Adjudicators

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Dr. Wesley Chu has been playing piano since the young age of three. At five years old, he completed Grades 1 to 10 of the RCM Examinations, and at only ten years old, he had completed his ARCT, the highest level of the RCM. This impressive accomplishment made him the youngest pianist ever to achieve such a feat. An accomplished pianist at such a young age, Wesley was a featured performer for many significant political figures and events. At the age of six, he was invited to play at a Canada Day celebration with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance. He performed with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela before Nelson Mandela at a United Nations gathering, and with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at the Celebration of the Hand-Over to China. In 1999, Wesley performed his own composition Christmas in Bethlehem in the Vatican City with orchestra and choir for Pope John Paul II and an audience of eight thousand. Wesley has many incredible achievements in his resumé, including soloing with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra at four years old, collaborating with popular singers Andy Lau (劉德華) and William So (蘇永康), performing at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards, Polytechnic University Auditorium in Hong Kong and the Publick Playhouse in Washington, D.C., and releasing a CD with Warner Music. He has also earned top prizes at international competitions including the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts Annual Concerto Competition, the Sixth International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition for Young Artists in Moscow, and the ARMTA Provincial Piano Competition. He has swept the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival; in 2009, he was awarded a total of seven gold certificates and four medals and, thus, performed at the local European Masters and the Stars of the Festival concerts. He was also a prizewinner at the Canadian Music Competition and the National Music Festival, the Mondavi Young Artists Competition, and the NTD Piano Competition. Wesley is an active performer, composer and pedagogue in Los Angeles. As a teacher, he believes that education is the pathway to a higher stage of living. Knowledge leads to greater understanding of the world we live in and of those with whom we share that world. An education in music opens a gate into our own spirits, training skills such as discipline, perseverance, creativity, and active problem-solving. Wesley also believes that all forms and areas of knowledge benefit and nourish each other, and that understanding any concept is best done from a multitude of angles. The pursuit of music itself is best done not only with exposure to performing, improvising, composing, theoretical, and historical perspectives, but with an appreciation for all art, science, and philosophy as well. Dr. Chu earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts, studying with Dr. Stewart Gordon, as an International Artist Fellow at University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California. In completion of this degree, he majored in Piano, Composition, Arts Leadership, and Music Theory. He has also received degrees from New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Calgary where he studied with Alexander Korsantia, Meng-Chieh Liu, Hung-Kuan Chen, Tema Blackstone and Charles Foreman. Wesley is the founder of Zenkora Studios, the multimedia fantasy production company, and a founding member of the Super Piano Brothers, a groundbreaking piano duo specializing in self-arranged and composed media music.

Nat Dickey serves on the Concordia College faculty as chair of the music department and professor of music, teaching low brass and conducting the Cobber Athletic Band. During the summer, he serves as jazz trombone instructor at the International Music Camp. He is an SE Shires Trombone Artist.

Dickey is currently principal trombonist of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, trombonist of the Post-Traumatic Funk Syndrome, and trombonist and leader of The Skipjacks jazz quartet. He has performed with the IRIS Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Vermont Symphony, and Boston Ballet. An active chamber musician, Dickey was a founding member of the Orion Trombone Quartet (winner of the Coleman Competition) and the Brass Mosaic, with which he performed at Carnegie Hall. Dickey performs frequent solo recitals and has performed as a soloist with the U.S. Army Orchestra, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, and numerous collegiate and public school ensembles. He appears on recordings with the IRIS Orchestra, the Post-Traumatic Funk Syndrome, the Paramount Brass, and Boston Symphony Orchestra principal trombonist Ron Barron. Dickey's first solo CD, "Collaborations," was released in 2014 and includes original compositions by Dickey himself, as well as by colleagues and former students. His second solo CD, "Reflections," was funded by a McKnight Fellowship and was released in May 2018. Both albums can be heard on Spotify and YouTube.

As a conductor, Dickey has commissioned and premiered works from numerous renowned composers, including Benjamin Taylor, David Avshalomov, Andrew Boysen, Jr., Stephen Paulus, Elliott Schwartz, Mark Camphouse, Carol Barnett, Mary Ellen Childs, and Allen Feinstein. With the Symphonic Band, he directed the annual Composers Concert series, featuring contemporary music, including the work of student composers. Dickey previously served as assistant director of bands at Harvard University. He is a frequent band clinician and adjudicator.

Dickey holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory (B.A. mathematics, B.M. music performance), Rice University (M.M. music performance), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A. music).

Dr. Allyss Haecker is currently in her third year as the Director of Choirs at Seneca High School (SC) where she directs five choirs and teaches courses in Advanced Placement Music Theory and Music of the World’s Peoples. In addition to her classroom teaching, she is in her second season as the Artistic Director of the Foothills Chorale of Clemson, SC. Most recently, she served as the Artistic Director of the Riverside Singers at Augsburg University, the See Change Treble Choir in St. Paul, MN, and the Colonial Chorale at Colonial Church in Edina, MN. Dr. Haecker was also a member of the music faculty at the Shattuck-St. Mary’s School as a voice teacher within their Vocal Performance Program. She was also the Artistic Director of the Northfield Youth Choir program and conductor of the Concert Choir. 

Formerly, she was on the voice faculty at St. Olaf College (MN) and was the conductor of one of the college’s choirs, Cantorei. Dr. Haecker served as an Associate Professor of Music and the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Emory & Henry College (VA) where she taught voice, conducting, choral methods, vocal pedagogy, diction, and directed the Concert and Chamber Choirs. In addition, Dr. Haecker was an Assistant Professor of Music at Newberry College (SC) and the National Music Conservatory in Amman, Jordan. For sixteen years, she served on the vocal and conducting faculty of the Performing Arts Institute, a summer festival for students of music, dance, and theater. Previously, she taught choral music in the Fenton Area Public Schools (MI) and was the Artistic Director of the Saginaw Youth Chorale (MI). Dr. Haecker received her doctor of musical arts in choral conducting and literature from the University of Iowa, her master of music degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois, and her bachelor of music education degree from Converse College (SC). 

Dr. Haecker is a frequent clinician and guest conductor for district, state, and regional choral festivals, having conducted throughout Virginia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Alaska. She enjoyed her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in April 2023 with the Seneca High School Chorale. Dr. Haecker’s commercial recording with Emory & Henry College Concert and Chamber Choirs, entitled “Making Love Known,” can be found on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music.

Dr. Haecker’s ongoing research includes contemporary South African choral music and its impact on social and political change. She was a recipient of the T. Anne Cleary International Research Fellowship which allowed her to study and perform throughout South Africa. Her time in the Middle East has also led to research and performances of unpublished Arab choral music. She has twice presented at the Virginia Music Educators Association Annual Conference on topics of vocal pedagogy and courageous music-making. To watch her recent Ted Talk and hear recent performances by Dr. Allyss Haecker, please visit her YouTube channel.

Dr. Haecker currently lives in Pickens, SC with her husband, Arthur, and their hilarious son, Kai.

Brad Hogarth is a versatile and multi-faceted musician, whose career has taken him from the finest concert halls in Europe to the frozen Arctic tundra and the dusty Black Rock Desert. He is especially passionate about musical outreach - both as a performer and as an educator, Brad hopes to bring people and communities together through the power of live performance.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is the Associate Professor of Conducting at San Francisco State University, was recently named Associate Conductor of the Monterey Symphony, and is the music director and conductor of the Art Haus Collective, known for presenting spectacular performances of classical and contemporary works in unique spaces. Brad is also the music director and conductor of the San Francisco Civic Symphony, and is on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he conducts the Conservatory Wind Ensemble. 

This season he will make his conducting debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and has recently conducted the San Francisco Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Brass Guild, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Bay Brass,  and was on the conducting staff of the 2022 National Brass Ensemble recording, concert, and institute. 

In August 2017, Brad conducted the Art Haus Collective’s ballet production of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at the Burning Man. An estimated 10,000 people were in attendance and photos from the event were featured in USA Today, Business Insider, as well as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery as a part of the No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man exhibit.  Brad was the conductor and music director of the Contra Costa Wind Symphony from 2015 - 2022, and has also conducted many of Grammy winning composer Mason Bates' Mercury Soul projects. As a guest conductor, he's also appeared with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, the ECHO Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Wind Ensemble, the Oakland Municipal Band, and regularly conducts various professions, educational, and community events all over the Bay Area.

An accomplished trumpeter as well, Brad performs regularly with a number of orchestras.  He can be heard on the San Francisco Symphony’s recording of Ives’ Symphony No. 4 and the San Francisco Ballet’s recording of Lowell Liebermann’s Frankenstein. Brad toured with the Indianapolis Symphony to the Kennedy Center as a part of the 2018 SHIFT Festival, and has performed as guest principal trumpet with the Louisville Orchestra. 

Brad’s summer engagements include the Sun Valley Summer Orchestra, Cabrillo Music Festival, Britt Festival Orchestra, Thueringer Bachwochen’s Weimar Bach Academy, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Mendocino Music Festival, The Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, and Music in the Mountains, as well as international festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, CCM Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands.

Other Bay Area ensembles Brad regularly performs with include the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Bay Brass, Opera San Jose, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, California Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Marin Symphony, and Symphony Napa Valley. 

As a trumpet soloist, Brad has most recently been featured by The Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra performing the Arutunian Concerto. Regularly highlighted with the un-conducted chamber orchestra One Found Sound , Brad has been featured playing Copland’s Quiet City, Ive's Unanswered Question, and Martin's Concerto for 7 wind instruments. The Walnut Creek Concert Band, Contra Costa Wind Symphony and the Diablo Wind Symphony have all featured Brad as a solost playing pieces like Arban’s Fantasie Brilliant and Rafael Mendez’s version of La Virgen de La Macarena. In the summer of 2012, Brad was a featured soloist with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, playing the Henri Tomasi Concerto for trumpet and orchestra. 

At San Francisco State University, Brad received a 2021 LCA Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2019 - 2020 Presidential Award for Professional Development, as most recently the Marcus Transformative Research Award to focus on reviving the work of 19th century American composer, Francis Johnson. An avid educator, he was the Chair of Instrumental Music, Band and Full Orchestra director of Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts High School. In 2014 he conducted the Ruth Asawa SOTA Orchestra at SF Jazz for the Other Minds Festival, the first student group to ever be featured in the festival’s 20 year history. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Brad taught music for one year at the Gunma Kokusai Academy in Ota Gunma, Japan. Diverse in professional activities, he has also conducts brass choirs and wind ensembles and is an arranger for various types of ensembles, including a yearly new arrangement for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Noble Trumpet ensemble.

Brad earned a Bachelors in trumpet performance and music education from the Eastman School of Music, spent a semester in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and holds a Masters degree in trumpet performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal trumpet teachers have been James Thompson and Mark Inouye.

Michael Murphy is the Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Stephen F. Austin State University where he teaches choral conducting, ensembles, repertoire, and methods courses and oversees the graduate conducting program. Before his appointment to SFASU in 2017, Michael was Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor at University of Idaho for nine years, where he was Founder and Artistic Director of the Idaho Bach Festival and was recognized with the UI Faculty Award for outstanding scholarship, teaching, and engagement.

Dr. Murphy is an active clinician, adjudicator, and author. His research interests include training and developing the holistic conductor, rehearsal techniques, new choral compositions, and investing and creating impactful connections in our global community through music. Murphy’s international conducting and teaching experiences include Austria, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, Germany, Norway, Panama, and Sweden. The Confucius Institute awarded Dr. Murphy with the "Understanding China Fellowship" and asked him to serve as visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, and Guangzhou University of Foreign Studies.

Murphy is the co-author and editor of Conducting Primer in Practice, has been published several times in Choral Journal, and contributed to volume 4 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir. As a passionate champion of music for all, Michael has experience teaching all ages and levels and several auditioned and non-auditioned collegiate, community, school, and church choirs. His choirs have been invited to perform for several state and regional ACDA and NafME conferences, and he has held several international, national, and state leadership positions in WCCN, ICCF, ACDA, NAfME, and NCCO. Murphy received his degrees in conducting and choral music education from Florida State University and East Carolina University.