The Interactive Rehearsal: Empowering Students to Think, Listen, and Move

Travis J. Cross (he/him) serves as professor of music and director of bands at UCLA, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, leads the graduate wind conducting program, and chairs the music department. He was also associate dean for academic mentoring and opportunity during the initial years of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Cross has conducted the UCLA Wind Ensemble at the California All-State Music Education Conference and College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Division conference and prepared the band for centenary performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

NSSWE’s Senior Wind Ensemble (SWE) is the organisation's flagship ensemble and is well recognised for its high level of musicianship and its excellence in performance. They play a wide range of professional grade repertoire and challenges its musicians to develop their sound and ensemble techniques. It features over 50 talented musicians from the Northern Sydney region many of whom go on to study music at a tertiary level.

In 2016 NSSWE commissioned The Magic of This Dawn by Christopher Sainsbury, an Australian composer, which premiered at our Spring Festival and was  performed whilst on tour in Japan.

The Senior ensemble is open to students from Years 10 through to 12 and school leavers who are continuing their music studies.