayne Oquin, David Maslanka, Barbara York, Peter Van Zandt Lane, and Daniel Kellogg. His ensemble's performances have earned commendations for their interpretation and spirited performance. An advocate of new music for wind band, he regularly commissions new works to ensure talented composers are contributing to the repertoire. Most recently, this includes leading a consortium by Wayne Oquin entitled Song for Silent Voices, which was awarded the 2018 National Band Association’s William D. Revelli prize. Additionally, he remains active as a researcher and academic writer contributing articles to music educator journals, and the GIA Series “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.”
 
The National Band Association has awarded Dr. Butler multiple Citations of Excellence for his contributions to bands and band music. His professional affiliations include the College Band Director’s National Association, the National Band Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Mu Phi Epsilon, Kappa Delta Pi, and he is also an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma, a National Honorary Band Society. Additionally, he is an elected member of the Pi Kappa Lambda chapter at UWSP.
CBDNA Presenter

Dr. Birch Browning is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Cleveland State University (CSU), and Music Director of the Cleveland Winds, a professional wind band based at CSU.  He taught high school band and orchestra in Florida prior to earning a Ph.D. in Music Education at Florida State University. A member of the faculty at CSU since 2002, he previously taught music education courses at Stetson University and FSU.

 
Dr. Browning served on the Editorial Board and as Associate Editor of the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) research journal, Contributions to Music Education, from 2008 to 2020, and is a current member of the College Band Director’s National Association Research Committee. He has presented his research findings at numerous state and national conferences, and recently presented his research on critical thinking by ensemble performers at the International Society for Music Education International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. His first book, Becoming a Musician-Educator: An Orientation to Musical Pedagogy, was published by Oxford University Press in April 2017. 
 
Dr. Browning's ensembles, the Cleveland Winds and the CSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, appear on Timothy Reynish's International Repertoire Series, volume 12. The CSU Chamber Winds performed at the OMEA Conference in 2005 and 2015. The Cleveland Winds is the winner of The American Prize in the Band/Wind Ensemble Performance—community & school division, and performed at the OMEA Conference in 2017. Dr. Browning appears regularly as clinician and guest conductor with various honor bands and other ensembles.
 
CBDNA Presenter
Oto Carillo has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) horn section since 2000.  He also has performed with the National Orchestra of Mexico, the Metropolitana Orchestra of Lisbon, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as Chicago based ensembles such the Chicago Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago and as a member of Music of the Baroque.  Summer festival credits include the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, the Tanglewood Music Center, Mostly Mozart Festival in Woodstock, IL., the Grant Park Orchestra, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Prior to his appointment to the Chicago Symphony, Carrillo played in the Civic Orchestra and held positions in the South Bend and Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestras.   
 
Oto has collaborated with numerous chamber groups such as Civitas, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Dempster Street Pro Musica and the Vetta Chamber Series in Vancouver.  In addition, he has soloed with various groups in and outside the Chicago area and gave the Chicago premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’ Silver Chants the Litanies for horn and chamber orchestra.  He has also collaborated with his colleagues in the CSO horn section to perform Schumann’s Konzertstücke for Four Horns with the Chicago Youth Symphony, the Civic Orchestra, and most recently, the CSO.  
 
Oto has been on faculty at DePaul University since 2003 where he also received a Distinguished Alumni Award, and had previously taught at the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA) in Powell River, BC. for ten summers. 
 
 
CBDNA Presenter
James Smelser joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Second Horn in the Spring of 2000, fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a member of the Orchestra, with which he had played as a regular extra since 1986. In addition, Jim has been a member of the Civic Orchestra.
Born in Chicago, Jim was raised in a musical household in Joliet. His mother, a violinist, was a school orchestra director, and his father, a tubist, was a band director, and all five of the children played instruments. Both his parents attended Northwestern University, where his father studied with Arnold Jacobs, then Principal Tuba of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra thus beginning a long family tradition of CSO influence. Jim's father was his first teacher and his second teacher, former CSO hornist Frank Brouk, continued the Orchestra affiliation.
Following high school, where he became interested in travel, music, and German, Jim attended Northwestern University, and studied with former CSO Second Hornist Norman Schweikert. His other interests led him to interrupt his work at Northwestern to study with Gerd Seifert, then Principal Horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Hochschule der Knste in Berlin. Returning to Evanston, he studied with CSO Principal Horn Dale Clevenger, graduating with honors from Northwestern with a double major in music and German language and literature. He also holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music.
Since graduation, Jim has had a varied and extensive career in Chicago and elsewhere. He played over 15 years of Broadway shows, ballet, and radio and TV commercials. In addition, he has served as Principal Horn with the Philharmonia Hungarica and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dsseldorf, Germany, as well as Utility Horn with the San Francisco Symphony. He also has performed with the Goettingen Symphonie Orchester, Dresden Staatskapelle, Israel Philharmonic and the Shanghai Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the Summer of 2010, Jim appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schumann's Konzertstck at the Ravinia Festival. He is currently the brass instructor for Den Nye Opera Academy in Bergen, Norway.  Jim lives in Mt. Prospect with his two children, Audrina and Mitchell. 
 
 
CBDNA Presenter

Neil Kimel’s career as a horn player began as anything but a traditional or predictable one. After receiving a B.A. in Cinema Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, he was invited to join the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida where he performed under the baton of its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas. Neil then returned to his home town of Chicago where diverse performance opportunities included backing up various acts on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television show, flying to Hawaii to perform with soprano Charlotte Church, playing in a pit for a Broadway show in New York City, and recording numerous commercial jingles. Summers were filled with performances with many festival orchestras including Spoleto USA, the National Orchestral Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center where Mr. Kimel was awarded both the C.D. Jackson Memorial Prize and the Harry Shapiro Award for Outstanding Brass Playing. He then won the position of second horn with Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra in 2000 with whom he has recorded numerous times. The winters found Mr. Kimel fleeing Chicago’s cold and snow for sunshine and warmth as third horn with the Sarasota (FL) Opera Orchestra.  Additionally, Neil has performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Kansas City, Nashville, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Toronto, Chicago and the Cleveland Orchestra with whom he toured to Vienna playing in the famed Musikverein. 

 
Sir Andrew Davis appointed Mr. Kimel as second horn of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago in 2008. When Neil leaves the opera pit, he is the principal horn of the Chicago Philharmonic with whom he has appeared as soloist, a member of Tower Brass of Chicago, as well as a chamber music coach at Northwestern University and Adjunct Professor of Horn at DePaul University.  Privately and in masterclasses around the country, Mr. Kimel coaches musicians of all instruments in audition preparation and mental techniques that lead players to a more consistent performance. 

Saturday, February 22

CBDNA Presenter

James Popejoy is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of North Dakota. Conductor of the Wind Ensemble, University Band and Chamber Players, he also instructs graduate and undergraduate courses in conducting, instrumental literature, and jazz pedagogy. Under his direction, the UND Wind Ensemble and UND Faculty Chamber Players have been selected to present multiple performances for the North Dakota Music Educators Association, College Band Directors National Association North Central Division, and the Western International Band Clinic. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Missouri State University; the Master of Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Iowa; and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting with a minor in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. In his twentieth year of teaching at UND, Dr. Popejoy served as Director of Bands and Percussion Studies at McLennan Community College in Texas for five years; was a public-school music educator in Missouri for nine years; and has founded and conducted adult and student community ensembles. Honors include the CMSU Distinguished Alumnus Award; NDMEA Educator of the Year; two North Dakota Spirit Faculty Achievement Awards; two Outstanding Faculty Awards from the UND Greek Council; the UND Faculty Award for Individual Excellence in Teaching; and the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association. Past President of the North Central Division of CBDNA, he remains active as a jazz vibist, clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor.   

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