A. J. Merlino (Music) has been accepted to play at the International Percussion Festival in Cordoba, Argentina. One of the biggest festivals of its kind in South America, the event includes a large number of diverse artists and has a rigorous application process. He will be performing new and standard repertoire. Those percussion works are…

Thomas Leslie (Music) recently was elected president of the American Bandmasters Association (ABA), the nation's most prestigious band association. Founded in 1929 by Edwin Franco Goldman, the ABA elected John Philip Sousa as its first honorary president. Leslie serves as the 76th president of this historical group. Presidency of the ABA is…

David Schmoeller (Film) received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in World Cinema. The event took place at the Fantaspoa Film Festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the largest genre film festival in South America, and featured the world premiere of his 10th feature film Little Monsters (2012). The film was shot on location in Las Vegas…

Dana Moran Williams (Theatre) recently designed Rainbow Connections in Los Angeles, a New Works Festival celebrating the work of LGBTQ artists. The three-cycle, nine-week program was sponsored by the Knightsbridge Theatre and funded in part by the National American Shakespeare Company with a grant from the office of cultural diversity from the…

David Loeb performed George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the Smith Center in April, receiving a standing ovation from the audience. He also was the featured pianist for Laura Karpmann's "Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz," based on the Langston Hughes poem that was recently recorded at George Lucas's…