Dr. Langston Hemenway, Conductor, earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Michigan, his Master’s degree in Conducting from the University of Kansas, and a Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Hemenway is the Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Studies at William Jewell College, where he conducts the Symphonic Band, directs the Jazz Band, teaches conducting and instrumental technique classes, supervises music education students, and administrates the instrumental division of the music department.
Dr. Hemenway is an active conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, regularly working with community and school bands from a wide array of experience levels. Prior to his position at Jewell, he served on the music faculty at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. and also taught for seven years as a public school band director in Texas and Kansas, working with distinguished high school programs in the Houston and Wichita areas. He has worked with numerous distinguished composers including Michael Daugherty, John Mackey, Kristin Kuster, Steven Bryant, Joel Puckett, Carter Pann, and Roshanne Etezady.
Dr. Hemenway’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the Music Educator’s Associations of Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri. He holds membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and is an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota. Dr. Hemenway is published by GIA Music.
Dr. Amy M. Knopps, Assoiciate Director, is the Co-Interim Associate Director of the School of Music, Associate Director of Bands, Director of Athletic Bands, and Area Coordinator of Large Ensembles at the University of Missouri, where she directs Marching Mizzou, Mini Mizzou, and Symphonic Band, while also teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in the School of Music.
Since her appointment in 2017, Marching Mizzou has grown from 245 members to a current capacity of 350. Under her leadership, the ensemble performed in the 96th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2022—leading the parade and appearing in the opening number alongside Lea Michele and the cast of Funny Girl—and earned the distinction of “Best Overall Band” in the 2024 St. Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin, Ireland. In another significant milestone, Marching Mizzou has been invited to participate in London Band Week in June 2026, an invitation-only international event recognizing elite musical ensembles from around the world. This appearance will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Marching Mizzou’s 1975 tour of England, when the ensemble was proclaimed the Official Bicentennial Band of the State of Missouri by then-Governor Christopher Bond.
Prior to returning home to Mizzou, Dr. Knopps served for seven years as a tenured Associate Professor of Music, Associate Director of Bands, and Director of Athletic Bands at Eastern Michigan University. During her tenure, she was named a Faculty Spotlight Recipient, became the inaugural recipient of the Thank-A-Teacher Award, and was featured in the historic exhibition In Her Shoes: Forging Paths at EMU. She made institutional history as the first woman to direct the EMU Marching Band and, alongside her colleague Dr. Mary Schneider, formed the first all-female collegiate Director and Associate Director of Bands leadership team in the nation.
Dr. Knopps earned degrees from The University of Georgia (DMA, 2010), the University of Kansas (MM, 2007), and the University of Missouri (BS, Ed., 2001) where her principal conducting teachers were Dr. John P. Lynch and Dr. Dale J. Lonis. While at Georgia and Kansas she held conducting associate positions that involved conducting both concert and athletic bands as well as teaching courses in the music curriculum. During her time at The University of Georgia, Dr. Knopps earned the Hugh Hodgson School of Music Director’s Excellence Award and was selected by the faculty to give the student address at her commencement ceremony. At the University of Kansas, she received the prestigious Russell L. Wiley Graduate Conducting Award in recognition of her excellence in conducting and pedagogy.
Additional teaching experience includes numerous years as Director of Bands at Center High School and Center Middle School in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, where she began her career and guided all aspects of this diverse, award-winning band program, and served as Fine Arts Coordinator. The Center High School band program holds personal significance, as her father, Jacob Knopps, served on faculty as a mathematics teacher alongside legendary composer and educator Claude T. Smith. During her time in the Center School District, Dr. Knopps was honored with the 2003 Missouri Fine Arts Outstanding Teacher Award and the 2004 You Make the Difference Award for her inspiring impact made on the students in her ensembles. In 2003, she solely commissioned and premiered Jonathan Newman’s 1861 for concert band, launching her long-standing commitment to commissioning and advancing new and diverse wind band repertoire, a commitment she continues today through commissions for the University of Missouri Bands program.
Dr. Knopps remains highly active as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and keynote speaker across the United States and internationally having worked and performed throughout Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, and South America. In 2025, she was officially named Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Wind Symphony after several years of service as a guest conductor with the professional ensemble.
For more than a decade, she has served as a head clinician/instructor at the Smith-Walbridge Clinics, the first summer training program for elite high school and collegiate drum majors and student leaders from across the country. Her scholarly and professional publications include several articles in School Band and Orchestra Magazine, The Instrumentalist, eight contributions to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, and a feature in the 2023 book Women in Wind Band, a publication that thoughtfully looks at why female-identifying conductors are still a minority in the field. She has also conducted significant research on American-sponsored overseas secondary band programs, inspired by her passion for cultural exchange and making music abroad.
Dr. Knopps maintains professional affiliations with the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), currently serving as Chair of the CBDNA Athletic Bands Committee in her second term, the first woman to ever serve in this position, and as Chair for the state of Missouri, also in her second term, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), National Band Association (NBA), Missouri Women’s Band Directors Association (MWBD), Phi Beta Mu, Tau Beta Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi, currently serving as the sponsor for the Eta Upsilon chapter, the Griffiths Leadership Society for Women, currently serving on the Executive Committee as Past Chair, and QEBH, the oldest of six secret honor societies at the University of Missouri when she was Honor Tapped in 2018, during her first year on faculty at Mizzou.
Her recognitions at Mizzou include earning Associate Professor of the Year and the Purple Chalk Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Science in 2021. In 2022, Dr. Knopps was named to the 2022-2023 University of Missouri Provost Leadership Program Cohort, a program with the goal of developing academic leaders who will guide Mizzou into the future. In 2023, Dr. Knopps earned the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Science, the Faculty and Alumni Award from the Mizzou Alumni Association, and was inducted into the Marching Mizzou Hall of Fame in honor of her time as an undergraduate student in Marching Mizzou as a Piccolo Section Member, Piccolo Section Leader, Drum Major, Head Drum Major, and now as Director of Athletic Bands.
In 2024, Dr. Knopps earned the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, the highest award offered at Mizzou. In 2025, she was inducted into the Lee’s Summit High School Hall of Fame, joining her brother, Anthony Knopps, an eight-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, educator, Tedx speaker, and advocate for traumatic brain injury awareness since his own survival, as one of the first set of siblings to receive this honor.
In that same year, Dr. Knopps joined Jupiter Band Instruments as an endorsed artist and educator, furthering her commitment to excellence, creativity, and dedication to technological advances of the collegiate marching arts and music education for all.
Pat Setser, Associate Conductor Emeritus, recently retired as Supervisor of Music for the North Kansas City Public Schools and Director of Bands at Winnetonka High School. Over the years, her bands received consistent 1st Division ratings and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Carnegie Hall. Ms. Setser is a member of the music staff at the University of Central Missouri.
Recognized as one of the area’s most accomplished musicians, Ms. Setser has been a member of Kansas City Wind Symphony since 2002.
Dr. Phil Posey, Conductor Emeritus, is a graduate of Florida State University and Eastman School of Music and received his DMA in Conducting and Music Education at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has done post-doctoral studies in conducting at the Hochschule for Music in Vienna, Austria and studied with numerous noted conducting teachers including Elizabeth Green, Leonard Slatkin, and Arbo Arman.
From 1965-2004 Dr. Posey served as Director of Instrumental Studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he founded the Liberty Symphony Orchestra and served as Principal Conductor.
As a result of a sabbatical leave in 1993, he became the conductor of the Shaanxi Symphony Orchestra in Xi’an China. He has been invited back seven times to conduct the orchestra in concerts and tours.
Flute
Kaytee Dietrich*
Molly Batchelor
Crystal Kimmel
Melissa Peterson
Audrey Swain
Piccolo
Crystal Kimmel*
Oboe
Anne Sneller*+ (English Horn)
Jenny McElderry
Clarinet
Bob Dover*+
Fabrice Curtis
Edwin Fukunaga
Amy Jantz
Diane Karius (Eb Soprano) +
Jill Orrick
Angela Roath
Amber Scruton
Lydia Vermeer
Melissa Zirkel
Bass Clarinet
Pat Setser*
Deborah Hall
Bassoon
Amy Knudsen*
Angela Witt
Alto Saxophone
Travis Meier*
Crista Pinkston
Tenor Saxophone
Bob Coleman
Baritone Saxophone
Elgin Smith
Horn
R. Brady Finch*
Shelley Peters*
Wendi Calkins Levitt+
Emily Carney
Kassandra Crooks
Linda Finch
Scott Sands
Kayla Wood
Trumpet
Austin Wakat*
Dan Barnett
Ted Hanman
David Hershberger
Andrea Rogers
Scott Stevens
Cynthia Szczesny
Euphonium
Casey VanBiber*
Trombone
Lee Finch*
Christopher Blair
Mike Burger
Chase Grafton
Benjamin Sachs
Ken Tysick
Tuba
Buck Buchanan*+
Percussion
Donna Bohn*
Charles Lovell
Eric Powers
Cara Tucker
Johnathan Westcott
Piano
Edwin Fukunaga
+ = Charter Member
*=Section Principal/Co-Principal
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