Your future, our focus
The Northwest College Music Department will host more than 200 of the best high school music students from the Big Horn Basin for the 2019 North Big Horn Basin District Music Clinic.
Choir and band students spend two days preparing music that will be presented at a concert Saturday, Nov. 23, at 2:30 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Auditorium.
This year’s festival features two notable faculty members from NWC. Guest clinicians include NWC Director of Bands Dr. Zach Paris and NWC Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Lara Moline.
As the Director of Bands and Percussion Studies at Northwest, Paris directs Jazz Ensemble I, Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Jazz Combo and also teaches Music History and Applied Percussion Lessons. Before coming to NWC, he taught courses at Iowa Western Community College, Central Arizona College, Arizona Christian University, the University of Nebraska and Arizona State University.
Given his robust career in both education and performance, Paris is a percussionist who specializes in a wide range of music including jazz, Latin, pop, country, rock, and heavy metal drum set, as well as marching percussion, classical percussion, African percussion, multi-percussion and four-mallet marimba.
In these areas, he’s won a variety of competitions including the Nebraska Guitar Center Drum-Off finals, the Victoria Drum Festival Solo Competition, the Heartland Marimba Festival Solo Competition, the Scottsdale Guitar Center Drum-Off, the Paul Seidel Drumming Competition and the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition. Paris has also been recognized as a winner of two DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards in the Graduate Blues/Pop/Rock Soloist category.
Paris is an original founder of Righteous Vendetta and toured the country, performing in more than 35 states.
He holds associate degrees in music education, music performance and music technology from NWC, a bachelor’s in music education from the University of Wyoming and a master’s degree in percussion performance from the University of Nebraska. He recently completed his doctorate in percussion performance from Arizona State University.
Throughout her musical career, Moline has performed in Downbeat award-winning ensembles such as Western Michigan University’s Gold Company and University of Northern Colorado’s Northern Colorado Voices and Vocal Lab. She’s also performed with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Roomful of Teeth, Darmon Meader, Gary Burton, the Chicago Pops Orchestra and with Charice Pempengco on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
She’s served as a guest adjudicator for music festivals in Wyoming from 2014-2017, as a guest conductor of the Wyoming Southwest High School Honor Choir in 2016 and choral conductor of the Yellowstone Summer Music Camp in 2018.
Currently, Moline conducts traditional and vocal jazz choirs, teaching applied voice lessons in both classical and jazz, plus music appreciation.
A graduate of the University of Wyoming, she earned her bachelor’s degree in music education with a vocal emphasis. Moline continued her studies with the late Dr. Stephen Zegree at Western Michigan University, receiving a master’s in vocal performance/jazz studies in 2009.
Most recently, she graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of Northern Colorado in choral conducting with an emphasis in vocal jazz and music history. Her dissertation, “Vocal Jazz in the Choral Classroom: A Pedagogical Study,” discusses the need for the vocal jazz style within the choral classroom, introduces transitional elements that are accessible to choral directors of any level and involves an observational curriculum study.
To learn more about District Music Clinic, visit https://nwc.edu/sites/music/festivals/district-music-clinic.html.
The Nov. 23 concert is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Paris at Zach.Paris@nwc.edu or 307-754-6427.
