Ari Contzius is beginning his 25th year as the director of the Washingtonville High School wind ensemble. Prior to this he was a band director at Hicksville High School in New York and a middle and elementary school band director in Elkhart, Indiana. He has played trumpet for 43 years and is a member of the New York Wind Symphony. Ari is a co-author, with Evan Feldman, of Instrumental Music Education: Teaching with the Theoretical and Practical in Harmony, a college textbook published by Routledge. He earned degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and Hofstra University, where he studied conducting with Peter Loel Boonshaft.
Nikki Redeker is beginning her sixth year as the director of the Washingtonville High School Concert Band, Jazz Band, and teacher of woodwind lessons. She attended Ithaca College where she completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music Education. She began her career as the director of the 6th grade band at Warwick Valley Middle School where she taught for 6 years. She currently enjoys playing flute with the New York Wind Symphony.