Arrangers
Anthony Rivera, D.M.A.
Founder & Arranger
Director of Bands, Santa Clara University
Dr. Anthony Rivera is the music director and conductor of the Santa Clara University Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, and Pep Band. His academic responsibilities include teaching applied saxophone, music theory, orchestration and arranging, and upper division music history courses.
An active guest conductor, clinician, presenter, and performer, Rivera has worked with composers and ensembles throughout the United States. He has presented at several Divisional College Band Directors National Association Conferences, and guest conducted the United States Coast Guard Band at the 2016 Eastern Division CBDNA Conference and The United States Air Force Band of the Golden West.
Professional engagements include transcriptions for chamber winds and ensembles. Rivera recently transcribed Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for Chamber Music Silicon Valley and conducted his transcription of Borodin’s Symphony No. 3 with the UMD Wind Orchestra. He conducted a semi-staged production of his transcription of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for wind instruments and vocal soloists with the UMD Wind Orchestra and Opera Studio in 2016. In December 2019, his transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers will be performed at The Midwest International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago and in April 2021, the Edmonton Symphony will premiere a new transcription of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
Prior to joining the faculty at SCU, Dr. Rivera earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting at the University of Maryland. He holds a Master of Music in wind conducting from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Central Florida.
Brian Coffill, D.M.A.
Arranger
Founding Director of Instrumental Ensembles, Randolph-Macon College
Dr. Brian A. Coffill is a conductor and pedagogue committed to the expansion of the instrumental repertoire, the performance of works by under-represented composers, and the development of twenty-first century performance experiences for musicians and audiences alike. He serves as the Founding Director of Instrumental Ensembles and Assistant Professor of Music at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where he created and conducts both the Randolph-Macon Ensemble and the R-MC Jazz Improvisation Laboratory. These two innovative, flexible-instrumentation ensembles reimagine the role of the large performing ensemble by inviting all instrumentalists (band, orchestra, and beyond) to creatively explore both historic and cutting edge works from across the musical spectrum, often transcribed and arranged by Dr. Coffill. The Randolph-Macon Ensemble is funded in part by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
In addition to conducting Randolph-Macon's curricular instrumental ensembles, Dr. Coffill teaches courses in conducting, music theory, orchestration, recording technology, and music education. He is also the founding director of the GreenSpring International Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra, a student and community ensemble in nearby Richmond. He maintains an active schedule as a conductor and clinician throughout the United States.
Prior to his arrival at Randolph-Macon, Dr. Coffill earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting at the University of Maryland, a Master of Music of Music degree in Conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Music and Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has held positions teaching high school bands and orchestras in the public schools of Arlington County, Virginia and Carroll County, Maryland.
Dr. Coffill’s diverse academic interests range from interpreting the works of iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives to investigating the many connections between the quintessential American institutions of Baseball and the Wind Band. He has presented his scholarly research on a variety of subjects across the United States, most notably the 31st Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, as well as several divisional and national College Band Directors National Association conferences.
Additional information can be found at briancoffill.com.