Wesleyan Honors Bands

The 2025 Nebraska Wesleyan University Honors Bands will bring together students from across the region to form two bands that will rehearse and perform with SM论坛鈥檚 band director, Joshua Roach, DMA and guest conductor, Jon Noworyta, DMA. One band will be an audition-based group, and the other will be nomination-based. Students in both groups will rehearse and perform with Noworyta and Roach.

Selected students are responsible for completing a registration form, including a $50 participation fee (which covers music expenses, three meals, and a t-shirt). Students are expected to prepare the music in advance of the festival.

Audition and nomination submissions will be accepted until the end of Friday, December 6, 2024.

Audition-based 鈥淲ind Ensemble鈥�

Students who wish to participate in this band should submit representative audio or video files of their playing.

• What to submit: Students can use any audition package of material (scales and etudes) they鈥檝e recently created for other honor ensembles, all-state band/orchestra or solo competitions. If no recent material exists and a student needs guidance for repertoire, they are encouraged to ask for guidance from their school director.
• Where to submit:
  • Students submitting materials themselves should use the student wind ensemble audition submission form.
  • Directors submitting audition materials for multiple students, please follow the instructions on the director nominations form (use one form to submit Wind Ensemble auditions and Symphonic Band nominations).

Nomination-based 鈥淪ymphonic Band鈥�

We encourage teachers to nominate as many students as they desire.

• Directors should use the director nominations form (use one form to submit Wind Ensemble auditions and Symphonic Band nominations). 
• Individuals submitting single-nominations should use the symphonic band single nomination form. 

Our Conductors

Jon Noworyta is the associate professor of music and director of bands, instrumental activities and educational outreach at the University of Indianapolis. There, he administers all aspects of the woodwind, brass and percussion area, teaches conducting and courses in music education, and conducts the symphonic wind ensemble, pep band, and opera. A versatile conductor who is equally comfortable with orchestras as well as wind or brass groups, Noworyta is the director of the Crossroads Brass Band of Indianapolis, IN, the artistic director of the Queen City Freedom Band of Cincinnati and the former assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Noworyta is a 21-year veteran public school music educator. Ensembles under his direction have given notable local, state, national and international performances, the most significant being Carnegie Hall in 2009, the 2010 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and the 2012 Music for All National Festival. Noworyta has led groups at such legendary venues as Chicago's Symphony Center, the Kennedy Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Carnegie Hall.

Professionally, Noworyta has collaborated with members of the Buffalo and Dayton philharmonics, the Elgin, Knoxville and Indianapolis symphonies, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. Noworyta has accompanied world-renowned piano soloist James Tocco in concerti by George Gershwin and David Maslanka.

Noworyta鈥檚 professional affiliations have included the NAFME, CBDNA, WASBE, NABBA, NBA, Pride Bands Alliance, GLSEN, the Conductors Guild and the Indiana, Illinois, New York (NYSSMA) and Ohio Music Educators Associations. He currently is an editor for the Indiana Music Educators Association publication INfORM, sits on the Committee for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion for the North American Brass Band Association and is listed in the Who's Who in America Educator's Edition.

A Western New York native, Noworyta holds degrees from Baldwin-Wallace University (BME), Northwestern University (MM) and the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati (DMA). Additional study at the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, has given Noworyta the opportunity to work with the major conducting pedagogues in the field today. 

Joshua Roach is director of instrumental activities at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He has also taught at Peru State College, the Crane School of Music in New York, the College of New Jersey, California Lutheran University and Southwestern Michigan College. Before teaching full-time in higher education, Roach lived in Los Angeles, where he was the music director of the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and instrumental coach for Diamond Bar High School. For 11 years, he worked with middle school and high school students at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program. From 2015-17, he also taught trumpet for the Phantom Regiment drum and bugle corps.

Schedule

Thursday February 13

• 1 p.m. SM论坛 Music Scholarship auditions (optional for seniors considering SM论坛) begin
• 2:30pm Check-in begins
• 4 p.m. Rehearsals and activities begin
• 6:15/6:45 p.m. Pizza party (included)
• 9:15 p.m. Adjourn

Friday February 14

• 9 a.m. Rehearsals and activities begin (lunch included)
• 5:30 p.m. Adjourn

Saturday February 15

• 9:15 a.m. Rehearsals and activities begin (brunch included)
• 2:30 p.m. Performance
• 3:45 p.m. Farewell

Repertoire

To be announced.