The Wright State University Honor Band Festival is an event hosted at Wright State University that includes two high school concert bands, a middle school concert band, a high school jazz band, and a day of professional development for band directors. Participating students will work with two conductors, play in side-by-side rehearsals with Wright State music faculty and music majors, attend masterclasses given by Wright State faculty, and perform a concert on the Saturday of the festival.
The professional development day will include six hours of workshops and clinics given by the honor band conductors and Wright State faculty.
The weekend also includes an opportunity for participating high school seniors to audition for acceptance into the Wright State School of Fine and Performing Arts. In addition, a music scholarship will be awarded to one auditioning senior at the Saturday concert.
Dr. Rachel J. Maxwell, DMA, is a middle school band director, conductor, and clinician with more than 30 years of experience in instrumental music education. She serves as Director of Bands at Traughber Junior High School (Oswego CUSD 308, Illinois), where she has led a comprehensive, multi-tiered middle school band program since 1995. Dr. Maxwell’s work with middle school ensembles emphasizes inclusive access, musical growth, and age-appropriate artistry.
Under her direction, Traughber JHS ensembles have been invited to perform at the Music For All National Festival, The Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic (multiple-year demonstration ensemble), the University of Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival, the Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference, as well as the Prairie State Middle School Concert Band Festival, a Music for All regional affiliate festival that she founded and manages. Her work with young bands includes the commissioning and world-premiere performances of wind works by John Mackey, Julie Giroux, Omar Thomas, David Biedenbender, Scott McAllister, Donald Grantham, Harrison Collins, and JaRod Hall. Dr. Maxwell is a frequent All-State and honor band conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, and her research and professional presentations focus on pedagogical creativity, ambiguity tolerance, and student-centered rehearsal practices.
Dr. Myra Rhoden serves on the faculty at the University of West Georgia where she conducts the UWG Symphonic Band and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Music Education. As the founder of Athena Music and Leadership, Rhoden has created programs and opportunities to empower young women through music while equipping them with lifelong leadership skills that can be used in any profession.
Drawing on over thirty years of experience as a high school band director, Rhoden frequently serves as a guest conductor for all-state, regional, and university honor bands and is honored to have presented sessions at The Midwest Clinic, the Bands of America Summer Symposium, national, state and regional conferences, and for school systems and professional development clinics throughout North America. Her concert bands have performed at national and international venues while her marching bands have won numerous Grand Championships and earned finalist positions at Bands of America Regional and Super Regional competitions.
A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Rhoden has received national recognition for her contributions to music education including having the honor of being elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, and the John Philip Sousa Foundation Legion of Honor. She has been awarded the Tau Beta Sigma Outstanding Service to Music Award, the Women Band Directors International Golden Rose Award, the 2018 Band Director of the Year from the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), multiple National Band Association (NBA) Citations of Excellence, and has been named STAR Teacher and Teacher of the Year. She had the distinct pleasure of being a guest conductor for the United States Air Force Band and the United States Army Field Band of Washington, D. C. She now serves on the NBA Board of Directors and is a Conn Selmer Educational Clinician.
In addition to conducting and teaching, Rhoden is the author of Through My Music: Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders (GIA Publications), as well as a contributor to The North American Wind Symphony: Inspiring a Renaissance in North American Music, Wind Band and Instrumental Music Education by Mark Camphouse.
Dr. Rhoden received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi where she studied with Dr. Thomas Fraschillo. She received her Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Alabama.
Ronda Stammen recently retired following a distinguished 32-year career in music education, culminating in her recognition as the 2026 Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) Music Educator of the Year. Returning to Wright State University as a guest conductor for the Honors Band holds special significance for Mrs. Stammen, as she is a proud December 1993 graduate of the WSU Music Education program. Since graduation Ronda has taught band grades 5-12 and other music education classes.
Throughout her extensive career, Mrs. Stammen dedicated herself to cultivating musical excellence across Ohio. She spent the final twelve years of her career at Versailles Exempted Village Schools, following successful tenures at Russia Local Schools, Coldwater Exempted Village Schools, St. Marys City Schools along with Parkway Local Schools. Under her baton, her ensembles earned countless OMEA awards, consistently achieving State Superior ratings in both Concert and Marching band events. Her performing groups have traveled and performed in multiple states earning recognition and honor ensemble awards. Other ensembles she has directed include Jazz, Pep Band, Steel Drum, Christmas Ensembles, area Clarinet choirs and many more. Her education goal has always been to expose students to many different genres of music and to allow everyone the experience to learn and enjoy the performing arts.
An active leader and advocate for the arts, Mrs. Stammen has served as OMEA District XI President and contributed to numerous other OMEA committees. Her commitment to fostering a lifelong love of music extends well beyond the scholastic classroom; she is the founder and current director of the Versailles Area Community Band.
Mrs. Stammen is a graduate of Celina High School and holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum to accompany her bachelor's degree from Wright State. In her retirement, she and her husband, Bob, cherish spending time with their family, and enjoy traveling.
Shawn Maxwell is a saxophonist, woodwind specialist, composer, and bandleader whose career spans more than two decades of creative work on the Chicago music scene and extensive touring throughout the United States. From his formative years in the school music programs of Joliet, Illinois, through his undergraduate studies in music at Millikin University, Maxwell has cultivated a distinctive artistic voice rooted in jazz traditions while fearlessly exploring new sonic territories. As DownBeat publisher Frank Alkyer observes, “This is bold music. Maxwell isn’t afraid to try out new ideas and take chances.”
Maxwell released his first album of original compositions in 2005 and will release his fourteenth, Frenetic Domain, in 2026. Across this body of work, he has developed a signature approach to composition and arrangement that integrates influences from jazz, rock, funk, hip hop, R&B, and classical music. Critics have drawn comparisons to Frank Zappa, Philip Glass, the Canterbury progressive-rock movement, and even J.S. Bach—yet, as Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich succinctly stated, “Nobody writes like this.” His music is characterized by “jaunty, angular melodies, deceptive time signatures, and metronomic rhythm arrangements—sound as if inhabited by the ghost of Zappa,” according to Neil Tesser in the liner notes to Alliance.
Maxwell’s discography has earned national and international recognition, including two DownBeat Magazine “Best Albums of the Year” honors and four “Editor’s Picks.” His recordings have been reviewed in The Chicago Tribune, JazzTimes, Cadence, All About Jazz, and numerous other publications, and have reached the Top 50 on both the JazzWeek and College Music Journal jazz charts. His projects include a range of ensembles, from small-group quartets and quintets—most notably Shawn Maxwell’s New Tomorrow—to the ten-piece ensemble Shawn Maxwell’s Alliance. His 2021 release, Expectation & Experience (Jazzline/Delta), featured remote collaborations with twenty-nine musicians that was praised by Chicago Jazz Magazine for its “superlative musicianship” and increasingly refined compositional clarity.
Described as “a spirited free-thinker and committed non-conformist” (Bill Milkowski, Millstream album notes), Maxwell continues to push the boundaries of modern jazz composition. In addition to his work as a performer and recording artist, he is an active clinician, presenting master classes and guest appearances nationwide as a Vandoren and Conn-Selmer artist. His educational work is noted for its blend of technical depth, creative exploration, and accessible pedagogy, engaging students from elementary through collegiate levels.
More information on his music and upcoming projects can be found at www.shawnmaxwell.com.
Andrew Peoples, a native of Ocala, Florida, is a passionate educator, conductor, and trombonist based in Cincinnati, Ohio. He currently serves as the Director of Jazz Ensembles at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. Under his direction, the Walnut Hills Jazz Ensemble has been selected to perform at the prestigious Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA) State Conference and the Essentially Ellington Regional Festival, and it regularly performs with the highly acclaimed Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.
Enthusiastic about advancing the jazz art form and supporting contemporary composers, Peoples regularly commissions new music for Walnut Hills and collaborates with leading jazz artists, including Edgar Byars, Angie Coyle, Justin Dawson, Marc Fields, Jennifer Grantham, Eric Lechleiter, Jim Leslie, Spencer Merk, Ben Tweedt, and Myles Twitty.
In addition to his work at Walnut Hills High School, Andrew has spent more than twenty years as a freelance trombonist while operating a large private studio in the Mason, Milford, and Wyoming school districts. In this capacity, he has been a member of the Cincinnati Brass Quintet, the Seven Hills Brass Ensemble, and the Anonymous Trombone Quartet. As an orchestral trombonist, Andrew has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Kentucky Symphony, and the Richmond Symphony.
He holds a Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and a Master of Music in Trombone Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers include Bobby Adams (Stetson University), Susan Bass (Mason Middle School), Avious Jackson (William Mason High School), Lee Rogers (Washington National Opera), David Schmidt (Stetson University), Marie Speziale (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra), and Rodney Winther (University of Cincinnati).
Student Nomination Form
Music Directors and Private Teachers may nominate up to 8 students for each of the bands indicated below. The deadline for nominations is Monday, December 7, 2026.
Selected students must audition for band placement by preparing a 1-2 minute video of a self-chosen solo/etude/band piece that demonstrates both technical and lyrical styles (percussion display both snare drum and keyboard percussion). This video must be uploaded to the link shown below by the deadline, Tuesday, January 12, 2027. Students will be notified of their band placement shortly after. Those who do not submit a video or miss the deadline may be placed in the second ensemble.
Jazz Ensembles
Selected students must audition for band placement by preparing a 2-3 minute video performing the provided excerpts. The acceptance email will include specific excerpts for your instrument and further instructions. Students will be able to demonstrate different styles, improvisation, and lead playing ability. This video must be uploaded to the link shown below by the deadline, Tuesday, January 12, 2027. Students will be notified of their band placement shortly after.
Any hotel reservations must be made by the director or student’s guardians. Preferred Hotels offering discount rates for February 11–13 during the Festival:
Tru Hotel by Hilton: Rate: $104 per night, plus tax; includes breakfast
