Wesleyan Honors Bands

The 2026 Nebraska Wesleyan University Honors Bands will bring together students from across the region to form two bands that will rehearse and perform with NWU’s band director, Joshua Roach, DMA and guest conductor, Andrea Brown, DMA. One band will be an audition-based group, and the other will be nomination-based. Students in both groups will rehearse and perform with Brown and Roach.

Selected students are responsible for completing a registration form, including a $50 participation fee. Students are expected to prepare the music in advance of the festival.

Audition and nomination submissions will be accepted until the end of Friday, December 5, 2025.

Audition-based “Wind Ensemble”

Students who wish to participate in this band should submit representative audio or video files of their playing.

• What to submit: Students can use any audition package of material (scales and etudes) they’ve recently created for other honor ensembles, all-state band/orchestra or solo competitions. If no recent material exists and a student needs guidance for repertoire, they are encouraged to ask for guidance from their school director.
• Where to submit:
  • Students submitting materials themselves should use the student wind ensemble audition submission form.
  • Directors submitting audition materials for multiple students, please follow the instructions on the director nominations form (use one form to submit Wind Ensemble auditions and Symphonic Band nominations).

Nomination-based “Symphonic Band”

We encourage teachers to nominate as many students as they desire.

• Directors should use the director nominations form (use one form to submit Wind Ensemble auditions and Symphonic Band nominations).
• Individuals submitting single-nominations should use the symphonic band single nomination form. 

Our Conductors

Andrea E. Brown, D.M.A. is the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Maryland where she conducts the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble, serves as the Director of Athletic Bands, teaches conducting, and is the coordinator of the conducting division. Brown is formerly a member of the conducting faculty at the University of Michigan where she served as the assistant director of bands and was a faculty sponsor of a College of Engineering Multidisciplinary Design Project team researching conducting pedagogy technology. She also served as the director of orchestra and assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. She is a frequent guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator in the US, Europe and Asia.

While under her direction, the UMD Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform at the College Band Directors National Association Eastern Division Conference, and has performed works by a diverse range of composers. Brown and the ensemble have collaborated with soloists Master Gunnery Sgt. Sam Barlow, Willie Clark, Robert DiLutis, Jennifer Piazza-Pick and Amanda Staub. She led a consortium commissioning Omar Thomas’s setting of Shenandoah and has participated in commissions for works by Katahj Copley, Shiyung Li, Catherine Likhuta, Li Chan and Harrison Collins.

During her time at Maryland, the UMD “Mighty Sound of Maryland” Marching Band has collaborated in halftime shows with local artists such as the Critical Condition Band (DC GoGo), Mawty Maw (rap artist), Grace Chin (drum set), the Maryland Steel Pan Collective, and UMD Choirs. MSOM has also been a part of joint performances with the Howard University “Showtime” Marching Band and the Penn State “Blue” Band, and has participated in special performances at The Kennedy Center (DC), the Heisman Trophy Banquet (NY) and Bands of America Regionals (MD).

Brown has contributed to several books published by GIA Publications such as Women in Wind Band (Keeton-Howard & Wagner), Rehearsing the Marching Band (Meyer) and has had several rehearsal guides published in the popular series, Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. She has presented at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Oxford Conducting Institute, the Yamaha Bläserklasse in Schlitz, Germany, the International Computer Music Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the College Music Society International Conference in Sydney, Australia and multiple times at the College Band Directors National Association National Conference. Brown completed a DMA in instrumental conducting at UNC Greensboro where she was a student of John Locke and Kevin Geraldi. While at UNCG, she was both guest conductor and principal horn on UNCG Wind Ensemble's equus!, fireworks!, and finish line! CDs released on the Equilibrium label.

A proponent of inclusion and equity issues in the music profession, Brown is a frequent guest speaker on these topics. Brown is the founder of “Women Rising to the Podium”- an online group of over 5000 members supporting and celebrating women band directors. She currently serves on the CBDNA Diversity Committee and was a founding member of the Drum Corps International InStep Committee.

Brown previously served on the brass and conducting instructional staff of the DCI World Champion Phantom Regiment (2004 – 2017). Other marching organizations she has instructed include the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band and Carolina Crown. Brown has served as a music judge for Drum Corps International since the 2022 season and has been a member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Shield Jury since 2021. Brown was also invited to be a director for the 2024 D-Day 80th Anniversary Collegiate Mass Band and led the group in its performances in Normandy, France.

As a performer, Brown was a member of the AA Brass Quintet, which won the International Brass Quintet Competition hosted by Fred Mills at the University of Georgia. She performed with the horn sections of the Boston Brass All Stars Big Band, North Carolina Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. Brown has studied brass performance and pedagogy with Abigail Pack, J.D. Shaw, Jack Masarie, Freddy Martin, Dottie Bennett, Randy Kohlenberg, Richard Steffen and Ed Bach.
 

Originally from Milan, Tennessee, she is a graduate of Austin Peay State University and earned a master of music degree in horn performance and a master of music education degree with a cognate in instrumental conducting from UNCG. Prior to her position at Georgia Tech, Brown was the assistant director of bands at Austin Peay State University and taught public school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Dallas, Texas. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda, WASBE, NAfME and CBDNA. She was awarded the Rose of Honor as a member of Sigma Alpha Iota Women's Music Fraternity and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. Brown lives just outside of Washington, D.C. in College Park, MD, with her dog, Carter.
 

Joshua Roach, D.M.A. is director of instrumental activities at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He has also taught at Peru State College, the Crane School of Music in New York, the College of New Jersey, California Lutheran University and Southwestern Michigan College. Before teaching full-time in higher education, Roach lived in Los Angeles, where he was the music director of the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and instrumental coach for Diamond Bar High School. For 11 years, he worked with middle school and high school students at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program. From 2015-17, he also taught trumpet for the Phantom Regiment drum and bugle corps.

Schedule

Thursday February 12

• 1 p.m. NWU Music Scholarship auditions (optional for seniors considering NWU) begin
• 2:30pm Check-in begins
• 4 p.m. Rehearsals and activities begin
• 6:15/6:45 p.m. Pizza party (included)
• 9:15 p.m. Adjourn

Friday February 13

• 9 a.m. Rehearsals and activities begin (lunch included)
• 5:30 p.m. Adjourn

Saturday February 14

• 9:15 a.m. Rehearsals and activities begin (brunch included)
• 2:30 p.m. Performance
• 3:45 p.m. Farewell

Repertoire

To be announced.