Faculty

Darell "Red" Campbell Jr. is a musician, songwriter, producer, teacher, and preacher who enters his seventh season of working with CYE.

Red has collaborated with The Dramatics, War, India Arie, Stevie Wonder, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Anita Baker, Kris Johnson, Mary Wilson, Mike Powell, Dorinda Clark-Cole, HotSauce Yolanda Adams, LaToya Turrentine, Obie Trice, Freyda Payne, Eminem, and many more.

Vincent Chandler is a trombonist and native Detroiter now entering his third season of working with CYE. He is a protégé of Detroit’s great jazz scene and has studied or performed with local heroes like Donald Walden, Kenn Cox, Marcus Belgrave, James Carter, Marion Hayden, Regina Carter, and Rodney Whitaker.

Chandler has also performed internationally with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, Ravi Coltrane, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and many others. In 2014 he released Embraceable, his first album as a bandleader.

Chandler earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. He is now a Lecturer in Jazz Studies at Wayne State University.

Damien Crutcher is a native Detroiter now entering his third season of working with CYE. A graduate of Cass Technical High School, he studied at Michigan State University and earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Crescendo Detroit, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Farmington Community Band, and Managing Director of Detroit Harmony.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Crutcher served as Director of Bands and Orchestras at Southfield-Lathrup High School. Many of his former students are currently professional musicians, music teachers, and artists.

Violist Danny DeRose has been a member of the CYE conducting staff for seven years. He believes that musical progress and fun can work hand in hand to create an enriching beginning orchestral environment for all.

DeRose received his formal education at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, receiving Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees in Performance. Both during and his education and for the last ten years, DeRose has been an active teacher in the Metro Detroit community, with teaching roles at the String Project @ Wayne, the Flint Institute of Music, and Michigan State University Community Music School - Detroit.

In addition to his work in the Wu Family Academy, DeRose is Director of Development & Marketing for the Chamber Music Society of Detroit and has many private violin and viola students.

Leslie DeShazor is a violinist, teacher, and recording artist who now enters her seventh season as a CYE instructor. In addition to her work with the DSO, DeShazor teaches students through programs offered by the Arts League of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the Sphinx Organization.

Ms. DeShazor has appeared as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Symphony Orchestra, and Flint Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with jazz ensembles, the Leigh Daniels Ensemble, superstars like Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin, the Detroit-based Musique Noire, and the West African dance troupe Bichini Bia Congo (for whom she has also served as a choreographer).

A Michigan native, Ms. DeShazor studied at the University of Michigan.

Kristin Blanchard grew up in Grand Blanc, MI and received her undergraduate degree in Music Education from Western Michigan University in 1996. She holds a Master’s Degree (2004) in Conducting & Education from The American Band College in Ashland, Oregon. She is in her 27th year of teaching band. She began her teaching career in Edwardsburg, MI , where she taught 5th Grade General Music, as well as Middle School & High School Band.

After 2 years, Ms. Blanchard moved to the Detroit area to teach in Milford. She has been at Muir Middle School in Huron Valley Schools for the past 25 years. Her duties include 6-8th grade bands, and an 8th Grade Jazz Band. Ms. Blanchard's primary instruments are the flute and piccolo and she performs regularly with the Farmington Community Band. She has been a member of the FCB for 17 years. She also performs with the Southeast Michigan Wind Ensemble out of Clarkston, MI.

Ms. Blanchard has a small private lesson studio and enjoys teaching privately. She is an adjudicator for MSBOA Solo & Ensemble Festivals, as well as similar festivals throughout the state of Michigan. Ms. Blanchard is active in Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association. She is the founder and chairperson for the District IV MSBOA Middle School Honors Band, which is in its 17th year. She is also a sought after guest conductor and clinician for Honors Bands and school bands, and was inducted into the American School Band Director Association in 2007.

Ms. Blanchard was honored to receive the Middle School Teacher of the Year award by her school district in 2014-15, and was then nominated for Oakland County Teacher of the Year that same year. Ms. Blanchard is a Grammy-nominated music educator and is in Who’s Who Among American Teachers. When she is not teaching, Ms. Blanchard loves to spend time with her husband and their three Labrador retrievers. She enjoys traveling, camping and gardening.

Coming from the city of Detroit, a rising composer named Dominic Waddles starts his journey in the year 1999. After moving out of Detroit at a young age, Dominic began to build a strong connection with rhythm and harmony because of his musically rich family. After moving from the city to the suburbs, Dominic began to play the saxophone in the 4^thgrade. A couple years later, Dominic started to play more and more in class and at his home church, Hope United Methodist in Southfield, Michigan. After continuing to play all through middle and High school accumulating awards for his dedication to music, Dominic went on to pursue a Bachelors in Music with a focus in Jazz Studies at Wayne State University.

Throughout his years at Wayne, Dominic began studying music theory, along with his concentration in Jazz. Waddles then would be asked to arrange pieces for his classes and for his Family as well. Doing so, he found much more joy in writing then playing which led his family to start to give him more opportunities to write. Dominic would then be given his first big opportunity, coming from his brother Dr. Brandon Waddles, to write horn arrangements for Grammy Award Winning Artist, Ledisi. Throughout completing work for Ledisi’s Essence festival performance, Dominic would then be asked to write horn arrangements for another Grammy Awards Artist, Brandy.

After many more years of hard work and perseverance towards his degree completion at Wayne, Dominic Christopher Darwin Waddles would acquire his Degree in the Spring of 2022.  Going forward, Mr. Waddles will go on to study music composition and to be a symphonic and film composer.

Maritza Garibay is a music educator, orchestral conductor, multi-disciplinary sound artist from Detroit, Michigan, and a recipient of the 2022 New Music USA Creator Development Fund for her first opera, Cleansed. She is the Director of Orchestras at Detroit School of Arts and is the 2022 Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association Music Teacher of the Year. Garibay is working toward her Master of Arts in Music at Wayne State University and is an awardee of the 2022 Graduate Professional Scholarship. Her current work reflects on the diaspora of Pauline Oliveros’s deep listening practices in the BIPOC sonic arts community.

Mark Mutter is a violinist and educator who has collaborated with CYE for eleven seasons. He is a registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas and is executive director of Suzuki Royal Oak Institute of Music, where he oversees 11 teachers that teach over 150 students.

Mutter began his orchestral career as assistant principal second violin of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. During his time in Hong Kong he also taught at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts.

Mutter studied Suzuki pedagogy with John Kendall, Ronda Cole, Jacquie Maurer, and Geri Arnold, and he is now a Suzuki lecturer at the University of Michigan. In addition to his work in Michigan, he has proudly served as a clinician at workshops throughout the United States and Asia.

Mark Mutter is a violinist and educator who has collaborated with CYE for eleven seasons. He is a registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas and is executive director of Suzuki Royal Oak Institute of Music, where he oversees 11 teachers that teach over 150 students.

Mutter began his orchestral career as assistant principal second violin of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. During his time in Hong Kong he also taught at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts.

Mutter studied Suzuki pedagogy with John Kendall, Ronda Cole, Jacquie Maurer, and Geri Arnold, and he is now a Suzuki lecturer at the University of Michigan. In addition to his work in Michigan, he has proudly served as a clinician at workshops throughout the United States and Asia.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela and based in Detroit, Pia Bucco's first exposure to music started as a member of "El Sistema,'' where she discovered the power of orchestra playing. A passionate teacher, her life mission has always been to encourage young musicians to pursue their dreams and empower their communities with a vision for a better future through music and arts education.  

After completing her music education, Ms. Bucco joined El Sistema faculty. Four years later, she co-founded the Escuela Integral para las Artes, an elementary school with a strong emphasis in arts and music education. In 2018, Ms. Bucco joined the Sphinx Organization faculty and became a lead teacher for the Sphinx Overture Program in Detroit. Ms. Bucco is a Suzuki-certified violin teacher. Before joining the Sphinx Organization, she was a full-time faculty member at the Suzuki Royal Oak Institute of Music. 

Ms. Bucco has performed both as a soloist and as an orchestra member in South America, the USA and Europe. She was a member of the Simon Bolivar Symphony, Camerata San Cristobal, Pittsburgh Opera, (PA) Pittsburgh Ballet (PA) and since 2010 member of the Flint Symphony (MI). 

Ms. Bucco is a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow where she obtained Bachelor and a Masters degrees in Violin Performance and Chamber Music. She also earned an Artist Diploma from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Na’Zir McFadden, 21, is the is the inaugural Apprentice Conductor of the Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra. Most recently, McFadden was invited by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) to direct its “Notes for Peace” program, an initiative to combat youth gun violence in the greater Chicago area. Working alongside musicians of the CSO Civic Orchestra and the Chicago Recording Company, he recorded a series of new works, each dedicated to families impacted by acts of senseless violence. 

McFadden served as the 2020-2021 Robert L. Poster Conducting Apprentice of the New York Youth Symphony. During his time with the orchestra, he recorded two new compositions, available on SoundCloud and YouTube. In February 2017, McFadden made his Pop-Up debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Following this performance, The Philadelphia Inquiry praised McFadden for his “great stick [baton] technique and energetic presence on the podium.” 

McFadden has collaborated with some of classical music’s top artists including Hillary Hahn, Ricardo Muti, Beatrice Jona Affron, and Cliff Colnot. Upcoming engagements include an appearance with Orchestra 2001of Philadelphia. 

McFadden maintains a flourishing conducting schedule and continues to develop his skills as a classically trained instrumentalist, currently serving as clarinetist in the Philadelphia-based wind quintet Opus(215), of which he is also a founding member. At the age of 21, McFadden won his first professional audition as a clarinetist in the United States Navy Band. 

McFadden has performed with The Peoria Symphony Orchestra, Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, Lakeview Symphony Orchestra, Center City Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and National Take a Stand Festival Orchestra. He served as Guest Principal Clarinetist in the Bacau Philharmonic during the summer of 2019. 

McFadden is a dual recipient of the Fresh Smiles Career Grant (2017, 2018) and was invited to speak on behalf of the organization at the American Friends of Italy gala. Additionally, he received artistic direction and financial support from the Primavera Fund, Project 440, and Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth. 

Ken Thompson directs the DSYWE and Civic Philharmonic Orchestra and has worked with CYE for more than ten years. He serves as professor in the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH.

In demand as a guest conductor and lecturer, Thompson maintains an active schedule with engagements throughout the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and China. He has appeared as a lecturer or clinician with the International Society for Music Education, the National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association, the North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, West Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri Music Educators Association conferences, and many others.

Thompson studied at Limestone College and earned his Master and Doctorate degrees from the University of Iowa. He previously served as artistic director of the Toledo Symphony Youth Orchestras and associate conductor of the St. Louis Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds.