Conductors

Dr. Paul Bhasin serves as Director of Orchestral Studies at Emory University where he holds the inaugural Donna & Marvin Schwartz Professorship in Music. In this capacity, he conducts the Emory University Symphony Orchestra, Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, and teaches conducting. Praised for his “crisp, clear” conducting and “highly expressive” interpretations, Bhasin’s career began when he won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition in 1998. He has led a variety of university, academic, and professional ensembles throughout North America and abroad including recent performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and throughout the People’s Republic of China. Bhasin’s most recent guest engagements include appearances with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (including live radio broadcasts of subscription concerts), American Youth Philharmonic, Williamsburg Symphony, New Jersey Youth Symphony, and at Interlochen Arts Academy. He has also led performances as a guest conductor with members of the Richmond Symphony, National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra. Ensembles under his direction have collaborated with soloists from the San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Richmond Symphony. He has led honor orchestras and bands (including at the All-State level) and served as a guest orchestral clinician throughout the United States, and presented at national conferences including the Midwest Orchestra Clinic and the National Music Teachers Association Conference.

An avid proponent of chamber music, Bhasin serves as Orchestra Conductor of the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival. He studied chamber music under the Bogomolny Award-winning American Brass Quintet (Aspen/Juilliard), the Naumberg Award-winning Empire Brass (Tanglewood), and has performed as a chamber musician on WFMT in Chicago, Detroit PBS-TV, at universities and festivals across the USA, and with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. His chamber music program development experience includes work with Chicago’s Music Integration Project, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Musicorps program, and residency development with both the Grammy-winning sextet eighth blackbird and Percussion Group Cincinnati. At Emory, with percussion faculty Scott Pollard and Mark Yancich, Bhasin founded the annual Emory Percussion Symposium whose chamber music programs feature artist faculty She-e Wu (Northwestern University), Jonathan Ovalle (University of Michigan), Joe Petrasek (Atlanta Symphony), and in 2019, Andres Forero (Broadway’s Hamilton). In 2016 with the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Bhasin initiated an annual chamber music component which has expanded to include string, wind, and percussion programming.

Bhasin is an accomplished orchestral trumpeter, having performed and recorded with the Virginia Symphony and Opera, Columbus (OH) Symphony, New World Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and at the music festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, and Ravinia. With these institutions he has performed under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, James DePriest, Leonard Slatkin, Andreas Delfs, and Gustav Meier and participated in the Aspen Conducting Academy orchestral program under David Zinman and Murry Sidlin. A committed trumpet teacher, his students have attended prestigious conservatories and music schools and have won first prize at major competitions including the National Trumpet Competition. He has been featured as a soloist on National Public Radio, Detroit PBS-TV, the International Computer Music Conference, at the Chautauqua Music Festival, and at the International Dvořák Festival (Prague, CZ). Bhasin has recorded as trumpeter and conductor for both the Centaur and Interscope record labels, and his 2015 Centaur Records release features the music of Brian Hulse and is performed by principal soloists from the Richmond and Virginia Symphonies. Two forthcoming conducting projects include a CD of concerti featuring Atlanta Symphony principal musicians (Centaur) with Emory musicians and a CD of brass/organ chamber works featuring performance faculty from Indiana University, the University of Georgia, Auburn University, Western Michigan University, and the ASO.

Bhasin’s transcriptions and arrangements are published by Balquhidder Music and have been performed and commissioned in the US and abroad by the St. Louis Opera Theater, Grand Tetons Festival Orchestra, La Unió Musical l’Horta de Sant Marcel·lí (Valencia, Spain) and the Washington Symphonic Brass (DC). In 2015, Bhasin composed and conducted the orchestral score to 9:23 Films’ motion picture, Hogtown (award winner at the Berlin, Los Angeles and Nashville International Black Film Festivals, and Cannes Festival Marché du Film). Michael Phillips of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the film was “…scored beautifully by composer Paul Bhasin…better than the entirety of the last few features I’ve seen, period.” In 2016, reviewer Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times named the film a “Critic’s Pick” and one of the “Top 10 Films of 2016.” Bhasin’s previous appointments include positions at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Triton College, and The College of William & Mary. He received his musical education from Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his principal teachers include Charles Geyer, Charles Daval, and Scott Teeple.

Contact Dr. Bhasin.

Dr. Nikk Pilato earned the Bachelor of Music Education, Master of Music Education, and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Music Education and Instrumental Conducting degrees from the Florida State University. His dissertation on the wind music of Joseph Schwantner, which includes a transcription for winds of the composer’s New Morning for the World, is published by Schott-Helicon Music. Pilato has served on the faculties of Mt. San Antonio College, the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music (California State University – Long Beach), and the University of Georgia. Additionally, he served as Director of Orchestras and Bands at J.P. Taravella High School and St. Thomas Aquinas High School in South Florida. In 2008 Pilato founded theWind Repertory Project, a comprehensive online database of wind literature. In the six years since its inception, the WRP has already amassed nearly 5,000 user-submitted entries, and has been visited nine million times.

Scott Stewart is on the Instrumental Music faculty at the Westminster School in Atlanta, Georgia. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Doctor of Music in Conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and a Master of Music from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. Stewart is a contributing research associate for volumes 2-9 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, as well as Teaching Music Through Performance of Marches, all published by GIA. He has also been published in The Instrumentalist and Music Educators Journal. Stewart is currently the Music Director of the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony.

John Lynch is the Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Wind Symphony at the Sydney Conservatorium in Sydney, Australia. Previous positions include similar roles at the University of Georgia, the University of Kansas, Northwestern University, and Emory University. Lynch has also held positions as Music Director of the Northshore Concert Band and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, and he is the founder of the KU/Kansas City Youth Wind Symphony and the Orange County Music Educators Wind Ensemble.

Alan Wagner joined the Southern Methodist University faculty in 1998. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in music education and conducting from Ohio University, and a Ph.D. in Music Education from Florida State University. Further studies in conducting have been completed with Frank Battisti, James Arrowood, Craig Kirchhoff, Elizabeth Green, Larry Rachleff, and Carl St. Clair. He taught instrumental music and jazz studies in the public schools of Ohio, New York and Florida for fourteen years.

Leo Saguiguit performs throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician. He currently performs with the Athens (Greece) Saxophone Quartet, the Chicago Saxophone Quartet, the Missouri Saxophone Quartet, and Trio Chymera. He previously held faculty positions at Northwestern University, Emory University, University of the South, Truett-McConnell College, and the Merit School of Music of Chicago. He earned degrees from Emory University as a student of Stutz Wimmer and Northwestern University, where he was a student of Frederick Hemke.

Steve Everett is Dean of the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Everett holds a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned master’s degrees in trumpet performance and music theory and a bachelor’s degree in music history and literature from Florida State University. Prior to joining UIC, Dean Everett was professor of music and assistant provost for academic affairs at Emory University where he taught composition, computer music, and directed the Music-Audio Research Center.

John Climer is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, where he oversees all aspects of the band program, guides the graduate wind conducting area, and serves as conductor of the Wind Ensemble. Before his appointment in Milwaukee, he served for fourteen years as Director of Bands at Ohio University. Climer earned degrees from the University of Akron, Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. His principal conducting teachers were Gary W. Hill and Terence Milligan. He has served on the faculties of Ohio University, the University of North Dakota, Ohio Northern University, and Emory University, where he also served as the conductor of the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony.

Jack Delaney is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the Meadows School of the Arts of Southern Methodist University, where he conducts the Meadows Wind Ensemble and teaches courses in conducting and wind literature. Under his guidance, the Meadows Wind Ensemble has established itself as one of the leading ensembles of its kind, as evidenced by performances at significant regional, national and international music festivals and conferences throughout the United States and Europe. Jack Delaney holds both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Arts degree from Ohio University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Bruce Dinkins was the first Director of Bands at Emory University. An educator for more than 30 years, Dinkins served as conductor and director of bands at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas. Dinkins attended the University of Tampa, the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Florida State University. Before joining the faculty at Bowie High School, he was a member of the faculties at Irmo High School in South Carolina, North Gwinnett High School, Emory University, Georgia State University, and Florida Community College in Jacksonville. Maestro Dinkins passed away in 2011. He is survived by his wife Hildy and their children, Jordan and Adam.