

SAINT LOUIS
BRASS BAND

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2025 Gateway Championship Judges

Mark Hoskins
Mark Hoskins (Marietta, Georgia) recently retired as Director of Bands at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, after 19 years and his 25th year of service in the Cobb County (Georgia) School District. He oversaw the entire band program, consisting of three concert bands, marching band, jazz ensemble, jazz combo, woodwind and brass choirs, winter guard, and percussion ensembles. In 2018 he was the founder and director of the District 12 Honor Jazz Ensemble. A graduate of East Tennessee State University, he is in constant demand as an adjudicator, clinician, and conductor in the marching band, jazz, and concert band arena. His program at Wheeler was regionally and nationally recognized in those fields as well, consistently receiving superior ratings and best-in-class awards. He is a music and brass adjudicator for both Bands of America and Drum Corps International, as well as the Dublin Festival of Brass. He is an elected member of Phi Beta Mu Honor Music Society (2020), the Georgia Music Educators Association, National Association for Music Education, Jazz Education Network, and a founding member of the Minority Band Directors National Association.

Tony Granados
Tony Granados is a Producing Coordinator for Carolina Performing Arts and a freelance musician in central North Carolina. Tony can be seen performing with the orchestras for the Carolina Ballet and North Carolina Opera, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and is a founding member of the Boylan Brass. Tony maintains a private studio of high school and middle school students, and regularly runs sectionals for school bands. Tony is an adjudicator for marching bands and teaches brass techniques for several local high school marching band programs. Tony was the Brass Supervisor for Carolina Gold Drum and Bugle Corps, winning the DCA – A Class Championship and Best Brass in 2012, 2018 and 2019. Tony serves on the Board of Directors for the North American Brass Band Association (NABBA), including two terms as President from 2019 – 2023. From 2008 to 2023, Tony was the Artistic Director for the Triangle Brass Band, winning the 3rd section in 2022, 2018 and runner up in 2019 at the NABBA Championships. From 2001-2013, he was the Director of the Triangle Youth Brass Band program, building it from 17 students to over 70 in two bands and winning eight NABBA Youth Section Championships. As a soloist, he has made appearances with college bands, high schools bands, allcounty bands, gave a solo recital at the North Carolina Governors School Summer Program at Meredith College, was a featured artist at the 2002 International Tuba Euphonium Conference, performing the Gregson Tuba Concerto with the Triangle Brass Band, and was a guest soloist with the Triangle Wind Ensemble at the 2005 North Carolina Music Educators Convention. Other solo appearances include the St. Francis Brass Band, Tar River Symphonic Band, Advocate Brass Band and the Greensboro Concert Band. Tony attended the University of Kentucky and has studied at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Towson State in Maryland. While a student in Kentucky, he was first runner up in the University Concerto Competition in 1997, and Principal Tuba in the Wind Ensemble and Orchestra. He played solo E-flat tuba with the Lexington Brass Band and was featured with the Bass section of that band several times, including the LBB compact disc release Images. Tony also played with the Advocate-Messenger Brass Band in Danville, KY, appearing on three compact discs and making a solo appearance. Tony was also a driving force in the Four Horsemen Tuba Quartet, the resident student tuba quartet at the University of Kentucky. The FHTQ was the busiest performing ensemble at UK during this time, making an appearance at the 1998 Great American Brass Band Festival, and winning the Adult Ensemble competition at the 1998 NABBA competition.

Dr. John Korak
John Korak is Emeritus Professor of Music and former Music Department Chair at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He holds B.M.E., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the University of North Texas, where he was a student of Dr. Leonard Candelaria. He performed with such groups as the Mexico City Philharmonic, Illinois Symphony, Texas Baroque Ensemble, Dallas Bach Society, Texas Brass Ensemble, Texas Wind Symphony, the St. Louis Brass Ensemble, the Bach Society of St. Louis, the Bluebonnet Brass, the Kansas City Baroque Consortium, the St. Louis Brass Band, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Now retired from playing, he was the principal trumpet in the American Kantorei Orchestra and has been a featured performer with the SIUE Wind Symphony at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, England, and the American Cathedral in Paris, France. He was a featured artist at the International Music Festival in Nagaoka, Japan, and was a member of the Texas Baroque Trumpet Ensemble at the European Trumpet Days Conference in Bad Sackingen, Germany. He performed the Illinois premier of Eric Ewazen’s Danzante for Trumpet and Wind Ensemble and has performed at International Trumpet Guild conferences in Bangkok, Thailand; Goteborg, Sweden; Sydney, Australia; and throughout the United States, including leading a performance at the ITG Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the SIUE Trumpet Ensemble. He was invited to perform as a featured artist with the SIUE Wind Symphony at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Chiayi City, Taiwan. Dr. Korak has directed both high school and middle school band programs in Lewisville and Flower Mound, Texas, and was the director of the University Concert Band at SIUE. He is sought as a clinician in both the trumpet performance and wind band areas and has presented clinics to students throughout the country and abroad including master classes at the Krakow (Poland) Academy of Music, the Monterey (Mexico) Youth Music Camp, the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Michigan), and Nagaoka (Japan) area schools. In 2022, Dr. Korak was a featured presenter at the Performing Arts Medicine Association’s International Symposium, where his discussed collegiate musicians’ health resources. He still serves as a wind and brass band adjudicator and is the Co-Director of the Edwardsville Municipal Band. Dr. Korak is a member of Who’s Who, Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, Alpha Chi Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Honor Society, and the International Trumpet Guild. For 19 years he was the Book Reviews Editor for the International Trumpet Guild Journal and is the author of two books published by Balquhidder Music: Giuseppe Concone: The Complete Solfeggi and Bel Canto Studies for Trumpet.