Dr. Courtney Snyder is Associate Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan, where she conducts the Concert Band, teaches conducting, and conducts the Michigan Youth Symphonic Band. Under her artistic leadership, the Concert Band was invited to perform at the College Band Directors Association North-Central Division Conference.

Dr. Snyder is an active guest conductor and clinician. She has presented at national and international conferences including the Midwest Clinic, World Association of Symphonic Band Ensembles, College Band Directors National Association, College Music Society, and Women Band Directors International. Her current projects include research in conducting movement kinesiology, promoting equity through programming and commissioning works by women and minority composers, and building a strong community of women band directors. She is President of Women Band Directors International and serves on the editorial board for The Woman Conductor journal.

Snyder is published in Music Educators Journal, The Instrumentalist, several volumes of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, School Band & Orchestra Magazine, The Woman Conductor, and Association of Concert Bands Journal. Her chapter “Trailblazers: Five Pioneering Female Band Directors Recount Their Journeys Over the Last 50 Years” in the book The Horizon Leans Forward…Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field will be published in December 2020. In 2018 she received Tau Beta Sigma’s Paula Crider Award. She earned 2nd Place of the 2017-2018 American Price in Conducting, Band/Wind Ensemble Division Competition and was given a Citation of Excellence award by the National Band Association.

Dr. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Michigan (DMA – conducting), Baylor University (MM – conducting) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BME). She is a member of College Band Directors National Association, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Women Band Directors International, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Composer and saxophonist, Wil Swindler currently resides near Denver, Colorado, where he leads Wil Swindler's Elevenet, the modern bop quintet GoodRattle, and the Wil Swindler Quartet. In addition to his own bands, he is an active performer with the Peter Sommer Septet, The Annie Booth Big Band, Remy LeBouf’s Assembly of Shadows, Al Hood’s H2 Big Band, Colorado Symphony, the Ben Markley Big Band, and the Dallas Symphony. After receiving IAJE's Gil Evans Fellowship for 2008, Wil has completed numerous commissions from military bands, symphony orchestras, and big bands around the world. Wil has four albums available under his own name, Space Bugs (OA2 Records 2022), Universe B (OA2 Records 2010), The Right Riot (2014), and Chamber Jazz Ensemble (NohJoh Music 2006), and can be heard on numerous other albums including  Ingrid Michaelson’s Songs for the Season, Ben Markley’s Ari’s Funhouse and Clockwise, Steve Owen's Stand Up Eight, Peter Sommer’s Happy-Go-Lucky-Locals, Ted Piltzecker's Vibes on a Breath, Tom Amend's Bishop's Lair, Al Hood/Dave Hansen's Jazz Muses and You're It, Bob Washut’s Journey to Knowhere, and David Caffey’s Enter Autumn and All in One. Mr. Swindler’s most recent project is the premiere of his concerto for Jazz Trio with Symphony Orchestra, “The Point,” which premieres on Oct 5, 2023.

As an educator, Wil is in demand as a saxophone and jazz clinician and joined the music faculty at Colorado State University as a jazz instructor in 2009. He is currently the coordinator of Jazz Studies and director of Jazz Bands at CSU. He is a frequent adjudicator for high school and college jazz festivals around the country and maintains a private saxophone/composition studio in the Denver area. Wil has served as an adjunct saxophone teacher and Jazz Ensemble director at Denver University, instructor at the University of Northern Colorado, and composition teacher for the Colorado Conservatory of the Jazz Arts. He is also the camp director for the CSU Jazz Summer Workshop.

Originally from Central Texas, Wil began studying music at age five and picked up the saxophone at age nine. He earned a B.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas in 2001 where he played in, composed for, and recorded with the 1:00 Lab Band. In 2000 he attended the Henry Mancini Institute on a full scholarship from BMI and received a commission the following year from HMI for a piece premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In 2001, Wil relocated to New York City, where he played with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Bill Warfield's NY Fusion Ensemble, among others. During his time in N.Y., Wil studied saxophone with Dave Pietro and composition with Michael Abene and Jim McNeely as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. In 2003, he returned to his hometown of Austin, Texas, where he co-founded the 10-pc Chamber Jazz Ensemble and served as musical director for vocalist Kevin Ahart. Mr. Swindler has lived in Colorado since 2006 with his wife April Johannesen, and daughter Anna.