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JEFF GEMAR (panel) is an award-winning music educator, recently retired after spending 42 years directing some of the best show choirs in the country. Jeff is proud to have established four show choir programs during his career including Mitchell, South Dakota, Friend de Coup and Chatham Glenwood's Titan Fever. He also led the award-winning Mt. Zion Swingsations along with Dwight Jordan.

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KYE BRACKETT (panel) is a native Floridian who, throughout his 40 year career, has had his many talents take his life into many areas of the entertainment field. As a singer/dancer Kye has been in Broadway, LA and West End productions of Five Guys Named Moe, for which he garnered an NAACP Image Award, Dreamgirls and Rent, as well as the internationally acclaimed command performance for the Queen of England called, “Hey, Mr. Producer”. As a choreographer Kye has choreographed for both The Miss America Pageant and has choreographed and starred in the musical revue “Could It Be Magic”, the Barry Manilow Songbook, at The Mercury Theater in Chicago. Kye has written an Urban Opera called The Family which is currently a part of "The Silence Is Broken", a multi-media awareness campaign that focuses on Aids Awareness. And for the past decade, Kye has served as both background vocalist and staging director for Barry Manilow in his tours and his residency. 

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SANDRA THOMAS (panel) is the retired, choral director from Clover Hill HS in Midlothian, Virginia. After 38 years in music education, Sandi retired in 2019 and has relocated to Durham, New Hampshire, where she resides with her husband. Throughout her 38 years, Thomas’ competitive show choirs consistently won many caption awards in the best vocal, best choreography, best show design categories, as well as Grand Champion Awards. Her Chamber Choirs were known for their challenging repertoire and the affection with which they performed.

 

Sandi is a seasoned judge on both the regional and national levels. Having judged from Nebraska to Florida throughout the past 14 years, she particularly loves the chance to make a difference in her comments to competing show choirs. Sandi is also a clinician for show choirs across the country, offering them a fresh, unbiased assessment of their shows and vocal quality, as well as antidotes for improving both. 

Sandi has a passionate love for all choral music. Whether it is as the Artistic Director of the Granite State Choral Society, or as the now choir director at the Lee Church in Lee, New Hampshire, she loves helping singers find their passion through the music they sing.

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SCOTT THORNE (panel) is a 1998 graduate of Auburn University, with a Bachelor of Music Education and a 2010 graduate of The University of West Alabama with a Masters of Counseling. Mr. Thorne recently retired after completing his 25th year of teaching choral music, the last 20 as the director of the award-winning Homewood High School

show choirs, where his program was named to the NAMM 100 best schools for music education in the nation 16 times during his tenure at Homewood. Mr. Thorne was honored to be named the Allen and Sandra Chapman Show Choir Nationals Outstanding Director, in 2015. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Music Education from SCN in 2023. In 2001, he took himself to the country stage, as a member of the Country Treasures cast at Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where he also sang back up to

several Grand Ole Opry Legends. As a philanthropist, Mr. Thorne has created and organized a Multiple Sclerosis Society of Alabama Signature event, which this year, after

only 8 years has exceeded 1.5 million dollars raised for research and grants for those living with Multiple Sclerosis.

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LOVAR DAVIS KIDD (panel), a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an interdisciplinary performer and choreographer. L.D. recently received his MFA in Choreography from the University of Iowa. He engages in choreographic research grounded at the intersection of contemporary movement practices with black vernacular aesthetics.

 

His art-making process reflects his biracial heritage(s) and is rooted in social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) work through his company, 100% OVER RACISM.  L.D. has performed extensively in dance and musical theatre productions throughout the US. Most notably in the 2011-2012 2nd National Tour of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, Tim Rice & Elton John’s Aida at Sacramento Music Circus, Disney California Adventure Park's Aladdin "A Musical Spectacular" and with the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. L.D. has also danced for Helanius J. Wilkins’ EDGEWORKS Dance Theater and Los Angeles-based dance companies Word In Motion and Urban Poets.

 

As an educator, L.D. is a teaching artist with Throughline Arts, specializing in arts integration with K-8 students. L.D. also worked as an adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa for ten years, teaching jazz, tap, hip-hop, and dance for musical theatre. 

 

This year marks L.D.’s 27th year as a show choir choreographer and clinician. He is excited to see the hard work and dedication the singers, dancers, crews, bands, directors, and parents have put into today’s performances.

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BILL MITCHELL (panel) is an accomplished trombonist and educator currently residing in the Springfield area. Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Bill has earned a bachelors of music education from Eastern Illinois University and a masters in trombone performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has performed with just about every type of ensemble imaginable. Most notably he has performed with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Lake Shore Symphony, The Chicago Trombone Authority,various big bands throughout the Chicagoland area, and even a few brass bands and polka bands. Bill is currently the Director of Bands at Glenwood High School in Chatham, IL. He also serves as the Band Director and Low Brass Instructor at the University of Illinois-Springfield and is an Adjunct Instructor of Low Brass at Illinois College.

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EMILY WHEELER (soloists) 

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