Saturday, May 2, 2026

at Olathe Northwest High School

Online Registration:  ** Click HERE to Register **

Download the PDF Festival Flyer!

Adjudicators

Dr. Alex Smith

Percussion Ensemble Clinician

Alex Smith is a musician, scholar, and technologist. He is the Director of UCM Percussion and Associate Professor at University of Central Missouri, where he also directs and writes for the UCM Marching Percussion Section, and teaches a graduate course in musicology-ethnomusicology. Smith received his D.M.A. in Percussion Performance at Michigan State University, where he also received his M.A. in Musicology-Ethnomusicology and M.M. in Percussion Performance. At MSU, Smith studied with Professor Gwen Dease and Dr. Jon Weber. Smith received his B.M. in Percussion Performance from East Carolina University studying with Dr. Jon Wacker and Mr. Chris Nappi.

Smith released his first album, Determined Volumes, with pfMENTUM in October of 2020. The album features mostly original compositions for percussion and technology that draw from a wide range of musical practices. One of these pieces, 816, received a Vic Firth “Artist Spotlight.” His second album in collaboration with Joe Basile, TrnslcntTkn, was released with Mother Brain Records in May 2022. Smith regularly performs his original works at the Missouri Experimental Sonic Arts Festival (MOXsonic), for which he is also a director. He is a published composer with Tapspace, and his piece The Building of Asgard was performed by the Michigan State University Percussion Ensemble at their 2017 PASIC performance as winners of the International Percussion Ensemble Competition. His Western classical percussion quartet Without Borders performs regularly, including in Japan, Taiwan, Michigan, Missouri, and as the invited guest artist at the 2020 McCormick Marimba Festival in Tampa, Florida. They released their first album in Taiwan in 2023, for which he is also the audio engineer.

As a scholar, Smith has published his peer-reviewed and invited work in International Journal of Music Education, Ecomusicology Review, Perspectives of New Music, Percussive Arts Society Online Research Edition, and UCLA Echo Blog. In 2018-2019, Smith studied for eight months in Ghana with a Fulbright-Hays DDRA Award. In 2008-2009, Smith studied for one year in Recife, Brazil.

In 2005 and 2006 Smith marched with the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps and has since instructed marching ensembles at the high school, collegiate, and independent levels such as UCM Marching Percussion, the Michigan State University Drumline, the East Carolina University Drumline, Eastside Fury, Green Hope High School, and Okemos High School.

Dr. Julia Montag

Percussion Ensemble Clinician

Dr. Julia Gaines-Montag has worked at the University of Missouri in the School of Music for thirty years. Having served first as percussion professor, and then as Director of the School, she has known all rungs of the academic ladder at MU. Her creative activity focuses on marimba performance. She has authored three pedagogical books for four-mallet marimba performance in addition to producing a full CD of music commissioned or written for her on the instrument.  Under her direction, the MU percussion ensemble has been invited to perform at several prominent conferences including the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. She has been a life-long member of the Percussive Arts Society and has served on the international executive committee. Some highlights from her administrative career include spearheading the School of Music’s Centennial Celebration and serving as the point person for the design, construction, and grand opening of the 47,000 square feet Sinquefield Music Center. Dr. Montag is currently the Dean for School of Music at Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, OK.

Candance Hill

Mallet Clinician, Steel drum

Candice Hill is a percussion and steel pan performer, educator, clinician, composer and adjudicator. As a performer, Candice has been featured as an artist for dozens of schools, community bands, and choirs throughout the United States. Candice composes original music for drumline and steel band, for her own performing group, and has composed for commissions as well. She formed The Candice Hill Band, which highlights the unique sounds of steel pan with traditional instrumentation in non-traditional covers and originals, and performs regionally. She also frequently performs as a soloist, and on drums for musical pits, churches, and local bands. Candice also spent several years playing snare for the KC Chiefs Rumble Drumline and was the first woman to perform in the group.

As an educator, Candice has spent over a decade teaching drumline and concert percussion for Staley High School. She is an active adjudicator and has given clinics for dozens of schools regionally and nationally. She formerly served on faculty with the School of Music at the University of Kansas, where she directed the KU World Steelband. She also formerly taught drumline and world music at Avila University in Kansas City. Candice earned her Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Missouri State University, and her Master of Music in Steel Pan Performance from Northern Illinois University.

Alex Vallar

Snare drum clinician

Alex has been involved in marching percussion as a performer, arranger, and clinician for over 20 years. After performing with the Hickman High School Drumline in Columbia, Missouri, he went on to play in the Rhythm Movement (WGI) and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (DCI). Additionally, Alex has been a performer with the Marching Mizzou drumline and the Kansas City Chiefs "Rumble" Drumline.

His teaching career began in the fall of 2004 when he returned home to teach at Rockbridge High School in Missouri. He taught and arranged battery percussion there until 2006. Currently, Alex serves as the Percussion Coordinator at Blue Valley High School. He has also taught at Blue Valley West (KS), Lee's Summit (MO), and Missouri Western University.

Alex's percussion ensembles and private students have consistently excelled, earning top ratings and rankings in Bands of America (BOA), Mid-Continent Color Guard Association (MCCGA), Winter Guard International (WGI), and state-level festivals in Kansas and Missouri. In 2009, he became the Assistant Director of the Kansas City Chiefs "Rumble" Drumline, which performs on game days and at various events around the Kansas City metro area. Alex is proud to endorse Yamaha Musical Instruments, Evans Drumheads, Sabian Cymbals, and Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets.

Erin Shelton

Middle School clinician

(bio coming soon!)

Sam Cronnenberg

Drumset judge

(bio coming soon!)