Contact Voices of the Ancients Staff

About

Dr. Herb currently serves as Professor of Music Education and as the Director of the Graduate Music Education program at Southern Utah University. An instrumental specialist with over 30 years of experience, his background includes ten years as a middle school/high school band director, and more than fifteen years of directing college level ensembles. Since arriving at SUU, Dr. Herb has upgraded the Bachelor of Music Education degree and led the design and implementation of its first graduate music program, the Master of Music Education. He also is the advisor of the Collegiate NAfME club at SUU, where he organizes the Professional Workshop Series. Dr. Herb is also a published author of music education books, including his Teaching Improvisation ... in Concert Band?!? and is published in multiple volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance In Band series. He has also been regularly publishing historical jazz research articles based on the activities of Maynard Ferguson.

As an active performing saxophonist, Dr. Herb is equally at home in classical and jazz idioms. Dr. Herb is also the Founder/Director of The Jazz Alliance of Cedar City, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing jazz performances to Cedar City. This organization runs the Jazz @ Off The Cuff concert series which produces a monthly JAZZcast, with thousands of Facebook viewers each month. He is also a co-founder of the SUU Faculty Jazz Group called Kind Of Blue. His classical saxophone skills won him membership in two AFM concert organizations and he has been a concert soloist with multiple symphony orchestras. In the local Cedar City area, Dr. Herb can be found regularly performing with Mr. C.P.’s Jazz Band, Cedar Jazz Dectet, The Shawn Owens Project, and The Southern Utah Rebel Jazz Band.

About

Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Athletic Bands/Trumpet

Mr. David D. Torres serves as Assistant Professor, Director of Athletic Bands/Trumpet at Southern Utah University. Mr. Torres teaches applied trumpet lessons and conducts the Symphonic Band, Brass Choir, and directs the Thunderbird Marching Band & Sound Machine Basketball Bands. Founded in 2022, the Thunderbird Marching Band has become a staple in the region for its innovative show design and high energy performances, and is known as “The Sound of Southern Utah!” SUU's Athletic Bands and Independent Winter Guard (SUUI) have performed throughout the region and nationally, including UMEA State Championships, Marching Invitationals, NCAA March Madness, The WAC Tournament in Las Vegas, and select WGI regionals. As trumpet teacher, SUU's students have received invitations to multiple International Trumpet Guild Conferences and were recently honored as a quarterfinalist at the 2024 National Trumpet Competition.

A renowned performer, educator, and arranger, Mr.Torres enjoyed a multifaceted career as a professional musician prior to his teaching appointments. Broadway & Touring credits include; Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast”, "Drowsy Chaperone", and the “Producers” among others. In addition, Torres performed for 5 years as trumpet soloist with the Tony award-winning production “Blast!” and “BLAST II MIX”, and was one of the last trumpet/conductors to lead the live band for the famed Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth”. Torres has performed with such artists as Mariah Carey, Tito Rojas "El Gallo", Rey Sepulveda, Wycliffe Gordon, Wayne Bergeron, Bob Florence, Frederick Fennell, John Clayton, Michael Philip Mossman, and many more. Originally from Florida, Torres got his start playing trumpet at Walt Disney World, and is a proud Alumni of the Disneyland All-American College Band. Before moving to Utah, Mr. Torres was Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Director of Athletic Bands at Southern Arkansas University. At SAU, the Marching Band grew into one of the largest collegiate marching bands in the state of Arkansas and his trumpet students succeeded immensely; earning graduate positions at top programs, winning positions at summer festivals/world class drum corps, and employment in military bands. The SAU Trumpet Ensemble was invited to numerous ITG Conferences, and also advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Trumpet Competition. Other performance credits include the Tuachann Center for the Arts Orchestra, Southwest Symphony, Orchestra of Southern Utah, Texarkana Symphony, South Arkansas Symphony, Tampa Bay Symphony, Las Cruces Symphony, Texarkana Jazz Orchestra, DFW Brass, British Brass Band of Louisiana, UNLV Faculty Brass, Paso Del Norte Big Band, NYGASP, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and PaperMill Playhouse (Tony-Award Winner).

Mr. Torres holds dual Master of Music degrees (Trumpet, Wind Conducting) from New Mexico State University and received his Bachelor of Arts degree (Music Performance) from the University of South Florida School of Music. His primary trumpet teachers include Jay Coble, Pancho Romero, Barbara Hull, Charley Davis, and William Adam. Torres is currently a part-time instructor and Doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he studies Brass Pedagogy. Further professional affiliations include: ITG, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Fraternity, Utah Music Educators Association, Texas Music Educators Association, and The American Federation of Musicians (Las Vegas #369). Torres is an endorsing artist for Hercules Stands and ChopSaver lip balm, and plays on Yamaha and Powell trumpets. He lives in Cedar City, Utah with his loving wife Anna, and their dog Lola.

About

Andrew Briggs, DMA is the Director of Choral Activities for Southern Utah University, where he directs the Opus and Concert Choirs, and teaches Voice and Choral Education courses. He was the Director of Choral Activities for Houston Community College – Central campus and served as the Program Coordinator for music for the HCC system from 2016-2020.

He received his doctorate in voice at Arizona State University, where he and his wife Kristin attended for their Masters in 2010. Prior to that he graduated from the Voice Performance/Education program at Southern Utah University.

Andrew enjoys working with high school and middle school choral groups and is sought after as a clinician for choirs and as a judge for vocal events. He is a member of ACDA and NATS. Andrew was a member of the Houston Grand Opera chorus for 4 years, enjoyed performing with Lone Star Lyric Opera for the summer festival and cabaret shows, and as a tenor in the Three Texan Tenors show with Opera Leggera in Kingwood, TX.

In 2019, Andrew and Kristin helped found the Summerwood Community Choir & Orchestra (www.summerwoodmusic.org), where Andrew conducted productions of Rob Gardner’s The Lamb of God and selections from Handel’s Messiah. Prior to that, Andrew was Music Director for Oliver! at Copperstar Repertory Co. (AZ), Little Shop of Horrors at Mesa Community College, and did stage direction for Der Schauspieldirektor for Opera Revolution in Tempe, AZ.

He has been seen as The Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance at Mesa Community College; Harold Hill, The Music Man; Figaro, Le nozze di Figaro; Sweeney Todd/Anthony, Sweeney Todd; Dandini, La Cenerentola; Marco, Gianni Schicchi (all at ASU); and as Lun Tha in The King and I (Copperstar Rep. Company). He was most recently seen as the Duke in Madeline (Victor Herbert) and as Guglielmo in Viva la Mamma by Donizetti (Lone Star Lyric). Andrew studied the roles of El Dancaïro/Morales with ASU/Arizona Opera’s Cover study program, and sang with the Arizona Opera Chorus, the Scottsdale Choral Artists, and was the Artistic/Music Director of Vocal Fix Jazz Entertainment and Music Director for Arizona Dickens Carolers. While at Arizona State, Andrew debuted and recorded the Baritone solo in the original work Tito’s Say, composed by James DeMars.

On the concert stage he has been the soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Tempe Symphony, Dona Nobis Pacem (Vaughan Williams) with MusicaNova, St. John’s Passion (Bach), and Coronation Mass (Mozart) with the Scottsdale Choral Artists and was a member of the group Consono in Houston, TX, as well as a soloist with the Symphony North of Houston. Recital literature performed recently includes Die Schöne Müllerin (Schubert), sets by Finzi, Poulenc, Barber, Copland and de Falla, and additional works from Handel to Mahler.

Andrew serves as a church musician as a cantor and section leader and was a member of a Gregorian Schola under Garold Whisler (Cathedral of SSJ, Phoenix, AZ). He is the father of six children and lives and teaches voice in Cedar City, UT.

andrewbriggs2@suu.edu

About

Dr. Keith M. Bradshaw serves as Associate Dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts and professor of music at Southern Utah University. He teaches courses in music theory, aural skills, analysis, composition, and orchestration. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Minnesota, and a M.M. and B.M. from Brigham Young University. Prior to coming to SUU, he founded the music program at Southern Virginia University, and served as chair of the division of arts. His music has been performed nationally and internationally. He has received numerous commissions and awards for his compositions, including a fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, two commissions from the Barlow Endowment, and winning the national "Welcome Christmas" Christmas carol contest from the American Composers Forum. He is currently composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of Southern Utah. In addition to composition, Dr. Bradshaw is the founding director of the Red Rock Singers, a mixed choir of 40 voices in Cedar City, Utah, and has conducted various college and community choirs.