Band Audition Information

Bio: Dr. Hannah Weller serves as the Director of Bands at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is the conductor of the UTA Wind Symphony and serves as the Area Coordinator for the Woodwind, Brass, and Percussion Studios. In addition to her work at UTA, Weller is active as a conducting workshop clinician and festival clinician, working with conductors and musicians of varying ages and experience levels. Weller is an alumna of the University of North Texas, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting (August 2026) and her Master of Music in Clarinet Performance (2024). Her dissertation project, Fundamental Creativity: A Guide for Teaching the Young Conductor, is comprised of a 16-week curriculum and etude workbook for teaching Fundamentals of Conducting at the collegiate level. Weller’s conducting teachers include Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Andrew Trachsel, Amy Woody, and Daniel Cook. She studied clarinet with Kimberly Cole Luevano. During her residency at UNT, Weller had the privilege of serving as a Wind Studies Teaching Fellow and performing in the North Texas Wind Symphony. She continues to perform professionally in the area as a freelance musician and member of the Lone Star Wind Orchestra. Previously, Weller served as the Assistant Director of Bands at East Texas A&M University in Commerce, Texas. There, she conducted the ETAMU Concert Band, taught undergraduate conducting classes and applied clarinet lessons, and served as the School of Music Scholarship and Audition Coordinator. Weller began her musical studies at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2022 and earned her B.S. in Music Education with a K–12 teaching certificate. Weller lives in Arlington, Texas with her husband, Dr. Mike Korson. They enjoy travel, cooking, and life with their two pugs, Penny and Chewy.

Bio: Dr. Chris Evans is the Associate Director of Bands and Director of the Maverick Marching Band at UTA. In addition to the marching band, Dr. Evans teaches the Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band, Marching Band Techniques, and Instrumental Methods and Materials. Previously, Dr. Evans was the Associate Director of Bands at Flower Mound High School. While at Flower Mound, he primarily taught the Concert Band and the JV marching band while assisting with all other aspects of the program. Dr. Evans also served as Assistant Director of Bands at Juan Seguin High School and was a graduate assistant at the University of Oklahoma. While at OU he assisted with the concert ensembles, the Pride of Oklahoma marching band, and conducted the women’s basketball band for 2 years. Before graduate school, he taught middle school in Georgia for three years. Dr. Evans, a native of Birmingham, Alabama earned his Bachelors of Music Education from Auburn University. He earned his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Oklahoma. His professional associations include the Texas Music Educators Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (honorary), and Tau Beta Sigma (honorary).

Bio: Dr. Andrew Eldridge is Coordinator of Percussion/Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Texas at Arlington. Prior to UTA, Andrew taught percussion and music theory at Texas Christian University, taught percussion at Texas Wesleyan University, and spent six years as a full-time Assistant Band Director/Percussion Director at high schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Andrew’s musical interests lie at the intersection of percussion and electronics. His recent musical experiments combine live-looping acoustic percussion in Ableton Live controlled with midi controllers. Andrew also enjoys creating music with mobile music set-ups that are accessible to the general music lover. At UTA, Andrew was awarded an Outstanding Teaching Award for Tenure-Track Faculty by the UTA College of Liberal Arts in 2021 and nominated twice for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Under his direction, the UTA Percussion Ensemble was selected to present the New Literature Session at the 2017 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). The ensemble also performed Showcase Concerts at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) annual convention in 2017 and 2023. The UTA Percussion Ensemble actively commissions talented composers for the UTA Percussion Commissioning Series, presenting world premieres to music by Nathan Daughtrey, Francisco Perez, and Michael Varner. Andrew actively serves as President for the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) Texas Chapter and as Co-Chair for the Percussion Ensemble Committee for PAS. He served a three-year term on the Lone Star Wind Orchestra Board of Directors and has been performing with the group as a section percussionist since 2009. Andrew presented clinics for the Midwest Clinic, Texas Music Educators Association, and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. Most recently, he was selected to present a clinic called “The Tech-Forward Student: Technology Integration for the Applied Percussion Studio” at the 2023 National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. An avid performer of new music, Andrew has individually commissioned and given the world premieres of music written for percussion by Dan Welcher, Kyle Kindred, Dwayne Rice, Martin Blessinger, Ryan George, and David Maslanka. Andrew presented recitals and performances at the College Music Society (CMS) National Conference, CMS Great Lakes Regional Conference, National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. Additionally, he has performed as a concerto soloist with the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Lone Star Youth Winds, and the UTA Wind Symphony. Andrew holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance from Texas Christian University, a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Texas A&M University – Commerce. He proudly endorses Yamaha Percussion, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drumheads, and Zildjian Cymbals.