Florida State University - Tallahassee, FL
 

André J. Thomas, the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music, is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music Education at The Florida State University.  A previous faculty member at the University of Texas, Austin, Dr. Thomas received his degrees from Friends University (B.A.), Northwestern University (M. M.), and the University of Illinois (D.M.A).  He is in demand as a choral adjudicator, clinician, and director of Honor/All-State Choirs throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.

Dr. Thomas has conducted choirs at the state, division, and national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).  His international conducting credits are extensive.  They include conductor/clinician for the International Federation of Choral Musicians, summer residency of the World Youth Choir in the Republic of China and the Philippines, winter residency of the World Youth Choir in Europe, and a premier performance by an American choir (The Florida State University Singers) in Vietnam.  He has been the guest conductor of such distinguished orchestras and choirs as the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in England, and guest Conductor for the Berlin Radio Choir in Germany.  Since 1988, he has also served as Artistic Director of the Tallahassee Community Chorus.

Thomas has also distinguished himself as a composer/arranger.  Hinshaw Music Company, Mark Foster Music Company, Fitzsimmon Music Company, Lawson Gould, Earthsongs, and Heritage Music Company publish his compositions and arrangements.  Dr. Thomas has produced two instructional videos "What They See Is What You Get" on choral conducting, with Rodney Eichenberger, and "Body, Mind, Spirit, Voice" on adolescent voices, with Anton Armstrong.  He is a past president of the Florida ACDA, and the past president of the Southern Division of ACDA.

Concordia College - Moorhead, MN
 

Jane Linde Capistran, conductor and violinist, is Assistant Professor of Music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.  In addition to conducting the Concordia College Symphonia, Capistran teaches studio violin and string pedagogy/methods.  She is Associate Conductor and Principal Second Violin of the Fargo Moorhead Symphony.  In addition, Capistran is in her 11th season as Conductor of the Fargo Moorhead Area Senior High Youth Symphony.  This ensemble was the recipient of the Midori Orchestra Residency Program in 2010, and selected to play at the North Dakota Music Educators’ Conference in 2008.  Capistran also serves as a guest conductor and clinician for string festivals and workshops in the upper Midwest.

A native of Moorhead, MN, Capistran studied violin at Concordia College while in high school.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN, and her Master of Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  Capistran studied conducting under Thomas Swanson and Paul Brandvik at Bemidji State and has participated in conducting master classes with Leonard Slatkin, John Farrer, Daniel Lewis, and Donald Thulean.

Capistran’s public school string teaching includes seven years with elementary orchestras in the Iowa City Community School District.  She was Director of Orchestras at Fargo (ND) South High School for six years.  The North Dakota String Teachers Association awarded Capistran the 2007 String Teacher of the Year and 2009 Distinguished Service Award.  In 2008, she received the Master Studio Teacher Award from the Minnesota String Teacher Association.  She performs with the Concordia College Faculty String Quartet, the Dakota Rose String Quartet, the Fargo-Moorhead Opera Orchestra, and is concertmaster of the North Dakota State University Baroque Festival. 

Capistran lives in Fargo, North Dakota with her husband Rod, a mathematics teacher at Fargo North High.  Her daughter Madeline, violinist, and son Stuart, percussionist, are freelance musicians in Chicago and St. Paul respectively.