Wind Ensemble & Chamber Music Workshop

Bill Dunn

Chief Musician Bill Dunn, a native of Canton, Ohio, joined the Navy Band in 2006. Prior to the Cruisers, Dunn was a member of United States Military Academy Band at West Point. He earned a Bachelor of Music from The Ohio State University in trumpet performance and a Master of Music in trumpet performance from the Manhattan School of Music, studying classical trumpet with Vincent Penzarella, jazz trumpet with Byron Stripling, improvisation with Garry Dial, Afro-Cuban music with Bobby Sanabria and arranging with Manny Albam. Other significant trumpet teachers in his career include Richard Burkart, William Adam, Pharez Whitted, Laurie Frink, Charley Davis and Dave Sheetz.

Ricky Parrell

A native of the Washington, D.C., area, Ricky Parrell grew up in a home full of music. It was this rich foundation of music that led him to study music of all genres and become a talented performer and engaging saxophonist comfortable in any performance venue. Parrell is a member of one of the premier military bands in Washington, D.C. He is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician, as well as a Selmer Saxophone Endorsing Artist. He has performed in all of the lower 48 states. His debut album “Keys to My Life” is a culmination of years of study, practice and lessons learned along the bumpy road of life as a husband, parent, service member and musician.

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Joy Branagan

Joy Branagan is a horn player and teacher in the Washington, D.C., area. From 2017 to 2019 she was acting fourth horn in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012 to 2016 she performed as second horn in the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Branagan has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony (Virginia), Albany Symphony and New Haven Symphony. She regularly performs with the Harrisburg Symphony, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and other orchestras in the D.C. and Baltimore areas.

Branagan spends her summers on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spent 10 years teaching at Bar Harbor Brass Week in Maine. She has also been on the faculties of Towson University in Maryland and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, as well as being guest professor of horn at the University of Georgia from 2014 to 2015, and guest professor of horn at Shenandoah University in the fall of 2021. She has a private horn studio in Alexandria, Virginia.

Branagan has a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education from The University of Georgia. Her teachers were Erik Ralske of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Dr. Jean Martin-Williams at The University Of Georgia. Branagan performs on a Ricco Kühn W293 with a large bell and a Stork CMA 14 mouthpiece.

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Willie Clark

Willie Clark is lecturer of tuba at the University of Maryland School of Music (UMD) where he teaches applied tuba lessons, coaches brass chamber groups and serves as the director of the UMD Brass Ensemble. Clark is also currently a member of the United States Air Force “Ceremonial Brass” in Washington, D.C., and was a founding member of the Barclay Brass and professional Disney tuba quartet The Tuba Fours.

As a performer, Clark has toured the United States, South America, Australia, China, Japan and eighteen countries in Europe. During these travels he performed with the China National Symphony, the Empire Brass for the Campos do Jordao Winter Music Festival and USA Tour, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Sam Rivers’ RivBea Orchestra and Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band. Clark has also served as a low brass clinician on the European Tour with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. You can hear him on the Tuba Four’s CD “Under the Boardwalk.” He has also recorded with John Williams and the Boston Bops Brass Section, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, the United States Air Force Band, Alfred Publishing, Warner Brothers and Electronic Arts.

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