High School Orchestra Invitational

Brenda Brenner is a Professor of Music Education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she specializes in string music education, teaching applied violin, as well as courses in violin and string pedagogy. Additionally, as Director of the Jacobs Academy, Brenner oversees the pre-college and community educational initiatives of the Jacobs School. She serves as co-director of the IU String Academy, a position she has held since 1993. Her String Academy students have been featured in concerts in major venues throughout the United States and have presented tours throughout Europe, Asia, and South America.

As director of the Fairview Project - a program in which every first and second grader in an underserved school is taught the violin as part of the curriculum - Brenner researches the cognitive, academic, and social outcomes of early instrumental music instruction. An active performer of chamber music throughout the United States, Brenner performs with her husband, organist Christopher Young. She also teaches and conducts at the IU Summer String Academy and is Assistant Director of the IU Retreat for Professional Violinists and Violists.

She is an active international clinician, with recent appearances at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the ASTA National Conferences, and Music Educators Conferences throughout the United States. Brenner is a Past President of the American String Teachers Association and is on the board of directors of the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

Frank Lestina received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Roosevelt University and his Master’s Degree in Administration from the University of Illinois. 

Mr. Lestina started his teaching career in Danville, Illinois where he taught orchestra at Southview Middle School and Danville High School. In 1986, Mr. Lestina accepted the Orchestra Director position at Libertyville High School, Libertyville, Illinois. During his tenure at Libertyville, the program grew from one orchestra of 30 students to two orchestras with 90 string players. The Symphony Orchestra was invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic in 1991 and again in 1996. In addition, the LHS Orchestras traveled extensively, including three tours to Europe. In the fall of 2000, Mr. Lestina accepted the position of Fine Arts Supervisor and Orchestra Director at the new school in District 128, Vernon Hills High School, where the string enrollment eventually grew to 150 students in three orchestras. Mr. Lestina and the Vernon Hills orchestras performed at the ILMEA All-State Conference in Peoria, Illinois in 2004, the Music Educators National Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2008 and the Midwest Clinic in 2009. The VHHS Orchestras have also continued the tradition of travel including tours to China in 2001, Spain in 2006, Italy in 2008 and Prague/Austria in 2012. Mr. Lestina retired from Vernon Hills High School in June of 2013 and currently serves as adjunct faculty in Music Education at DePaul University.

Mr. Lestina is a member of American String Teachers Association and was very active in the Illinois Music Educators Association where he served on the ILMEA State Board as the District 7 President for two terms. Mr. Lestina currently serves on the Midwest Clinic Advisory Board and moderates the New Music Reading Session for Orchestra. 

Mr. Lestina is very active as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator and has served as guest conductor for many of the ILMEA District Orchestras at both the Middle School and High School levels. Mr. Lestina conducted the ILMEA All-State Orchestra for the 2014 Conference in Peoria, Illinois.

Conductor Paul Hostetter is the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the acclaimed Sequitur Ensemble, the Principal Conductor of the Flageolet Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City. He has held appointments as the Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University where he also was the Director of Orchestral Studies/Associate Professor, the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, Principal Conductor of the NY Concerti Sinfonietta, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. Recently he served as Conductor for the Pixar Live show at Disney World's Hollywood Studios. He also serves as the Artistic Director for the Music Under the Dome series, in partnership with the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, GA.

Maestro Hostetter has appeared as a guest conductor with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York City Opera, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Peak Performances, the Syracuse Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Genesis Opera Company, the Prism Chamber Orchestra, the New York Virtuosi, the Florida Lakes Symphony, the Daylesford Sinfonia (Bermuda), the PAI Festival Orchestra (Kingston, PA), the Family Opera Initiative, and the Stony Brook Summer Music Festival Orchestra among others. He served as an assistant conductor to James Levine with the Metropolitan Opera. His performances have garnered rave reviews in multiple publications including the NY Times, NJ Star Ledger, Daily Record, Bermuda Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune, and many others.

He has had a tremendous impact on the world of contemporary music having premiered over eighty works by composers including Pulitzer Prize winners David Del Tredici, Lewis Spratlan, and Ned Rorem with groups including the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ensemble 21, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Music from China, The Society for New Music, the Glass Farm Ensemble, and Phillip Glass's Music at the Anthology series. He conducted Elliot Carter's Double Concerto at the Library of Congress as part of Mr. Carter's 100th-year celebration, led Newband in the premiere of Dean Drummond's opera Café Bufe with the Harry Partch Instruments, and conducted the co-premiere of Robert Aldridge's Grammy winning Elmer Gantry for Peak Performances.

As a recording artist he has collaborated with jazz greats Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Joe Lovano, with strings from the Orchestra of St. Lukes (By Arrangement), which received a Downbeat Critics Award, as well as with Heidi Grant Murphy and members of the Aureole Ensemble and Metropolitan Opera in music by Harrison Birtwistle. His recording, Where Crows Gather, featuring the music of Lewis Spratlan, was listed by the New York Times chief critic Anthony Tommasini as one of the top five of 2005, and a recording of the music of Harold Meltzer was also named again by Tommasini as one of his top five in 2010. Hostetter's extensive discography includes recordings on labels including Telarc, Koch, Mode, CRI, Albany, Tzadik, and Naxos, and his most recent recording of Concerti with the Sequitur Ensemble received five stars for performance from BBC Music Magazine, and a recent release of music by Arthur Levering was named Best of 2014 in Gramophone Magazine.

In the world of education he has led programs for Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Manhattan School of Music's Graduate Orchestral Performance Program, and has presented master classes at the Mannes School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Michigan, William Paterson University, and the University of San Paulo. He has led conducting workshops for the NY Philharmonic/NY Pops/ NY City Board of Education and has also led numerous honors orchestras including the NJ All-State and Florida All-State Orchestras. He formerly served as a visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University.

An avid instrumentalist, Maestro Hostetter performed as a percussionist/timpanist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom he toured and recorded extensively (including a Grammy Award) as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and many others. He has recorded for labels including Argo, Decca, Delos, Deutsche-Grammaphon, Naxos, New World, Polygram, Pro-Arte, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Warner Brothers, and has appeared on numerous movie soundtracks and jingles, as well as over ten Broadway productions.

He holds degrees in performance from the Florida State University and the Juilliard School of Music and has appeared in master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Slatkin, Larry Rachleff, and Christopher Wilkins.