Alan and Steve talk with Rebecca Phillips and Ingrid Larragoity-Martin about inclusivity, culture, and psychological safety.
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Ingrid Larragoity-Martin
Dr. Ingrid Larragoity-Martin is the Executive Director of El Sistema Colorado and serves as conductor of the Conservatory Orchestra of Denver Young Artist Orchestra. She brings with her over 22 years of high school and collegiate instrumental experience as a conductor, music educator, and community leader. Her passion to diversify and create inclusive music classrooms has impacted her leadership from the podium and into the music community at the state and national level. She looks forward to expanding her impact as a nonprofit leader through community-building, creating pathways for musical excellence, and engaging nonprofit leaders and educators in conversations around access, equity, inclusion, and social justice in the music classroom and beyond.
Prior to these appointments, she served as Director of Bands at Skyline Visual and Performing Arts High School in Longmont, Colorado. Dr. Larragoity-Martin also served as Associate Director of Bands/Music Education Coordinator and then Interim Director of Bands at New Mexico State University. Before then she served as Associate Director of Bands at Henderson State University. In her time in these positions, she conducted both wind and orchestral ensembles, commissioned and premiered repertoire, created innovative programming that crossed international borders, and collaborated with colleagues and community members to build substantive musical experiences.
As an active conductor, she has led honor/all state instrumental ensembles in Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, California, Missouri and Texas. She has initiated programs with New World Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Colorado Symphony, connecting her ensembles to professional musicians and experiences. Internationally, she most recently served as guest lecturer on The World, Residence at Sea, presenting lectures and conducting clinics throughout Europe. Dr. Larragoity-Martin also cofounded and led Jinsha Summer Music Festival, a musical and cultural program for music students from the United States and from the SiChuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, China.
Rebecca Phillips
Dr. Rebecca Phillips is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Colorado State University where she conducts the CSU Wind Symphony and guides all aspects of the band and graduate wind conducting programs. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of South Carolina where she was responsible for directing the Symphonic Winds Concert Band, “The Mighty Sound of the Southeast” Carolina Marching Band, “Concocktion” Pep Bands, teaching undergraduate instrumental conducting, and directing the Carolina Summer Drum Major Clinic.
Dr. Phillips has served as a guest-conductor, clinician, and performer throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has conducted both professional and collegiate musicians in Prague (Czech Republic) for the “Prague Multicultural Music Project.” In addition, she has conducted members of the Prague National Symphony at the inaugural “2017 American Spring Festival” (Prague, Czech Republic). In 2018, she conducted members of the Des Moines Symphony in a chamber concert for the Iowa Bandmasters Association annual conference. Dr. Phillips regularly conducts intercollegiate and collegiate honor bands, all-state bands, and festival bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. She is the “conductor in residence” for the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Festival and Staff Bands (session I) and she has been a rehearsal clinician at the Midwest Clinic: An International Band and Orchestra Conference. Ensembles under her direction have been featured at the 2020 Colorado Music Educators Association Convention, the 2019 American Bandmasters Association National Convention, the 2012 College Band Director’s National Association Southern Division Conference, the 2010 Society of Composers International Conference, and the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance International Convention.
Dr. Phillips believes in treasuring the traditional wind music of the past as well as promoting cutting edge works of today’s finest composers. She commissioned and conducted world and consortium premieres of works by several leading composers, including William Bolcom, James David, John Mackey, John Fitz Rogers, Adam Silverman, Frank Ticheli, and Dana Wilson to name a few. Her conducting performances of David del Tredici’s In Wartime and John Mackey’s Redline Tango are both featured on the nationally distributed Louisiana State University Wind Ensemble compact disc project and the world premiere of John Fitz Rogers Narragansett is featured on the Compact Disc And I Await, featuring Dr. Phillips as guest conductor of the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble.
As a trombonist, Dr. Phillips’ performances can be found on several internationally distributed recordings. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, U.S. Army Band (Pershing’s Own), the Tallahassee Symphony, and the Tampa Bay Opera Orchestra. She has also performed internationally in England, Mexico, the Caribbean, Russia, and Sweden, and has toured as a trombonist with Johnny Mathis and Barry Manilow.
A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Phillips earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University, Master of Music degrees in conducting and trombone performance from the University of South Florida, and Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting at Louisiana State University. She served as a secondary school band director for seven years in Florida, including Director of Bands at Howard W. Blake Performing Arts High School in Tampa, Florida where she developed an award- winning concert band program. Currently, she is the Immediate Past President of the National Band Association, co-chair of the American Bandmasters Association-University of Florida Commissioning Committee, and she serves on the college/university board for the Western International Band Clinic.