We love Festival!
TIA is the only local club in the area for the National Federation of Music Clubs, the largest non-profit organization in America promoting and supporting American music performers and music education.
Festival is a lot of fun. In short, Festival is an adjudicated event/performance opportunity for music students to play or sing their music in front of an audience of one. That audience of one is a professional musician-educator with extensive experience in music that will evaluate the student carefully in all areas of their instrument, technic, and musical execution.
Our annual event will be held this year at our studio in Olympia on March 25th, and students are gour oing to be amazing and have such a great time! Local music students and teachers, Festival is not limited to TIA! If you would love to have your sudents participate, and we would love to have them, contact us todaay! We have some great local leadership and professional musicians/educators from the community serving as adjudicators!
Rob Comer, an educated and seasoned musician with over twenty years of experience as a guitarist, soloist, and band leader in the nation’s premier United States Army Band. Rob holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees and even taught for TIA in our beginning stages. Rob will be adjudicating and providing helpful, encouraging, and constructive feedback to our guitarists, strings, percussion, and wind students. We are excited to have him back for the fourth year in a row!
Dan Colgan is a longtime friend of TIA, and a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. He has served as the Organist and Director of Music at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Olympia, WA since November of 2010. He is also the voice instructor at Centralia College, the Dean of the Olympia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the director of the men’s ensemble, “Forza” of the Olympia Youth Chorus. Dan served as the assistant director of the Olympia Choral Society from 2012-2018. Our students always appreciate Dan’s personal, encouraging, and helpful musical expertise.
Cameron May is the Music Director Student Orchestrates of Greater Olympia and the South Puget Sound Community College Symphony Orchestra at South Puget Sound Community College. Prior to 2022, Cameron was a full-time music professor at SPSCC, where, in addition to conducting the orchestra, he taught courses in college and career success, ear training, music fundamentals, and music theory, served as interim director of the SPSCC Jazz Band, and helped to build and launch the Associate in Music direct transfer degree.
Cameron holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He continues to maintain his violin playing through his position as Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra. When not conducting, teaching, or playing violin.
Jessica Louise Barnes will be back to adjudicate voice. Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal music and served as a TIA vocal faculty member for a few years and now serves as the elementary music teacher at Evergreen Christian, and she also teaches a roster of private students out of her home. Jessica has worked with both children and adults in developing their ability to sing. She taught for several years at the elementary and high school levels, working with students on music theory basics, early instrumental skills, both in percussion and melodic instruments, and of course in vocal work as well. Jessica will be adjudicating voice again and we are excited to have her back for the fourth year in a row!
Here’s some candid photos from Festival 2022!
