Armando Rivera has been teaching Orchestra and Guitar for over 18 years. He has studied Guitar under Dr. William Gangel, Dr. Gerald Klickstien and Professor Marc Cruz at Texas State University and The University of Texas in San Antonio. He has also studied string pedagogy under David Mairs and Dr. Eugene Dowdy. Mr. Rivera received his Bachelor of Music Studies with an emphasis on string instruments from The University of Texas in San Antonio. He has also taken master classes with Adam Holzman and John Williams. Mr. Rivera is currently teaching at William J. Brennan High School in San Antonio, where he has 3 orchestra and 2 guitar ensembles. His students consistently place at TMEA Region 29 Symphony Orchestra Clinic and Concert, and they regularly earn Superior ratings at Regional and State Solo & Ensemble competitions. His ensembles have also consistently earned Sweepstakes at UIL events and music festivals around Texas.

Described as a pianist with “power and finesse” (Dallas Arts Society), “beautiful and fiery” (KMFA Austin) and having a “sense of color, balance and texture” (Austin Chamber Music Center) Artina McCain has a built a three-fold career as a performer, educator and speaker. Recent performance highlights include guest appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Oregon East Symphony, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, her credits include performances at the Mahidol University in Bangkok, Hatch Recital Hall in Rochester, Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL and the Desoto Arts Commission in Desoto,TX. In 2022, she will have her debut at Wigmore Hall in London performing the works of Fred O. A passionate pedagogue, Dr. McCain won the Austin District Music Teachers Association award for collegiate teacher of the year two consecutive years. She has taught masterclasses in Universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Southeast Asia. McCain has taught at numerous summer festivals including the Austin Chamber Music Festival, Illinois Summer Youth Music (ISYM) and PRIZM International Chamber Music Festival. McCain graduated cum laude from Southern Methodist University. She received her Master of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music and completed her Doctoral Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. McCain is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and co-artistic director of the Memphis International Piano Festival and Competition.

Recognized by Steinway & Sons in 2018 as a “Top Teacher,” Brooke Balbuena is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through the Music Teachers National Association. She maintains an active piano studio in which she works with beginning to early advanced students. Originally from upstate New York, Brooke attended the pre-college division at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Alla Kuznetsov. She received the Eastman Preparatory Diploma in Piano with Honors in 2000 and a B.M. Degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 2003. Brooke returned to Eastman to further her studies in Music Education from 2003-2005 under the guidance of Dr. Susan Conkling. Brooke holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Piano Performance and Pedagogy where she studied with Dr. Kasandra Keeling and Dr. Ivan Hurd. While at UTSA, she won the 2015 Aria & Concerto competition. In 2017 she was awarded the Graduate School’s prestigious “Excellence in Teaching” award for her enthusiastic work with undergraduate class piano students. Her private students have won numerous performance competitions at local and state levels and have earned gold medals in state theory tests.

Dr. Jill Sprenger has earned advanced piano performance degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California. Her teachers have included Menahem Pressler, John Perry, and Hans Graf while studying on a Fulbright Grant in Vienna. She is widely sought after as a conference speaker and clinician throughout the world. Dr. Sprenger was Professor of Piano and Pedagogy at Southwestern Seminary for 24 years where her former Academy grew to 200 students and 26 teachers. She has been a longtime professional performing musician within the Metroplex and has also maintained a large thriving private studio. Dr. Sprenger has a passion for teaching both beginning to advanced students, many of whom have gone on to attend major universities such as Oberlin Conservatory and Johns Hopkins/Peabody Conservatory. Dr. Sprenger is currently a US Representative for the RCM Certificate Program, a member of the Royal Conservatory College of Examiners, and a facilitator for their online Piano Pedagogy Courses through which she enjoys mentoring beginning teachers.

Conductor and violinist Joseph Kneer currently serves as director of the Trinity Symphony Orchestra, violin and viola faculty member, and string area coordinator at Trinity University. An energetic and versatile performer, Kneer has conducted many orchestras and ensembles, including Symphony Viva, the Oberlin Chamber Players, the Mercyhurst String Ensemble and community string chamber music program, the Mercyhurst Civic Orchestra, and the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Chancel Choir in Baltimore. An active recitalist and chamber musician, Kneer has performed on numerous concert series and in orchestras across the country. In 2015 he completed a regional concert tour of the Brahms violin sonatas with pianist Shirley Yoo and was awarded the Peabody Chamber Music Prize for his work with the Aurora Piano Trio, a group he co-founded in 2008. Kneer holds a B.M. in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.M. and D.M.A. in Violin Performance from the Peabody Institute, and an M.M. in Theory Pedagogy, also from Peabody. Kneer’s principal teachers include Mary West, Milan Vitek, Herbert Greenberg, and Violaine Melançon.

Orit Amy Eylon, Mezzo Soprano, is the Coordinator of the Voice Area and an Associate Professor of Music (Voice) at the University of the Incarnate Word. She received a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her MM and BM degrees from Indiana University. Orit has performed several roles with Opera San Antonio, Alamo City Opera, and El Paso Opera including Flora, Third Lady, La Principessa, Inez and Kate Pinkerton in La Traviata, Magic Flute, Il Trovatore, SuorAngelica, and Madame Butterfly to name a few. In addition to opera, Orit has performed extensively as a recitalist in Austria, Germany, Mexico and Asia and presents lecture recitals at various conferences and universities throughout the world. She performed as a soloist for several oratorio works including Handel’s Messiah Verdi’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem with the El Paso symphony and Juarez Symphony in Mexico. She has also served several summers as faculty for the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria. She just completed her term as the South Texas Chapter president of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, past Governor of the Rio Grande District of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and is a sought-after judge for UIL, ISAS, as well as solo and ensemble contests in New Mexico and Texas and international and regional voice concerto and aria competitions.

Dr. William O'Neil joined the Faculty of the University of Texas Pan American in 1992, where he now holds the rank of Professor. Dr. O'Neil received his DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) degree in clarinet from the University of Minnesota in 1990 where he studied with Cloyde Williams and John Anderson. He subsequently held one-year appointments at Utah State University and at Memorial University of Newfoundland before coming to UTPA. Dr. O'Neil is active as a recitalist, chamber musician, and clinician as well as being a prolific arranger of music for clarinet and saxophone solos and ensembles. Notable among his teachers have been Leon Russianoff, Mitchell Lurie, John Anderson, and Cloyde Williams. He is the creator of a highly successful On-Line Music Appreciation class being offered through the UT Telecampus since 1996. He is co-founder of the Valley Classic Ensemble and the University of Texas-Pan American faculty Ensemble Romantique. As an orchestral performer, he has been principal/co-principal clarinetist with the Valley Symphony since 1994. He has also played with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, the Victoria (TX) Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of Nuevo Leon (Mexico), the Minnesota Opera, the North Star (MN) Opera, and the South Texas Lyric Opera. He recently was featured soloist with the Valley Symphony in the Weber Concertino for clarinet and orchestra. Dr. O'Neil attributes much of his success as a teacher to a terrible start on the clarinet, with no formal instruction whatever from his start in 7th grade until his second year in college. Having corrected every bad clarinet habit in the world, he has both the diagnostic/remedial skills to fix most students' problems, and the patience to help a student past some of their own personal musical crises.