Student Composer and Guest Conductor Biographies

Eli Parrish began his compositional career with a niche for wind instruments and symphonic bands. Parrish’s music has been performed at universities, high schools, festivals, and venues across the Southeastern United States. His works for chamber groups, solo instruments, and large ensembles explore the intersections of storytelling, environmentalism, and sound-to-color. Parrish’s approach to orchestration, use of dissonance, and texture stems from his background of studying and performing wind ensemble repertoire. Parrish frequently collaborates with other young composers in the Emory composition studio to curate showcases and workshops for new music.

Tianqi (Lucky) Bao is a senior student studying music composition and quantitative science at Emory University. She is interested in film scoring, music production, live band music, and other branches of music. Her music has been influenced by film composers including Joe Hisaishi, Tan Dun, and Hans Zimmer; and pop singers including Liang Bo and Hua Chenyu. As a person who does not speak much in daily life, Bao turns to illustrate her expression in music, seeking a spiritual connection between her inner world and the outside world. By taking music as a path, she tries to show her own vision and insight to the audiences.

William Pitts is a composer, conductor, and arranger from Atlanta. Pitts graduated summa cum laude from Emory, where he studied saxophone, conducting, and composition. He has completed graduate study in music at North Georgia University and the University of Michigan. Pitts has written works for and been commissioned by the Boston Pops, the University of North Texas, the Canadian Staff Band of the Salvation Army, Wake Forest University, the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, the Atlanta Trumpet Ensemble, the Vega Quartet, the Atlanta Saxophone Quartet, the Northwinds Symphonic Band, french hornist J.D. Shaw, tubist Christian Carichner, and numerous other high school and collegiate wind and chamber ensembles.

Pitts most recently served as the brass arranger for the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. As a member of the corps, Pitts served as conductor for three years (2005, 2007–2008), and in 2008 he was honored as the Mark Glasscoe Member of the Year. In addition to his role as arranger, he has served on Regiment’s management staff, and as the brass arranger and composer for the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps.

As a music educator, Pitts has served on the faculties of Duncanville High School (Duncanville, Texas) and Pace Academy in Atlanta, and he currently serves on the faculty of the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, specializing in instrumental music, conducting, and music theory.

Emory Wind Ensemble

The Emory Wind Ensemble (EWE) is dedicated to performing wind band and chamber literature of the highest caliber while nurturing individual artistic excellence within an ensemble setting.

Concert programming comprises a wide variety of styles, forms, and genres from several centuries of compositional practice, designed to provide a comprehensive exposure to the masterpieces for winds and percussion from the Renaissance period through the modern era.

The EWE performs two concerts each semester, regularly participates in world premieres of new music, tours the United States and abroad, and is a national leader in the commissioning of new music, including works by Warren Benson, Bruce Broughton, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen,

John Mackey, Jonathan Newman, Joseph Schwantner, and many others. The EWE’s recent collaborations include performances with the Emory University Chorus; the Emory Dance Company; Emory’s Mary Emerson Professor of Piano William Ransom; Chris Martin, principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Stuart Stephenson, principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Joe Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic; Adam Frey, international euphonium solo artist; and Grammy Award–winning solo clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, among many others.

The EWE has performed concert tours of Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Lucerne, Graz, Prague, Vienna, and Greece. Additionally, the EWE has performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) State Convention in Savannah, Georgia; the Southern Division College Band Directors National Association Conference (CBDNA); and for various events on the Emory campus, including the inauguration of James Wagner as president of Emory University. The EWE was recognized in 2017 as a Top 10 program among its peers by CBDNA and featured at the 2017 CBDNA National Conference Small Band Showcase. The EWE is recorded on the NAXOS music label.

Brianna Slone (she/her) serves as the conductor of the Emory University Wind Ensemble and upper school faculty at the Westminster Schools. Previously, she was the assistant band director at Hillgrove High School in Cobb County, Georgia, and a music library assistant with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Slone is a sought-after guest conductor, clinician, woodwind specialist, and freelance flutist in the Atlanta area. She was recently appointed as a Music for All Band Clinician and in this capacity was selected as an instructor for the 2022 Music for All Tournament of Roses Honor Band. She has attended flute master classes with Marianne Gedigian, Ransom Wilson, Nicole Esposito, Michael Hasel, and Emmanuel Pahud.

Slone has a bachelor of music education degree from the University of Georgia and a master of music degree in wind band conducting from Georgia State University.

Flute/Piccolo

Emily Cui

Dorian Huang

Hannah Huang

Tabitha Watson

Oboe

Zachary Kant

Sophia Kim

English Horn

Eric Xu

Bassoon

Vishaal Kareti

Nathan Muz

Clarinet

Nicole Bring

Joe Van Duyn

Eli Parrish

Deston Lian

Karthik Valeveti