Judges

Visual General Effect

Ryan Lee

Ryan is a drill designer, instructor and adjudicator based in Sacramento, California. He has worked with more than thirty competitive programs at the middle school, high school, collegiate and independent levels, in California, Colorado and Hawaii. Lee is a visual judge for Bands of America (BOA) and a percussion visual judge for Winter Guard International (WGI). He has lead judge training clinics, been a chief judge, head visual caption judge, and is regularly assigned to championship event panels for circuits across the country. Ryan has been a clinician and consultant for multiple marching bands, color guards, percussion ensembles and served five years as a visual instructor with the Mandarins Drum & Bugle Corps (2021-2025). He was on the instructional staff for the marching band at California State University, Sacramento for four years, and co-taught the Marching Band Methods course’s drill writing sessions, teaching music education majors the fundamentals of visual design, and how to use Pyware. Other affiliations include being a former guest on the Marching Roundtable Podcast, featured in Halftime Magazine, and a member of the Winter Activities Leadership Team for the Northern California Band Association. In his spare time, he continues to attend dance and movement classes at local studios.

Visual Performance - Ensemble

Jason Harvey

Jason Harvey is currently in his 29th year of teaching and serves as the Director of Bands at La Porte High School in La Porte, Texas. His responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble, assisting with the school’s other concert ensembles, and coordinating the curriculum and instruction for the marching and concert band programs. Under his direction, the La Porte High School Band has consistently earned Superior ratings at UIL Marching and Concert & Sight-Reading Evaluations, regularly advanced to the UIL Area Marching Contest, and, in 2025, advanced to the UIL 5A State Marching Contest.

Jason has served as a visual judge for the Winter Guard International (WGI) Percussion Division since 2008. He is also the current Percussion/Winds Judge Administrator for both the Texas Color Guard Circuit (TCGC) and North Texas Color Guard Association (NTCA), a position he has held for more than a decade. In addition to his work with WGI, he has adjudicated nationally for numerous regional circuits, including MAPS, SCGC, SAPA, GCGPC, CWEA, IPA, MIA, FFCC, TCGC, NTCA, MEPA, OPIA, SCPA, NCPA, and RMPA. In recognition of his contributions to the indoor percussion marching arts, Jason was inducted into the North Texas Color Guard Association (NTCA) Hall of Fame in 2021 and the Texas Color Guard Circuit (TCGC) Hall of Fame in 2026.

Jason’s involvement in the marching arts spans more than three decades. He performed with the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps from 1990–1992 and The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps from 1993–1996, where he was a member of the 1995 DCI World Championship corps. Following his age-out, Jason joined The Cavaliers’ visual staff.

From 2002–2005, Jason served as director and visual caption head of Velocity Indoor, an independent percussion ensemble from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Velocity was a consistent finalist at the WGI World Championships, earning the PIA Silver Medal in 2002 and the PIO Bronze Medal in 2004. In 2006, Jason served as Brass Caption Head for Revolution Drum and Bugle Corps from San Antonio, Texas. That season, Revolution earned the High Brass Award and finished as the Division III Silver Medalist at the DCI World Championships.

Jason earned his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and completed postgraduate work at the University of South Carolina, where he served as a graduate assistant. He is a member of the Texas Bandmasters Association and the Texas Music Educators Association.

Music General Effect

Mike Rubino

Live Oak High School Emerald Regime Band & Color Guard under my direction has twice been the Bands Of America Grand National Champions . The Band and Guard has accumulated over 1000 awards including the Marching Bands of America Grand National Championship twice 1976, 1978. Judging experience includes Drum Corps West and Drum Corps International for the past 31 years. Judge coordinator for DCI Pacific since 1994. Marching band judging has included Indiana State School Music Association, Bands of America, Michigan State Competitive Marching band Association and the Oregon band directors association. Clinician: Digital music in the classroom, how to build an effective field show and get the maximum credit.

2007 BOA hall of fame inductee.

Music Performance - Ensemble

Paul McGarr

Paul McGarr is currently in Toronto at the prestigious Upper Canada College where he has been the Head of Arts and Director of Bands at the Preparatory School since 2007. Since 2015 he is also been a member of faculty at the National Music Camp of Canada and was recently the Artistic Director for the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band from 2009 - 2016. He has over 35 years of teaching experience throughout southern Ontario. His Education consists of Majoring in Jazz Performance studies (trumpet) with a minor in composition at the University of Toronto and an Honours Degree from Mohawk College’s Applied Music program.

Paul is also in high demand as an adjudicator and clinician working all over North America and Japan for such sanctions as Drum Corps International, Bands of America, Drum Corps Japan, Fiesta-val, Kiwanis, and Heritage music Festivals. He has had the pleasure of adjudicating the Drum Corps World Championships and the United States National Championships 24 times and the Japanese National Championships twice. He, his wife, Jackie, with sons, Joshua, Mitchell and Andrew, and daughter, Jordyn, reside in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.

Percussion Performance

Jeff Ausdemore

Jeff Ausdemore currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music for New Mexico State University, where he teaches applied lessons, jazz appreciation, and music education pedagogy classes. Mr. Ausdemore also serves as a percussion faculty member at East Texas A&M University where he teaches applied lessons, technique classes, pedagogy and music entrepreneurship classes. In addition to his teaching roles, Mr. Ausdemore currently serves as President and Co-Founder of Stryvemind.com, a revolutionary online music education platform that impacts students and music educators around the world. As a composer, Mr. Ausdemore is published through C. Alan and Tapspace publications, and has contributed original works for piano, guitar, contemporary multimedia, percussion and choir, percussion solo and ensemble pieces, and marching band. Several programs have commissioned and premiered Mr. Ausdemore’s works on recordings, concerts, the Music for All national festival, the Interlochen Fine Arts Academy summer camp, the Midwest Clinic, and several PASIC world premieres.

As an author, Mr Ausdemore has released his first book; “Breathe, Grow, ShareFostering Student Impact Through the Lens of a Music Teacher's Best Life” through Ausdemore Music and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Prior, Mr. Ausdemore served as Director of Music at Grapevine-Colleyville’s iUniversity Prep. In this role, Mr. Ausdemore oversaw all music curricula for all primary and secondary level students.

Mr. Ausdemore has also served as the Director of Percussion Studies at Colleyville Heritage High School, where his responsibilities included percussion coordination and co-director/composer/arranger of the Colleyville Heritage marching band. The percussion program enjoyed national notoriety, including gold medals in the NTCA Indoor Circuit, PAS Marching Percussion titles, the PAS “Call for Tapes” winners, the PAS Small Ensemble Champions, as well as multiple regional marching percussion accolades.

Prior, Mr. Ausdemore taught previously at the University of Texas Arlington, serving as the percussion arranger/assistant director of the UTA Marching Band. Jeff has composed, arranged, instructed and consulted with numerous high school and college marching bands throughout the country, including DCI ensembles; the Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, and the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. During Mr. Ausdemore’s tenure at the Blue Knights, the percussion program produced several percussion individual solo championships, percussion ensemble championships, and a strong reputation for excellence.

Mr. Ausdemore's professional affiliations include DCI, WGI, BOA, PAS, TMEA, TBA, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Jeff serves as the Vice President of Percussion and Winds for the North Texas Color Guard Association, and is proud to endorse and serve as an artist clinician for Dynasty Musical Instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Remo drumheads and Pro Mark sticks and mallets.

Color Guard Performance

Paula Alfonso

Paula Alfonso has been involved with WGI since middle school and has served as an adjudicator since 2019. She brings experience as a performer at the Independent World level, a director and educator for Florida programs, and a former Board Member of the Florida Federation of Colorguards. She currently judges Equipment, Movement, and General Effect, and is a proud Double Gator from the University of Florida. Outside of the activity, she enjoys running, dance, literature, and community service.

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