enhancing individuals, families
& communities through the arts
& communities through the arts
Meet the Clinicians
Our 2026 Clinicians
Click & Hover over the images for more details on each clinician.
Woodwinds
Brass & Percussion
Kirt Saville
Dr. Saville is an Emeritus faculty of the BYU School of Music where he served from 2008-2021 as Associate Director of Bands, Professor of Music Education and five years as the Director of the BYU School of Music. Dr. Saville began his career teaching in the public schools for nine years, where he enjoyed a distinguished career in Utah as Director of Bands at Sky View High School and Lehi High School. Dr. Saville holds a Doctor of Education degree from Utah State University, a Master of Music degree in Woodwind Performance from North Texas State University in multiple woodwinds, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Brigham Young University. Dr. Saville is the conductor of the Utah Premiere Brass Band (since 2010) and has been an invited guest conductor, clinician, and presenter in the United States, the People’s Republic of China (Beijing and Tianjin), and Cochabamba, Bolivia. In 2004, Dr. Saville was invited to the People’s Republic of China to serve as the conductor for the band and orchestra programs at the University of Tianjin. He returned to China to conduct, perform, and teach in the People’s Republic of China in 2007, 2010, and 2011. Dr. Saville’s 45+ years as a music educator has confirmed the power of music to transform, inspire and lift individuals, groups and communities. He believes that music gives voice and provides access to our deepest emotional lives where beauty, sorrows, remembrances, and joy reside. He is grateful for a career that has allowed him to share and to continually experience the beauty and power of music.
Chris Ramos
Dr. Christopher Ramos is currently serving as Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He conducts the UVU Wind Symphony and directs instrumental studies within the music education area. He additionally teaches courses in conducting, music education, and music appreciation. He received the DMA in instrumental conducting at The Hartt School, studying with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming. While at Hartt, he assisted in conducting Hartt's instrumental performing ensembles and the Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, and as part of the adjunct faculty he taught courses for graduates and undergraduates in conducting, brass methods, diversity and belonging, jazz pedagogy, and in the core music theory sequence. Before Hartt, Chris served as a band director at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia where he taught Western classical and jazz music in performing and theory courses across grades 6-12, and his students were invited to perform in international festivals across Southeast Asia. He is also an active scholar working at the intersection of musicology, wind band studies, and music education with his latest publications forthcoming in the Music Educators Journal (NAfME) and the Utah Music Educators Journal (UMEA). In 2022 he received the Goldstein Award from the University of Hartford, and in 2016 he received the Joanne Kealinohomoku Prize from the Society of Ethnomusicology Southwest for his scholarship. He holds additional degrees from the University of New Mexico where he studied with Eric Rombach-Kendall, and from East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M University-Commerce) where he studied with Phillip Clements (conducting), Luis Sanchez (piano), and Mike Morrow (horn). In addition to his conducting, researching, and teaching, he actively performs both on the French horn and at the keyboard. He has produced, performed, and conducted on records for the Naxos, Summit, and Parma record labels, and he has performed in and conducted ensembles in concert halls, stages, forests, and patios across the United States and Asia. An avid supporter of new music, he has been part of numerous commissioning projects for solo horn, chamber ensembles, and wind ensembles. He is a second-place winner in The American Prize for conducting and in 2025-27 he holds the Harry Begian Conductor Scholar Award at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He is an active member in the College Band Directors National Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Bandmasters Association, National Band Association, American Musicological Society, and National Association for Music Education, and is an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity.
Laurisa Cope
Laurisa Ward Cope, NCTM, holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University, where she studied with Dr. Irene Peery-Fox and Robert Smith. In addition to her classical training, she pursued jazz studies with Steve Erickson, Craig Larson, Dan Waldis, Steve Call, and Ray Smith, and performed as a member of Synthesis, BYU’s premier jazz ensemble. Her performances have taken her to Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and she has appeared as soloist with the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra. Laurisa currently serves as Assistant Director of the Piano Preparatory Program and as adjunct faculty at Weber State University. She is a recipient of the national D. H. Baldwin Fellowship for teaching excellence and the Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow Award. Her students have earned top honors in local, state, and national competitions. An active adjudicator, Laurisa has served as an adjudicator for competitions throughout Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, and Wyoming. She has also held numerous leadership positions within the Utah Music Teachers Association, including serving as UMTA President from 2018–2020. A sought-after clinician and presenter, Laurisa has given more than fifty professional presentations and has twice been invited as a guest master class presenter for the UMTA State Conference. Laurisa and her husband, Eldon, are the parents of four children.
Gabriel Gordon
Gabriel Gordon, violinist, conductor, composer, and arranger, has been performing professionally for over 40 years. Gabriel has enjoyed a career conducting across the United States, Australia, and Europe. Mr. Gordon has conducted the Santa Fe Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and at Santa Fe Opera. He placed second in the Denver Philharmonic International Conducting Competition, and won the International Conductor’s Workshop and Competition in Atlanta. In 2001, Gabriel produced and conducted “The Concert for Humanity” in reaction to the events of 9/11 with his ensemble The Chamber Orchestra at Tower Hill. The performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony raised $30,000 for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Since 2019, Gabriel has served as a cover and guest conductor for Ballet West conducting performances of The Nutcracker, Rodeo, and Les Noces, Dracula, and Stars and Stripes. Last season he made his debut at Oklahoma City Ballet with their production of Jorden Morris’s Peter Pan and. also made his Gwinnett Symphony debut as the winner of The International Conductor’s Workshop and Competition. This season, he made his Orlando Ballet debut with Christopher Stowell’s Swan Lake, and conducted Ballet 5:8’s Beyond The Nutcracker. Gabriel conducts The New American Philharmonic and is a frequent guest conductor with Chamber Orchestra Ogden and The Nova Chamber series with whom he conducted two world premiers last season by Jessica Rudman and Laura Kaminsky. Gabriel is also the Orchestra Director at Syracuse Arts Academy, and is a board member of The Davis Arts Council. As a violinist, Gabriel has performed with many orchestras such as the American Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Mr. Gordon is a founding member of the Daponte String Quartet and has performed chamber music across the country. In 2015, Mr. Gordon founded NEXT Ensemble and has had his compositions and arrangements premiered there. Gabriel is the Concertmaster of Chamber Orchestra Ogden and also freelances in the Salt Lake City area, performing with many ensembles including Ballet West. Gabriel also has a Youtube channel called Gabriel Gordon: The Art of Listening. In 2022 he was invited by the Utah Jazz to perform his arrangement of "The State Anthem of Ukraine”, the first time a foreign national anthem has ever been played before a game. The event was covered by articles in The Independent, Newsweek, People Magazine, and the local ABC, Fox, and NBC affiliates in Utah.
Whitney Hamblin
Dr. Whitney Hamblin is an experienced teacher and a diverse performer. She earned a BMA in vocal performance from BYU-Idaho, a MM in voice from Brigham Young University, and DM in voice from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She earned a certificate in Vocology from Indiana University and has a specific passion for vocal pedagogy. Her knowledge of voice science and integration of instrument-specific training exercises in her studio has helped her students meet their vocal goals. Further teaching and research interests include mindful voice technique, performance psychology, training the developing voice, and the benefit of positive performance experience. Whitney has taught voice for 12 years in a private studio, group voice, and classroom setting. She taught as an adjunct professor of voice at BYU, as an Associate Instructor of voice at Indiana University, as a voice instructor at Stafford Music Academy in Bloomington, IN, and as a K-12 music teacher in the public school system of Montana. Performing is a joyful experience for Ms. Hamblin! Her most memorable operatic performances include The Countess from The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte, Rosalinde from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. As a recitalist, she dedicates her programs to Spanish Art Song from Europe and Latin America, Modern Art Song set to the poetry of Sara Teasdale, and the Songs of Female Composers through the ages. She loves performing musicals, and her most recent roles consist of Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Witch from Into the Woods, and Millie from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Although much of her time is spent in the realm of classical, choral and musical theater singing, her first love is country music. You will often find her with her guitar performing alongside family members at local gigs. She cherishes the opportunity to go back to her roots in a country western band created by her parents. Whitney believes beautiful, healthy singing can and should be applied to all genres. Her primary aim as an instructor and performer is vocal health and efficient voice usage. She knows as her students apply correct principles of singing, they will find freedom and joy as individual artists.