Meet the Directors
Kevin Brown
Kevin Brown is the Director of Bands at Northwest Junior High in the Iowa City school district. This is Mr. Brown’s twenty-third year of teaching, with twelve of those being at Northwest. While teaching in the district, he has had the privilege of also teaching at West High School and several of the ICCSD elementary schools, providing him a well-rounded experience at every age level of band education. A graduate of Hampton-Dumont High School, he then received his B.M.E. (97) and later his M.M. (07) in Music Education (both with a jazz emphasis) from the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to Iowa City, Kevin taught at CAL/Dows High School and then Price Laboratory School/NUHS (Cedar Falls). While at PLS, he also supervised UNI music education students and partnered with the AEA in leading local professional development.
Mr. Brown has enjoyed a busy and successful teaching career. Concert Bands under his direction have earned only unanimous Division I ratings amongst other accolades. Jazz Bands under his direction have also seen success including many visits to the Iowa Jazz Championships where they regularly placed in the top five. This is Kevin’s fifth ensemble to perform at IBA Conference, with three concert band appearances (2000, 2003, 2016) and one jazz (2019). Individual honors include being acknowledged by IMEA as one of 13 outstanding educators in Iowa and he has twice been nominated for the R.J. McElroy Gold Star Teacher (for which he was a semi-finalist in 2010). In leadership roles, Mr. Brown served as the Honor Band Chair and District President while in his time in NCIBA and currently serves as the JH Honor Band Chair in SEIBA. He is also active as a clinician and adjudicator, and greatly enjoys serving as a guest director at many junior high and high school honor bands around the state of Iowa.
Outside the public school system, Kevin has served as the conductor of the Celebration Iowa Jazz Band (2006-2010) and the director of the Jim McDonough Orchestra (2011-2019). Kevin lives in North Liberty with his wife Erin (who teaches dance and voice at Nolte Academy in Coralville) and their cats Sherlock, Astrid, and Clyde.
Joshua Carlo
Joshua Carlo serves as the Assistant Band Director at Northwest Junior High School, where he has been since 2019. Mr. Carlo has been an educator since 2017. Prior to coming to Iowa City CSD, he taught at Waterloo CSD. In 2017, Mr. Carlo received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Iowa. He is currently earning his Master of Music Education degree from the University of Kansas. He will receive his degree after completing coursework in 2024.
At NWJH, he co-directs the 7th and 8th grade concert bands and directs the 7th grade jazz band. Mr. Carlo also teaches lessons to the woodwind students at NWJH. Students he has taught have been selected for the All-Iowa 8th Grade Honor Band and the SEIBA JH Honor Band. This is the first band that Mr. Carlo has directed to be selected to perform at Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference.
Mr. Carlo performs regularly in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas with multiple woodwind instruments with numerous groups, including the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band, Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale, Coe College, and Coralville City Circle. He will serve as a double reed advisor for the Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour throughout Europe this coming summer. Mr. Carlo also teaches several private double reed students. Mr. Carlo and his wife Megan, who is also an educator at NWJH and is earning a master’s degree in school counseling, reside in Iowa City with their two dogs, Spencer and Ike.
