Guest Artist
Composer

John Mackey (he/him) has written for orchestras (Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony), theater (Dallas Theater Center), and extensively for dance (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Parsons Dance Company, New York City Ballet), but the majority of his work for the past decade has been for wind ensembles (the fancy name for concert bands), and his band catalog now receives annual performances numbering in the thousands.

Recent commissions include works for the BBC Singers, the Dallas Wind Symphony, military, high school, middle school, and university bands across America and Japan, and concertos for Joseph Alessi (principal trombone, New York Philharmonic), Christopher Martin (principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic), and Julian Bliss (international clarinet soloist). In 2014, he became the youngest composer ever inducted into the American Bandmasters Association. In 2018, he received the Wladimir & Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He resides in San Francisco, California, with his spouse, A. E. Jaques, a philosopher who works on the ethics of artificial intelligence for MIT, and also titles all of his pieces; and their cats, Noodle and Bloop.

Conductor, Tri-State Wind Symphony
Professor of Music
Associate Director of Bands & Director of Athletic Bands
Austin Peay State University

John Schnettler has been a music educator and conductor at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels in the public schools of Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Currently, he is a Professor of Music at Austin Peay State University, where he is the director of the “Governors Own” Marching Band (GOMB), Symphonic Band, Basketball Pep Band, and teaches courses in instrumental music education.

Since joining the APSU faculty in 2010, Prof. Schnettler has transformed the GOMB into one of the most spirited and energized group of students on campus. The GOMB is regularly invited to perform in exhibitions, notably the Bands of America Super Regional in St. Louis, Missouri, KMEA AAAA Regionals, Tennessee’s Division 1-2 State Championships, and regularly hosting a Bands of America regional at APSU.

Before coming to APSU, Mr. Schnettler was on the faculty of the University of South Florida, where he served in various capacities, including Interim Associate Director of Bands. He was also a graduate assistant at the University of Georgia, where he instructed the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band. For the first seven years of his career, he was a high school band director in Florida and Georgia, achieving the school’s first Superior ratings for concert festival at two different institutions.

Prof. Schnettler holds the degrees of Master of Music in Conducting, and Master of Arts in Music Education from the University of South Florida, as well as Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Central Florida.

Prof. Schnettler is an active adjudicator, guest conductor, and honor band clinician throughout the Southeast. He has been published multiple times in the popular series “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band”, and has presented at several state music education conferences, in-service clinics, and the national CBDNA Athletic Band conference. Mr. Schnettler has been involved with the Drum & Bugle Corps activity as a performing member, instructor, and consultant, and has performed in a variety of jazz, chamber, and wind bands.

Mr. Schnettler lives in Clarksville, TN with his wife Brandy, a Biologist and Science Educator, and their daughters, Olivia and Phoebe. He is particularly proud of his former students teaching and inspiring young people in band rooms across the Southeast.

Conductor, Tri-State Wind Orchestra
Director of Bands
Northern Kentucky University

Nikk Pilato serves as Director of Bands at Northern Kentucky University, where he conducts the wind ensembles and teaches courses in the Music Education curriculum, contributing to the University’s mission through research, service, and scholarly and creative endeavours. Prior to his appointment at NKU he served on the faculty of Indiana State University, and has held similar positions in the states of Georgia and California. Nikk earned the Bachelor of Music Education, a Master of Music Education, and a Ph.D. in Conducting and Music Education from the Florida State University College of Music in Tallahassee, Florida, where his primary teachers were Richard Clary, Jim Croft, Patrick Dunnigan, and Clifford Madsen.

In 2008 Nikk created and developed the Wind Repertory Project (www.windrep.org), a comprehensive online database of wind band literature expanded by user contributions, much like Wikipedia. The database includes detailed information on works for wind band, such as instrumentation, program notes, errata, study resources, articles, category listings, and more. In the fifteen years since its inception, the WRP has amassed nearly 24,000 entries, and has been visited forty million times.

Nikk maintains a busy profile as a guest conductor, lecturer, clinician, adjudicator, and arranger. He holds memberships in CBDNA (College Band Directors National Association), CMS (the College Music Society), the Conductor’s Guild, NAfME (National Association for Music Education), NBA (National Band Association), WASBE (World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles), and the honor society Pi Kappa Lambda, and is an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi.