Artistic Director

This season, the Cascade Winds has three directors, one for each term/concert. At the end of the season, the band members and members of the band board of directors will choose a full time replacement for the departed Michael Gesme. Here are the directors:

• Dave Sime (Fall Term): Dave Sime, conductor for the December concert series, is currently in his nineteenth year as director of bands at Redmond High School. During his tenure at Redmond, the band program has grown from one band of 38 students to three bands with 150 students. Redmond bands have qualified for the Oregon State Band Contest twelve of the past thirteen years and have performed throughout the West Coast and Canada. Sime earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Willamette University, and has done post-graduate work at the University of Oregon. As a performer, he regularly plays trumpet with several groups in Central Oregon including the COCC Big Band Jazz.
• Dan Judd (Winter Term): Dan Judd earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Whitman College, and Master of Music degree in Music Education and Conducting from Central Washington University. A trombone soloist and highly respected band clinician and adjudicator throughout the Northwest, Dan is in his 32nd year of public school teaching, and is currently in his second year as Director of Bands at Summit High School in Bend. He is co-founder/director of the Northwest Wind Symphony, an award-winning community band in the Centralia/Chehalis area of Western Washington. Dan’s high school bands (including Jazz Band, Marching Band and Concert Band) have earned state and regional honors in Washington and Oregon competitions. He lives in Bend with his wife of 32 years (and most exquisite supporter) Lorene. The Judds have two adult children living in Seattle, Monica and Eric. Both continue as trombone performers.
  
• Suzanne Mudge (Spring Term): Suzanne Mudge is an active trombonist, conductor, and educator.   She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of the Pacific and a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona.  She currently performs with the Central Oregon Symphony and the Cascade Winds, teaches band part time at Seven Peaks School and High Lakes Elementary, and maintains a private studio.  She is an avid road cyclist and chef, wine enthusiast, and enjoys spending time with her three beloved Border Collies and cat. Before moving to Bend in 2006, Suzanne played professionally and taught music in the San Francisco Bay area for 22 years.  During that time she was Principal Trombone with the Modesto Symphony and the Women’s Philharmonic, and founder of the Seraphim Brass Quintet.  She has toured with the "Band of the Golden West," recorded at Skywalker Ranch and performs annually with the Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, California.
  

We hope you will join us this year to see what all these directors bring to the group.