Thank you for attending this year’s Northwest High School Honor Band!
Check back soon for more details on the 2026 Honor Band!
Northwest High School Honor Band
January 9-10, 2026
Mary Baker Russell Music Center | Ron Gerhardstein, Director
The Northwest High School Honor Bands will feature music performed by approximately 325 of the finest high school musicians from the Pacific Northwest. These outstanding high school students are recommended for participation in the event by their high school band directors and the concert is a culmination of two days of intense rehearsals with nationally recognized guest clinicians.
Nominations:
High school directors, please use the link provided below to nominate and recommend students that you would like to participate in the Northwest High School Honor Band. We ask that before nominating a student, please check with each student concerning their availability. There is a participant fee of $125 for each student participating in the Honor Band. The window for Nomination Forms will open on TBD.
Nomination deadline: TBD
Notification Window:
High school directors will receive notifications of selected students accepted by TBD.
Registration:
Honor Band Registration will be made available following the designated nomination period.
Once nominations have been reviewed, Honor Band participants will be notified of acceptance via email and provided access to the event registration. Once received, please complete registration and payment using the link provided by TBD.
- Participant fees: $125 (non-refundable) / Deadline: TBD
- A link of the recorded performance will be shared with participants following the event.
Please note that no refunds will be allowed after event registration has been completed, and no registration or payment will be accepted following the deadline of TBD.
Lodging:
Upon registration, students traveling from afar to the PLU campus should plan to coordinate housing prior to the Honor Band event to ensure lodging is available. Please utilize the links provided near the bottom of this page under ‘More Information’.
Performance Attire:
For the performances, students should plan on wearing their provided Honor Band shirts which they will receive at check in, along with dark colored pants and shoes.
Audition Materials for Chair Placement:
After participant’s check in on January 10th, chair placement auditions will be held in various rooms in the Mary Baker Russell Music Center. Please open and print the PDF version of your part for your instrument and practice prior to the January 10th check in.
Flute, Oboes, Clarinet (B-Flat), Clarinet (Bass), Clarinet (Contra Bass), Bassoon, Sax (Alto), Sax (Bari), Sax (Tenor), Trumpet/Cornet, French Horn, Trombone, Euphonium TC, Euphonium BC, Tuba, Mallets, Snare Drum, Timpani, Double Bass
Performance
January 11, 2025
4:30 pm Performance
Northwest High School
Cascade Concert Band,
Olympic Concert Band
and
6:30 pm Performance
Northwest High School
Rainier Symphonic Band
Free Admission / No Tickets
Workshop Clinicians:
Dr. Courtney Snyder is Associate Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan, where she conducts the Concert Band, teaches conducting, and conducts the Michigan Youth Symphonic Band. Under her artistic leadership, the Concert Band was invited to perform at the College Band Directors Association North-Central Division Conference.
Previously, Snyder served as the assistant director of bands and director of athletic bands at the University of Nebraska-Omaha where she conducted the “Maverick” Marching Band, conducted the Concert Band, served as associate conductor of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and taught courses in conducting, music education, and brass methods. While in Omaha, Snyder also served as music director for the Nebraska Wind Symphony, which, under her direction, was invited to perform at the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association annual conference. Prior to teaching at the collegiate level, Snyder taught high school and middle school band and orchestra in the Michigan public schools.
Dr. Snyder is an active guest conductor and clinician. She has presented at national and international conferences including the Midwest Clinic, World Association of Symphonic Band Ensembles, College Band Directors National Association, College Music Society, and Women Band Directors International. Her current projects include research in conducting movement kinesiology, promoting equity through programming and commissioning works by women and minority composers, and building a strong community of women band directors. She is President of Women Band Directors International and serves on the editorial board for The Woman Conductor journal.
Snyder is published in Music Educators Journal, The Instrumentalist, several volumes of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, School Band & Orchestra Magazine, The Woman Conductor, and Association of Concert Bands Journal. Her chapter “Trailblazers: Five Pioneering Female Band Directors Recount Their Journeys Over the Last 50 Years” in the book The Horizon Leans Forward…Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field will be published in December 2020. In 2018 she received Tau Beta Sigma’s Paula Crider Award. She earned 2nd Place of the 2017-2018 American Price in Conducting, Band/Wind Ensemble Division Competition and was given a Citation of Excellence award by the National Band Association.
Dr. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Michigan (DMA – conducting), Baylor University (MM – conducting) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BME). She is a member of College Band Directors National Association, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Women Band Directors International, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Melanie Brooks Dinh is the Director of Bands at WSU. She received her DMA and Masters degrees in Wind Conducting at Arizona State University in 2018 and 2016. She studied conducting with Gary W. Hill, Peter Ettrup Larsen, Jason Caslor, Wayne Bailey, Mallory Thompson, Craig Kirchhoff, Emily Threinen, and Allan McMurray.
In 2014-2015, Dr. Brooks received a Fulbright grant to study at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. While in Finland, she: conducted four of the country’s five professional military bands, worked at youth and adult music camps in Kouvola and Terälahti, directed student honor bands in Varkaus, Lahti, and Tampere, and visited music schools across the country.
She also performed with the Sibelius Academy Wind Ensemble at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago as a saxophonist.
Before beginning her graduate studies, Dr. Brooks taught 5th grade and high school band in Pine City, MN for 2 years, directing 2 concert bands, jazz band, jazz combo, marching band, and pep band. Her first teaching position was at Bethlehem Academy in Faribault, MN, where she directed 5th grade band, 6th grade band, grades 7-12 band, jazz band, pep band, and marching band.
Dr. Brooks received her Bachelor of Arts from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where she performed in many ensembles as a saxophonist and directed the college athletic bands. She has since performed several recitals with the Kaze Saxophone Quartet, premiering and commissioning new pieces written by Finnish composers Janne Ikonen and Jukka Viitasaari.
Dr. Brooks has passionately undertaken several projects that focus on community building through music performance. She founded the first-ever collaboration between Arizona State University and the Harmony Project Phoenix, a non-profit music school in South Phoenix. This collaboration blossomed into a project that created 29 miniature concertos for young soloists of all wind and string instruments.
Dr. Brooks also coordinated the “Building Bridges through Music” festival in 2018, which included young musicians, college musicians, and adult composers from around the world. After such rewarding experiences, she greatly looks forward to connecting communities through music in the Winona area!
Interlacing lived experiences with innate passion, Henry Dorn is a nationally recognized music composer/conductor renowned for his energizing rhythm, syntax versatility, and passion for creating storytelling sounds with larger picture meanings. Dr. Dorn’s compositions encompass intimate narratives often told from the lens of being a musician and African American. He is passionate about developing immersive experiences while setting an example of his life signature – the path may not always be smooth or clear, but it will always be worth it. His works have earned him recognition and performances by distinguished ensembles across the country, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Music from Copland House, JACK Quartet, the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Argento Ensemble, and the Dallas Wind Symphony.
Dr. Dorn is Assistant Professor of Conducting and Composition at St. Olaf College and is conductor of the award-winning St. Olaf Band. Prior to St. Olaf College, Dr. Dorn worked as an Assistant Director of the Memphis Area Youth Wind Ensemble and formerly served as Director to the Nu Chamber Collective. He has also worked with musicians of the United States Army Field Band, the United States Air Force Band, and has guest conducted the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own.”
As a composer, Dr. Dorn has earned several accolades. He was an Inaugural Future of Music Faculty Fellow with the Cleveland Institute of Music and an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award recipient. He is a past participant in The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, American Composers Orchestra EarShot, JACK Quartet’s JACK Studio, and Copland House CULTIVATE. He was in residence at MacDowell in summer 2023.
Originally from Little Rock, AR, Dr. Dorn’s ardency toward composing sparked at an early age while he was surrounded by blues and the sounds of his father’s vinyl records collection. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from The University of Memphis, a Master of Music in Composition and Wind Conducting from Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Conducting and a DMA in Composition from Michigan State University. He his primary conducting teachers have been Kevin L. Sedatole, Harlan D. Parker, and Kraig Alan Williams. He studied composition with David Biedenbender, Ricardo Lorenz, Alexis Bacon, Oscar Bettison, Kamran Ince, and Jack Cooper, among several others.
For Questions:
Ron Gerhardstein, Associate Professor of Music; Director of Band Studies
School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Pacific Lutheran University
(253) 535-7609 e-mail: gerharrc@plu.edu
Abby Deskins, Coordinator of Educational Outreach Programs
College of Professional Studies; Pacific Lutheran University
(253) 535-7877 e-mail: adeskins@plu.edu
Social Media