Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Dr. Scott LaGraff
Dr. Scott LaGraff, professor of voice, is a graduate of the Tri-Cities Opera Resident Artist Training Program in Binghamton, New York, where he sang the title roles in “Don Giovanni" and "Le Nozze di Figaro," the villains in "Les Contes d’Hoffmann" and Capulet in "Roméo et Juliette," among others, and was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant. He has appeared multiple times with Opera East Texas in such roles as Schaunard in "La Bohème" and Dick Deadeye in "H.M.S. Pinafore," and also has sung roles with the Syracuse, Tulsa, Pensacola and Westchester Hudson opera companies.
A selected list of his concert engagements includes appearances as the baritone soloist in Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" and Brahms “Requiem" with the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances of:
- Fauré "Requiem" and Handel’s "Messiah" with the Syracuse Symphony
- "Dvořak Te Deum" with the Baton Rouge Symphony
- Mozart "Mass in C Minor" with the Canterbury Choral Society in Oklahoma City
- "Bruckner Te Deum at Carnegie Hall
- and solo appearances with the Longview Symphony, the Ocean City Pops, the Binghamton Pops, the Orchestra of the Pines and the Syracuse Oratorio Society.
LaGraff is an advocate of contemporary American song, and his first CD, "Songs by Stephen Lias, Michael Patterson and Lee Hoiby," was released by Centaur Records in 2009. A second CD, entitled "Incline Thine Ear and Other Sacred Songs," was released in 2017, also with Centaur. In addition to being the first to record several of Lee Hoiby's pieces, he also gave the first performances of Hoiby's "Chants d’Exil" and the solo arrangement of "Last Letter Home," and commissioned and premiered Stephen Lias’s "Songs of a Sourdough."
He created a video series on YouTube, entitled All-State Diction Tips, which have proven to be extremely popular with high school choir directors and students as they prepare for All-State Choir auditions.
LaGraff's students have sung with professional opera companies and young artist programs, in international and domestic summer programs, gained admission to prestigious graduate schools and are successful music teachers in Texas schools.
The Athens, Ohio, native received his Bachelor of Music from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music from the State University of New York at Binghamton and his Doctor of Musical Arts from Louisiana State University.
Prior to joining the SFA faculty in 2004, he held teaching positions at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Showcased works
Dr. JD Salas
Dr. JD Salas received his bachelor's degree in tuba performance from Baylor University in Waco, where he studied with Dr. Michael A. Fischer, and his master's degree from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Kentucky where he served as the teaching assistant studying under Dr. Skip Gray.
Prior to joining SFA's School of Music in 2006, Salas served as Bangkok, Thailand's, first full-time tuba-euphonium professor served as artist/instructor of Tuba and Euphonium Studies at Mahidol University. Other previous teaching appointments include adjunct positions at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he taught low brass and jazz bass, and instructor of tuba at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Salas currently performs with the Longview Symphony, The Four Horsemen Tuba-Euphonium Quartet, and the SFA Jazz Doctors. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia through invited participation in many International Tuba Euphonium Association Conferences and solo tours. He also has presented panel discussions and clinics on the tuba's use in the Mexican regional music of Banda Sinaloense.
An accomplished jazz bass player, Salas serves as the director of jazz studies at SFA, coordinating jazz minor studies and directing SFA's Swingin' Axes.
He's performed with:
- Temple Symphony Orchestra
- Louisville Orchestra
- Lexington Philharmonic
- Shreveport Symphony Orchestra
- Disneyland All-American College Band in Anaheim, California
- and the Disneyland Paris International Show Band in Paris, France.
He's performed with many musical legends, including:
- Bobby Shew
- Jiggs Wigham
- Steve Houghton
- Rick Baptist
- and Marvin Stamm.
Salas is a performing artist with Buffet-Crampon U.S.A. and performs on B&S tubas.
Dr. Deb Scott
Professor of trombone and bass trombone, Dr. Deb Scott is active worldwide as a teacher and performer. She is a performing artist for Rath Trombones, England, and the director of the Composers’ Workshop for the International Trombone Festival, which helps bring new music compositions for trombone.
Scott is a performing member of Monarch Brass, a group that represents "the very best women brass... players throughout North America and Europe." She also was a featured artist at Trombonanza in Argentina and has been featured at other international venues including Germany, Brazil and the Czech Republic.
Her solo CD, "Playing Favorites," was released in 2017 by Navona Records, and she has been described as “one of the premiere soloists for her instrument” (Cinemusical 2017). She was part of the Christopher Bill's "Bonehemian Rhapsody" Youtube sensation featuring 28 trombonists from throughout the world. She also is regularly featured in radio broadcasts throughout North America and the world.
Scott has performed several times as a soloist and within groups at the International Trombone Festival, and under her direction, the SFA Trombone Octet has been featured twice. She also performs regularly throughout North America with her trio, TexiCali.
She has been a member of the:
- Shreveport Symphony
- Shreveport Opera
- Longview Symphony
- Twentieth Century Unlimited Orchestra in Santa Fe
- New Mexico Music Festival Orchestra in Taos
- SFA Symphony Orchestra
- Lubbock Symphony Orchestra
- Greeley Philharmonic in Colorado
- and Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Circus Band.
As a jazz artist, Scott performed frequently in the Houston area as the lead trombonist for the Ronnie Renfrow Big Band where she also often freelanced. She has performed with such artists as JJ Johnson, Louis Bellson, Diane Reeves, Frank Mantooth, Phil Woods, Lee Greenwood, Kay Starr, the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. Scott conducted jazz bands for over 30 years and was formerly the director of jazz studies at SFA.
She remains active as a clinician and performer for All-Region jazz ensembles and jazz festivals. Scott has twice directed the Texas All-State Community College Jazz Ensemble at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference.
Scott graduated with top honors from Texas Tech University with two bachelor's degrees. She received the dean’s award for her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado. Scott also was the the first doctoral trombone performance candidate at University of North Texas to earn a 4.0 GPA and first woman to complete a doctorate in trombone performance at UNT. She was the first woman to direct a university jazz band in the state of Texas.
Showcased works
TMEA All-State Trombone Audition Etude 1, Veloce by Blazhevich
Alba Madrid
Alba Madrid is the director of the Music Preparatory Division in the School of Music and has been teaching at the elementary, middle, high school and college level since 2006.
Before joining the SFA School of Music, she held the position of head orchestra director at Nikki Rowe High School in McAllen, and assistant orchestra director at Economedes High School in Edinburg. She also taught in the Gulfport School District and Houston Independent School District, both as a music teacher and orchestra director. Many of her students have qualified for All-State and All-Region Orchestras.
An active performer, Madrid has performed with many symphony orchestras including the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Texarkana Symphony Orchestra and Longview Symphony Orchestra. Prior to moving to Nacogdoches, she performed with many ensembles, including:
- Sinfonia da Camera
- Peoria Symphony Orchestra
- Heartland Festival Orchestra
- Mobile Symphony Orchestra
- Pensacola Symphony Orchestra
- Gulf coast Symphony Orchestra
- and the Valley Symphony Orchestra, where she held the position of principal second violin and performed in the orchestra’s chamber music series.
A native of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in violin performance from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she studied with professor Stephen Redfield. She also studied with violinist Alexander Brussilovsky at the Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves in France, and has continued her studies at the:
- String Project at the University of Michigan
- Dorothy Delay Symposium at the Juilliard School of Music
- and the Retreat for Professional Violinists at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana.
Madrid's professional affiliations include membership with the American String Teachers Association and Texas Music Educators Association.
