Dr.Angela Schroeder

Dr. Angela Schroeder is Professor of Music in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta. She is the Director of Bands, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, High School Honour Bands and Summer Band. Angela was awarded the 2016 Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the 2017 University of Alberta Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. She teaches courses in conducting and music education, and works with Graduate students in instrumental conducting. She previously taught conducting at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Angela is the conductor and music director of the St. Albert Community Band, an ensemble that is currently in their 54th concert season. She lead the ensemble on their first European tour in July 2015, performing in Germany and at the MidEurope Band and Orchestra Festival in Schladming, Austria.

A native of Alberta, Dr. Schroeder completed undergraduate studies in Music at University of Calgary, majoring in Secondary Education, with performance studies in piano and trumpet. She also completed the Diploma of Fine Arts in Wind Band Conducting at University of Calgary under the supervision of Glenn D. Price. After several years of teaching at various secondary schools in the Calgary area, she entered the Long Term Residency program at The Banff Centre, where she studied and performed on piano, trumpet and as a conductor. Angela entered the Master's program in Wind Conducting at Northwestern University in 2002, where she studied with Mallory Thompson and earned the Master of Music in Conducting. In 2007, she completed the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Band Conducting at the University of North Texas, under the supervision of Eugene Migliaro Corporon.

Angela Schroeder is well known in the Alberta music education community, not only through her teaching and conducting both in schools and in community music organizations, but through her involvement as an executive director of the Alberta Band Association for two terms. She has also served on boards for the College Band Directors National Association (Northwest Division), Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity (International Board), and the Women Band Directors International (Alberta Chapter). She was recently appointed to the International Board of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE). Angela has performed on cornet with the Mill Creek Colliery Band and was the Principal Trumpet for the Concordia Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. Angela has guest conducted and adjudicated numerous school bands in festivals and clinics throughout Canada, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, China and Thailand. She has presented research at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference and Music Conference Alberta. Angela is a contributor in Canadian Winds, the national journal for wind band educators, and wrote chapters in eleven volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series, which profile wind literature for all levels of instrumental instruction, published by GIA. She is also joyfully married to husband Geoffrey and mother to her brilliant sons, Josh and Jonah.

Rick Becker

Rick Becker has been a music director in Nanaimo, British Columbia for over 25 years. His teaching experiences include concert bands, jazz bands, combos, choirs, and musical theatre. His students have had opportunities to excel in performances at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, the West Coast Jazz Festival, the Vancouver Island Concert Band Festival, and the Comox Valley Concert Band and Choir Festival, as well as performance excursions to Cuba. He is also co-founder of JazzFest Nanaimo, a showcase for young musicians and guest artists at Nanaimo’s Port Theatre. Rick served over 15 years as Brass and Woodwind chairperson for the Mid-Island Performing Arts Festival.

Previously, Mr. Becker was music director and music education coordinator for Kelsey School Division in The Pas, Manitoba. His career also led him to a position as Educational Music representative in Alberta for St. John’s Music, LTD, with focus on Concert Band literature and band-teaching materials.

His Bachelor of Music Education degree is from Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), where he studied tuba performance and conducting. Rick is now enjoying retirement as co-director of the Mid-Island Community Bands Society, and as a member of several performance groups as trombonist and bassist. Recent clinic and festival adjudications include Dare To Dream band week in Terrace, British Columbia, Chilliwack Music and Dance Festival, and West Coast Jazz Festival in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Jill Sparrow-NG

With musicians and teachers on both sides of her family tree, music teaching seemed to be a predestined a path for Jill to follow. She believes music is in everyone and it is the role of a music teacher to bring out the music in each student. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia, and a Master of Education from the University of Victoria. She taught Concert Band, Choir, Jazz Band, IB Music, Life Skills Music, and served as the Fine Arts Department Head at Seaquam Secondary School in Delta from 1990 until 2022. Jill is a lifelong musical learner as a teacher, conductor and performer. She joined the BCMEA while still a student, attending and presenting at conferences, and serving on the Executive as Journal Editor, and Honour Ensemble Chair for 16 years. In 2013 she was honoured to be the recipient of the BCMEA Professional Music Educator Award. She has attended numerous summer conducting symposiums at University of Toronto, Northwestern University, and the University of British Columbia. Throughout her career she was able play her saxophone and sing under the direction of excellent conductors as a member of a number of community ensembles including Fat Jazz, Coquitlam Chorale, Port Moody Concert Band, Amabilis Singers ,and Fraser Valley Wind Ensemble. Link many “retired” music educators, Jill continues to be a part of the musical community as a clinician, adjudicator, and Assistant Conductor of the Fraser Valley Wind Ensemble.