Timothy Salzman recently concluded his 38th and final year at the University of Washington where served as Professor of Music/Director of Concert Bands, conductor of the UW Wind Ensemble and taught students enrolled in the graduate instrumental conducting program. Former graduate wind conducting students of Professor Salzman have obtained positions at 73 universities and colleges throughout the United States and include past presidents of the American Bandmasters Association and the College Band Directors National Association as well as Jiannan Cheng, assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure at the UW the band program grew from 11 students enrolled in one band to 335 enrolled in five bands. Over the past 38 years he has been involved in commissioning and, in certain cases, the premiering of approximately 40 new works for wind ensemble. From 1978 to 1983 he was band director in the Herscher, Illinois, public school system where the band program received numerous state, regional and national awards in solo/ensemble, concert and marching band competition including being named the 1982 Bands of America Summer Nationals Grand Champion. At that time Herscher, a rural farming town about 75 miles from Chicago, had a total population of 1,200 and the high school enrollment was approximately 700 students, 9th-12th grade. Immediately prior to his UW appointment he served for four years as Director of Bands at Montana State University where he founded the MSU Wind Ensemble and ‘Spirit of the West’ Marching Band. Professor Salzman holds degrees from Wheaton (IL) College, and Northern Illinois University, and studied privately with world-renown wind instrument pedagogue Arnold Jacobs, former tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has numerous publications for bands with the C. L. Barnhouse, Arranger's Publications, Columbia Pictures, Hal Leonard Publishing and Nihon Pals publishing companies, and has served on the staff of new music reviews for The Instrumentalist magazine. Professor Salzman has been a conductor, adjudicator, arranger, or consultant for bands throughout the United States and in Canada, England, France, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, China, and Japan, a country he has visited twenty-one times. He has traveled to China twelve times where he served as visiting professor at the China Conservatory, given master classes for numerous wind bands, and conducted several ensembles including the Shanghai Wind Orchestra, the People's Liberation Army Band, the Beijing Wind Orchestra, The China Conservatory Wind Ensemble and the Tsinghua University Band in multiple concerts. He also served on three occasions as an adjudicator for the Singapore Youth Festival National Concert Band Championships. He has conducted several of the major military bands in the United States including a 2019 world premiere with 'The President's Own' United States Marine Band. He was compiling editor and co-author (with several current and former UW graduate students) of A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band, a five-volume series of books on contemporary wind band composers. The forwards to each volume were written by five Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. He was also a contributing author to a new book about his former teacher entitled Arnold Jacobs: His Artistic and Pedagogical Legacies in the 21st Century (2022). Professor Salzman is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and is a past president of the Northwest Division of the College Band Directors National Association. He is also an elected member of the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame and both the Santa Clara (CA) Vanguard and Cavaliers (IL) Drum and Bugle Corps Hall(s) of Fame for his work as an arranger and brass instructor.  

Under Professor Salzman’s direction the University of Washington Wind Ensemble performed at many prestigious music conventions, presented several world premiere performances of outstanding new music for wind band and in 2004, undertook a highly acclaimed nine-day concert tour of the Kansai region of Japan, returning for more extensive tours of that country in 2007 and 2010. The UW Wind Ensemble also presented several concerts in the main concert venues of Beijing, China in March of 2013, including a sold-out concert in the National Center for the Performing Arts in Tiananmen Square that was broadcast nationwide on China Central Television. The ensemble returned to China in both 2016 and 2019, playing before large crowds in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Chengdu and in March of 2024 presented concerts in South Korea. In the spring of 2006, the ensemble was invited by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra to present a concert at  

Benaroya Hall as a part of the Symphony’s 'Made in America' Festival. The London Financial Times review of the concert applauded “music of surprising sophistication…Cindy McTee’s  

Finish Line pulsated energetically, and William Bolcom’s Song was simply gorgeous.” Following the 2006 performance the ensemble was invited for return appearances on Seattle Symphony concert series in 2007, 2008 and in 2011 when Maestro Gerard Schwarz conducted the ensemble. The UW Wind Ensemble has collaborated with internationally renowned guest artists, conductors and composers including Eddie Daniels, Steve Houghton, Allen Vizzutti, Jeffery Fair, Chris Olka, James Walker, Douglas Yeo, Leigh Howard Stevens, David Maslanka, Michael Colgrass, Donna Shin, Bonnie Whiting, Cindy McTee, Eric Ewazen, Satoshi Yagisawa, David Stanhope, John DiCesare, Ben Lulich, David Gordon, Mary Lynch-Vanderkolk, Seth Krimsky, Michael Brockman, Carrie Shaw and Huck Hodge. In 2009 Nihon Pals, a music education resource company based in Osaka, Japan, released a set of instructional DVDs regarding ensemble musicality featuring the UW Wind Ensemble. The University of Washington was host for the 2011 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association.

Mark Ghiassi is a graduate of the California State University at Long Beach, earning a Bachelor of Music
Degree, with an emphasis in Instrumental Music Education. In 2004 he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master of Music Degree in French Horn Performance.  Mr. Ghiassi’s French Horn teachers include Joseph Meyer, James Atkinson, and Vincent DeRosa.  He has studied conducting
under John Carnahan, Hans Beer, and Stephen Tucker.  Mr. Ghiassi is an honorary member of Pi Kappa Lambda.

Mark Ghiassi has been the Director of Bands at Plaza Vista and Vista Verde K-8 Schools in the Irvine
Unified School District since 2004.  He was Plaza Vista School’s Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015, as voted on by the staff.  Mr. Ghiassi most recently conducted the 2023 IUSD Middle School Honor Orchestra. 
In his free time Mr. Ghiassi enjoys cycling, playing the horn with many groups in Southern California, and spending time with his wife, Michelle, and their cat, Comet.

Dr. Held is the music director of both the Concordia Wind Orchestra and
the Concordia Sinfonietta. He is an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, leader of the growing and thriving Arts Division. He joined the faculty of Concordia University in 2005 
and established most of the existing orchestral instrument program at the 
university.

Jay Mason has become one of the Los Angeles’ areas busiest saxophonists and woodwind artists since launching his career in 1983, after graduating from CSU, Long Beach.  His performance credits include work with Michael McDonald, Seth McFarlane, Chaka Kahn,  Bernadette Peters, Patti Austin, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra  and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pacific Jazz Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and many others.  He has appeared on recordings for the motion pictures The Naked Gun,  Soul, Frozen & Frozen 2, Moana & Moana 2, LaLa Land, Secret Life of Pets, Crazy Rich Asians, Ralph Wrecks the Internet, television productions like America’s Funniest Home Videos, Family Guy, American Dad, and video games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and hundreds more productions. Additionally, he is a member of Gordon Goodwin’s Grammy-winning Big Phat Band, and rounds out his activities by serving on the faculty where he started out, CSU Long Beach, at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, and at Concordia University in Irvine.  Jay is a Vandoren Reed Artist.  

Marci Seminario holds Bachelor's Degrees in Music Education and Clarinet Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. Under the direction of John Carnahan, she performed around the world as a member of the Bob Cole Conservatory Wind Symphony. 

Marci has had the opportunity to perform with various renowned artists, including the world-famous Andrea Bocelli at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. 

She brings a unique perspective from her time at the Disneyland Resort, where she worked as a stage manager for student performances and taught music workshops through the Guest Talent Program and Youth Education Series. 

Marci currently serves as an elementary winds educator in the Irvine Unified School District, where she teaches beginning and intermediate band students across five schools: Northwood, Deerfield, Santiago Hills, Loma Ridge, and Alderwood. In addition to her classroom work, she has led curriculum development initiatives, facilitated professional learning communities, and presented professional development for music educators. 

She recently earned her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Concordia University and is passionate about helping fellow educators build strong foundations in beginning band instruction.