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Department of Music

Rachel Rodriquez will be the new Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky beginning in the Fall 2009 academic year. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Rodriquez served on the faculties of Washburn University in Topeka, KS and Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Currently, Dr. Rodriquez performs with the internationally known Synergy Brass Quintet. As a member of SBQ, she has performed in over 200 concerts and clinics across the nation.

Rachel has extensive performance experience in brass ensembles. In her youth, Rachel was a member of the 1992 Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. In 1994, this organization left the marching fields for the concert stage and became a show called Brass Theater. This organization had successful touring summers with the renowned Canadian Brass. Rachel was a performing member of Brass Theater in 1995-96 and 1998. During this time she performed in the Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Interlochen, Blossom, Ravinia, and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. She also recorded a CD with the Canadian Brass (Brass Theater II) as well as a PBS special that was nationally aired in 1996. This organization went through another rebirth and became a show called Blast!. Rachel was a member of the original London Cast.

Rachel is an advocate of the Brass Band movement in North America as an educator and performer. She was a member of the solo cornet section of the award-winning Fountain City Brass Band, a traditional British-style brass band based in Kansas City, from 2006-2008. During this period the ensemble won 3 national titles and became one of the premiere brass bands in North America. Rachel is an award-winning cornet player recently winning the 2007 NABBA high brass technical solo competition, Best Cornet and Best Solo Performance Awards at the 2007 US Open Brass Band Championships, and 2008 National Trumpet Competition finalist (runner-up) and award winner of the 19th Century Cornet Competition in the Historical Division.

As an orchestral musician Rachel has performed with many regional orchestras in Texas, the Sunflower Music Festival Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony. Rachel has been featured as a trumpet/cornet artist and clinician with various orchestras, universities, high school bands, brass bands, and music conferences throughout the United States, England, and China. Rachel is a Conn-Selmer artist and performs exclusively on Bach Trumpets and the Conn Vintage One flugelhorn.

Rachel received her BM and MA degrees from West Texas A&M University and DMA degree in trumpet performance at the University of North Texas. Her former teachers include Dave Ritter, John Holt, and Keith Johnson.

Dr. Frank Restesan will be leaving his current position as band and orchestra director at Union College this summer to join the faculty of NKU this fall as Director of Orchestras.

A native of Romania, Restesan received a Bach Performance Diploma from the Bach Academy in Stuttgart, Germany in 1992 and undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Romanian Conservatory of music in 1995 and 1996. He completed a DMA in orchestral conducting at the University of Arizona 2007. Frank’s past teaching appointments include positions as orchestra director, strings and chamber music instructor at Atlantic Union College and Walla Walla College. Frank has appeared on prestigious stages around the world including recitals and concerts in Romania, Hungary, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Puerto Rico and the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York City.