All Millard Orchestra Festival is an annual clinic and concert where we showcase our 5-12th grade orchestra students. Our orchestra program in Millard has become so successful that we had to move this event to the Baxter Arena. All Millard Orchestra provides a rare opportunity to see over 600 students from our three high schools, six middle schools, and 25 elementary schools join together to collaborate rather than compete. Students get to work with professional conductors from all over the United States. This festival has become a perennial fan favorite. It is a unique gem – something that makes Millard Millard. In fact, Millard is one of only three districts in our metro area that offers instruction in orchestra, and it is known to offer outstanding instruction and experiences for student string players. Being able to host a festival like All-Millard showcases our community in a way few other events can.
For a short video about the event, click here.
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Dr. Roach is the Director of Instrumental Activities. He leads the Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble and also teaches trumpet, conducting, and other courses in the music curriculum. He has also taught at Peru State College, The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, The College of New Jersey, California Lutheran University, and Southwest Michigan College. He has provided clinics to bands and orchestras from across the United States and has been a guest conductor for the Los Angeles Winds, cover conductor for Pacific Symphony, and assistant conductor for the Young Musician’s Foundation Debut Orchestra and the Downey Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, he has worked with the Irvine Young Concert Artists in Korea and China and also as assistant conductor for the Landesjugendorchester of Baden-Württemberg, a highly selective youth orchestra in Southern Germany.
Before pursuing teaching full-time in higher education, Roach resided in Los Angeles, where he was the music director of the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, instrumental coach for the “Grammy Signature School Award” Diamond Bar High School, and orchestra manager for the USC Thornton School of Music. For eleven years, he spent his summers teaching at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program where he worked with domestic and international middle and high school students. From 2015-2017, he was on the brass staff for the Phantom Regiment drum and bugle corps.
Ensembles in Southern California, Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey have performed Roach’s compositions and arrangements, and his television music has been played on network broadcast shows such as Sport Science, Crime 360, Project Runway, and Last American Cowboy. He has assisted in productions by Turner Classic Films, PBS, Fox, Universal, and DreamWorks. In addition to the works available on his website, he is also published by Murphy Music Press.
Dr. Roach is a member of the Nebraska Music Educators Association, Nebraska State Bandmasters Association, National Association for Music Educators, Conductor’s Guild, College Band Directors National Association, and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi. At the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, he earned a bachelor of music degree in performance, graduate certificate in scoring for motion pictures and television, and a master of music degree in instrumental conducting. At the University of Michigan, he earned a doctoral degree in wind conducting. Roach’s primary conducting teachers and mentors have been Michael Haithcock, Larry Livingston, Carl St.Clair, H. Robert Reynolds and Sharon Lavery. He studied composition with Frederick Lesemann, Jack Smalley, and David Spear. He has studied trumpet performance with Boyde Hood, Timothy Morrison, Russell Plylar, Judith Saxton, and Mark Niehaus.
Conductor and violinist Alejandro Gómez Guillén is passionate about sharing music in a way that is compelling, uplifting, and educational. Recently appointed Director of Orchestras at Arizona State University, he is currently in his second season as assistant conductor with Omaha Symphony, recently having taken part in the GRAMMY-nominated premiere production of Sculptures by composer Andy Akiho. He completed seven seasons as artistic director and conductor of Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, with which he led the world premiere of Mickey Tucker’s Spiritual Collage and the Indiana premiere of Florence Price’s Fourth Symphony. He also completed a successful tenure as associate conductor of Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, leading multiple community classics, pops, outdoor, bilingual and educational concerts, including collaborations with artists such as Time for Three and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte. Additionally, he is also music director of Sphere Ensemble which explores the intersection of masterpieces of string ensemble music of the past and present with a multitude of genres and world music masters. The group’s recordings are available through major music streaming platforms. Alejandro also served as a Freeman Fellow in Conducting with Chicago Sinfonietta, acting concertmaster/principal second violin of West Texas Symphony and violinist of the Permian Basin String Quartet, associate conductor of Boulder Symphony, and music director of Cantabile.
Recent highlights include serving as guest conductor with Illinois Symphony, collaborating with the Omaha, Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Dallas symphonies, as well as Orlando Philharmonic, as the assistant to conductors including Ankush Kumar Bahl, Tito Muñóz, Sameer Patel, José Luis Gómez, Eric Jacobsen, Jun Märkl, Carlos Kalmar, Robert Spano, Ruth Reinhardt, Andrew Grams, and Matthew Halls. He has also led West Texas Symphony, Tulsa’s Signature Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, SingFest Hong Kong, Bogotá’s Javeriana University, Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, and Midland Festival Ballet. He appeared as part of the Oregon Bach Festival conducting masterclass over several seasons in public performances of Bach’s B minor Mass, St. John Passion, and the Christmas, Easter, and Ascension Oratorios. Additional activities include the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Weimarer Bachkantaten Akademie, Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble, ¡Canta, Bogotá Canta!, Santander Choral Festival, Cabrillo Festival, Tonos del Sur at Berkeley Festival, Permian Basin Opera, a fellowship with SphinxConnect, and a residency in Colombia with Batuta.
Committed to sharing music in an educational way, Alejandro’s activities with the Omaha Symphony include artistic leadership of the orchestra’s prestigious and multifaceted community and education programs serving 25,000 students per year. Alejandro has served as assistant professor of music at Colorado Mesa University where he taught violin, viola, courses in symphonic literature, string pedagogy and chamber music, as well as conducting the chamber and symphony orchestras. He served as music director of the Colorado Youth Philharmonia and has led performances with Off Broadway School of Fine Arts in Boulder, Javeriana University Symphony Orchestra, Spokane Youth Symphony, University of Colorado Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, and Falcon Music Camps at the University of Texas Permian Basin.
An accomplished violinist, Alejandro enjoys leading concertos from the violin in recent and upcoming seasons. He served as concertmaster of Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, Amherst Early Music Festival, and Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble, with which he toured Germany and Italy including performances at Rheingau Music Festival and Berlin Philharmonie. He also returned to Oregon Bach Festival as a member of the Berwick Academy for Historical Performance.
Alejandro had a rich musical upbringing as a chorister and violinist in his native Colombia. Following a move to the United States he pursued a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Texas Christian University and Master of Music degrees in conducting and violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a DMA in orchestral conducting from the same institution, and his doctoral research includes a critical edition of Colombian composer Jorge H. Pinzón’s violin concerto Capricornius, and a guide using selected dances from Bach’s orchestral suites in their original form for developing orchestras through a historically-informed approach to playing on modern instruments. His mentors include Gary Lewis, Helmuth Rilling, Matthew Halls, and Mei-Ann Chen.
When not playing, leading ensembles, or reveling in the music of Bach, Alejandro enjoys singing, trail running, and making music with his wife, violinist Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Cranor in their Duo Anthracite and Chaski Quartet.
5th through 7th grade students are invited to join the All Millard Orchestra Festival for our big closing piece. Bring your family to see your child play with every 8th through 12th grade orchestra student in Millard! The All Millard Orchestra Festival will be on January 27th, at the Baxter Arena. It starts at 7 p.m. and students need to be there at 6:30 p.m. Students get in free but anyone else will need to buy a ticket ($8 for adults, $5 for students).
Students will be playing Ode to Joy from memory, but the music to practice and memorize, along with the details are linked for each instrument below. Please email your orchestra teacher with any questions. Students can also listen to and play along with the recording of the full piece HERE.