Festival of Winds

High School Students and Band Directors from across the state and region come to campus to participate in the largest high school honor band event in the state of Colorado! High School students will participate in one of 4 honor bands. In addition to the honor band rehearsals, students will engage in sectional rehearsals and master classes with CSU Pueblo Applied Music Faculty, enjoy several concerts, hear new premier performances by the CSU Pueblo Wind Ensemble, and perform a concert at the historic Memorial Hall in downtown Pueblo. Music teachers can also earn graduate credit.

The Recommendation portal typically opens up near the end of October each fall and the Priority deadline for recommendations is the Friday before Thanksgiving week each year.

Contact the Chair of the Music Department for more information: mark.hudson@csupueblo.edu

2024 CONDUCTORS

Dr. David Waybright, University of Florida

Dr. David A. Waybright received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees at Marshall University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He taught initially at Wahama High School in Mason, West Virginia and since that time has served as Director of Bands at Ferrum College, Plymouth State College, and Director of Bands and Orchestra at McNeese State University. Dr. Waybright is currently Director of Bands at the University of Florida, where he holds the rank of professor and is the head of the conducting area. He directs the wind symphony and supervises the band program and the graduate and undergraduate conducting curricula. Dr. Waybright is in demand as a guest conductor and clinician with wind bands, orchestras, and choirs, and has appeared in that capacity in most of the 50 states, throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. He has held residencies at many of the nation\'s leading music schools. In addition, he is active in the commissioning and performance of new music and has won the praise of composers such as Dana Wilson, Michael Torke, Donald Grantham, John Corigliano and Leslie Bassett for his interpretation of their works. There are many recordings available featuring the University of Florida Wind Symphony under his direction. Dr. Waybright is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association where he serves on the Board of Directors and is a lifetime member of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. He is also a member of the College Band Director\'s National Association, Music Educators National Convention and Florida Music Educators Association. Ensembles under his direction have performed invited concerts at conferences sponsored by all of those organizations. Dr. Waybright is also a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha, Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi. He is a National Arts Associate honorary of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Dr. Mark Spede

Dr. Mark J. Spede is Professor of Music, Director of Bands, Director of Tiger Band, and Conductor of the Symphonic Band at Clemson University. He administrates the band program including symphonic, athletic, and jazz bands. In the fall of 2023, he was honored by Clemson with “Honorary Alumnus” status and given a school ring. He is also the recipient of the Clemson University 2009 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2023 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service (College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities), and three Clemson University Board of Trustees Awards for Faculty Excellence (2008, 2009, and 2012). He was awarded the Kappa Kappa Psi “Distinguished Service to Music Medal (2022), elected as national honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma (2021), the Minority Band Directors National Association (2021), and Omicron Kappa Delta (2022). He teaches a number of courses including two for the Honors College: aesthetics of music and science of music. In 2012 he conducted the Clemson University Symphonic Band at venues in London, England for the Summer Olympic Games. In 2012 he founded the Clemson Faculty Jazz Quintet for which he plays drums. Spede earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan (1984), a Master of Music from Ball State University (1988), and a Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Texas at Austin (1998).

Mark Spede has served the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) in a number of capacities. He currently is national president (since February 2019). From 2003 to 2005 he served as state chair for South Carolina. He also served on the CBDNA “New Era Think Tank” from 2005 to 2007 and served as chair of the “Athletic Band Task Force” from 2005 to 2009. In that capacity he led many new initiatives including the peer-reviewed marching band video performances at national and divisional conferences, the athletic band guidelines and sportsmanship statement, authorship of the original draft of the tenure guidelines for athletic band directors, and successfully lobbied for the CBDNA board to financially support the Athletic Band Symposium. He concluded his term as President of the Southern Division of CBDNA (encompassing eleven southern states) in 2015. In addition, he has served as president of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Band Directors Association and is currently on the board of the National Music Council. Dr. Spede also co-led the team that produced the first ever virtual CBDNA Intercollegiate Marching Band involving 1,600 performers from 200 college bands. It premiered on at the College Football Playoff National Championship game half-time and on YouTube on January 11, 2021.

He co-chaired the International Coalition Performing Arts Aerosol Study conducted at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Maryland that led an estimated 4.5 million music students back into the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Articles quoting him about return to music activities were published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Tampa Bay Times, and the Charleston Post and Courier among others.

Dr. Spede previously served on the faculties at The University of Texas at Austin (1998-1999) and the University of Florida in Gainesville (1989-1995) as Assistant Director of Bands. At Florida, he also taught studio percussion. As a freelance arranger, he has written extensively for high school and college marching bands (over 200 arrangements). His wind band arrangements and transcriptions are published by Peer Music, Schirmer, Boosey and Hawkes, and Carl Fischer, including “D.C. Fanfare” by John Corigliano, “Red Cape Tango” by Michael Daugherty, “Wedding Dances from Bandanna” by Daron Hagen, “Acrostic Song” by David Del Tredici, and “Millennium Canons” by Kevin Puts. He served as Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Wind Symphony, where he also helped to produce two of their recordings. His professional performing experience includes orchestra (principal percussion in the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Flint Symphony Orchestra), jazz (performing with such artists as Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Pete Christlieb, Dennis DiBlasio, Duffy Jackson, Dave Pell, Bobby Shew, Marvin Stamm, Bill Watrous, Ernie Watts and Phil Wilson), as well as at Walt Disney World.

Jack Yonce

Jack Yonce is a freelance music educator, conductor, adjudicator and musician, having retired in
May 2018 after twenty-one years as Director of Bands at Cheyenne Mountain High School and
twenty-eight years in public school music education. Prior to his tenure at Cheyenne Mountain,
he served for seven years as Instrumental Music Director at Gateway High School in Aurora.
Groups under Mr. Yonce’s direction have been selected to perform at the Colorado Music
Educator’s Association Annual Convention thirteen times, to the Bands of America National
Concert Band Festival three times, and have performed three times in Carnegie Hall and in the
Kennedy Center and Dallas Meyerson Center.

Mr. Yonce is a past president of the Colorado chapter of Phi Beta Mu and the Colorado
Bandmasters Association; he currently serves the C.B.A. as Chairman of Concert Band
Activities. He is a frequent judge and guest clinician in Colorado and beyond. Mr. Yonce has
been named a Cheyenne Mountain High School Teacher of the Year twice, a Gateway High
School “Unique Teacher of the Year”, a University of Colorado-Boulder College of Music
Outstanding Alumnus, and is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association. He
received a National Band Association “Citation of Excellence” in 2001 and has twice appeared
in School Band and Orchestra Magazine as the Colorado nominee of the “50 Directors Who
Make a Difference”. Mr. Yonce was the Phi Beta Mu "Most Outstanding Band Director" in
2017, was inducted into the Colorado Bandmasters Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Colorado
Music Educator’s Association Hall of Fame in 2020.

Mr. Yonce graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from the University of
Northern Colorado in 1989 and a Masters of Music in Wind Conducting from The University of
Colorado-Boulder in 2004. Jack resides in Black Forest, Colorado, with his wife Donna and
their two children.

Eric Colgrove

Eric Colgrove has served as a music educator, director, and fine arts administrator in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado and currently serves as the Director of Bands and Orchestra at Harding University in central Arkansas. At Harding, Mr. Colgrove directs the athletic bands and conducts the Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra. He also serves in several other roles, such as mentoring student teachers, coordinating the instrumental activities at Harding, and teaching courses on music education, marching methods, and conducting. He also co-conducts the White County Community Band, which has been selected to perform at the Arkansas Bandmaster’s Association Conference. 

A graduate of Harding University, Mr. Colgrove began his music education career at La Junta High School in Colorado and then moved to Colorado Springs to direct the bands at Widefield High School. His concert and jazz bands regularly earned superior ratings, and he led the Widefield High School Gladiator Marching Band to their first appearance at the state marching competition, ultimately bringing the ensemble into the top 10 in the state. Shortly after his appointment at Widefield, he also took over the Performing Arts Department Chair, which he served for 6 years before accepting a position at Oklahoma Christian University and finally at Harding University. Mr. Colgrove has earned a Master’s of Music with an emphasis in conducting at Colorado State University where he was provided the opportunity to conduct professional bands, choirs, and orchestras. He has also started his Ph.D. in Music Education with a Wind Conducting emphasis from the University of Oklahoma. 

During his career, Mr. Colgrove has had the opportunity to conduct honor bands and orchestras in Colorado and Oklahoma as well as serve on district and state committees working to improve music education and the use of technology in music assessment. As a trumpet musician, Mr. Colgrove has performed with community and semi-professional jazz ensembles and concert bands and has recorded with the country band The Salty Dogs on their 2007 album, Autoharpoon. He and his wife have three boys and enjoy kayaking, fishing, and hiking together.