As an advocate of innovative methods of education, Shane Anderson, DMA, was one of the first music educators to create and teach Class Piano fully online. Through a Louisiana Board of Regents Grant and private donations totaling nearly $100,000, in 2016 he designed and installed a 24 station Roland piano lab for Nicholls State University. He has also served as pianist for many years with the Victoria Symphony and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras.

His interest in new music has led him to perform and present classes on contemporary piano music in Jakarta, Bandung and Bali, Indonesia, on behalf of the Yamaha Corporation. Shane has been featured as a collaborative artist in hundreds of performances throughout Texas and Louisiana. He most recently served as head of the Department of Music at Nicholls State University and Associate professor of music at Texas A&M University in both Corpus Christi and Kingsville. His degrees are from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Nelita True and The University of Texas at Austin with Nancy Garrett. Shane teaches private and class piano for the Music Department at ACC.

José Flores, an accomplished violin soloist and chamber musician, has showcased his talent in prestigious locations across the United States, including New York, Texas, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, as well as internationally in countries such as South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Since 2006, Flores has served as a professor of violin and viola at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and held the position of director of orchestral studies from 2012 to 2021. He is a permanent guest faculty at the Switzerland International Music Academy. He holds degrees from the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York and earned his Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Arizona in 2006.

Beyond academia, Dr. Flores contributes significantly to various orchestras, serving as Concertmaster of the Kingsville Symphony, a member of the Corpus Christi Symphony, and principal second violinist with the Victoria Symphony. He is also a founding member of the Latin American Philharmonic in Houston, where he was acting concertmaster during the 2022-2023 season.

Dr. Melissa Melendez, a Venezuelan-American violist, began her musical journey in Caracas, Venezuela, as part of El Sistema and the prestigious Emil Friedman Fine Arts School. She pursued her education in the United States, earning degrees from Louisiana State University, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Duquesne University, and The University of Arizona.

Now based in Austin, Texas, Dr. Melendez serves as Adjunct Professor of Viola at Austin Community College, faculty at the Austin Chamber Music Center, and teaches privately in her home studio. Her previous appointments include Adjunct Professor of Viola at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, Orchestra Director at Roy Miller High School, and Assistant Director of the Corpus Christi Area Youth Orchestra. 

Dr. Melendez is principal violist of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and is member of the Central Texas Philharmonic. She has held full-time positions with the Tucson, Corpus Christi, Kingsville, and Baton Rouge symphony orchestras. She frequently joins the viola section of the Charleston Symphony and the Iris Collective (Memphis, TN) As a soloist, she has performed with the Austin Civic Orchestra, Corpus Christi, Victoria Symphony, Kingsville Symphony, and Sinfónica de Carabobo. Passionate about contemporary music, she has premiered works including the Castellanos-Yumar Viola Concerto with the Sinfónica de Carabobo (Venezuela), Miguel del Aguila’s Concierto en Tango (piano and viola version), and Alexandre Ouzounof’s Nuages de Feu for Viola and Bassoon. She has presented this repertoire at the American Viola Society Festivals (2016, 2018, 2021). Dr. Melendez is an active member of the American Viola Society, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the Texas Music Educators Association. She frequently lectures on new viola repertoire, Suzuki in the schools, and music education in the public schools.