Tuba and Euphonium Artist
Artists and Presenters
SERTEC 2026 will feature professional musicians, student performers and more from the South East region of the US and beyond.
Featured Tuba Artist - Willie Clark
Featured Euphonium Artist - Ada Brooks
Featured Ensemble - The UGA British Brass Band
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Featured Tuba Artist
Willie Clark is lecturer of tuba and euphonium at the University of Maryland School of Music where he teaches applied tuba and euphonium lessons, coaches brass chamber groups and serves as the director of the UMD Brass Ensemble. Clark is also a retired 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 Tubafours.”
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 National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 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, The Who, John Legend, Andrea Bocelli 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 4’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.
Featured Euphonium Artist
Ada Brooks is a professional euphonium player with the West Point Band. Before securing her position with the West Point Band, she served as a member of the Air National Guard Band of the Southwest and the Dallas Brass Band, while also maintaining a studio of more than 30 private lesson students. She has achieved success in various international competitions, including winning first place in the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium Student Competition, first place in the International Women's Brass Conference Mock Audition, and second place in the International Euphonium Tuba Festival Artist Solo Competition. She won an audition with the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America and was deemed qualified and hireable in an audition with the U.S. Air Force Band.
Originally hailing from Montana, Ada’s love of the euphonium brought her across the country at the age of 16 to complete her high school education at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She went on to graduate summa cum laude from the University of North Texas, where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in euphonium performance under the tutelage of Dr. Brian Bowman and Dr. David Childs. In her free time, Ada enjoys rock climbing, mountain biking with her dog, and camping in her homemade teardrop trailer.
The University of Georgia
British Brass Band
Collaborative Pianists
Eva Panagou is a pianist from Piraeus, Greece, currently pursuing a DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA) under the guidance of Dr. Liza Stepanova. She holds a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH), a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from the Ionian University (Corfu, Greece), and a Piano Diploma from the Municipal Conservatory of Piraeus (Piraeus, Greece).
Eva has premiered several new works and enjoys performing both as a soloist and in chamber music settings. In 2022, during her Master’s degree, she was awarded third place in the Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition with soprano Sofia Vassiliadou. In July 2024, she received the ISB Harmon Lewis Collaborative Keyboard Artist Grant for commissioning, performing, and recording new works for double bass and piano with double bassist Adam Har-zvi. In February 2025, she was selected by the University of Georgia piano faculty to perform at Steinway Hall (New York, NY) alongside other UGA pianists.
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Her performance experience includes festivals and conferences in the United States, Greece, Germany, and Italy, such as the Classical Music Festival of Xanthi (Xanthi, Greece), Winter Clavier (Athens, Greece), Festival of Pianist Art (Lefkada, Greece), Kilkis Piano Festival (Kilkis, Greece), Skiathos Piano Festival (Skiathos, Greece), International Music Days Brache (Hamburg, Germany), the Great Lakes Regional Conference and the Midwest Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference (Bowling Green, OH), and the Pellegrini Festival of New Music (Muncie, IN). She is a former student of pianists Lambis Vassiliadis and Solungga Liu.
Maila Gutierrez Springfield, Senior Lecturer in Music at Valdosta State University, has served as a staff accompanist at Georgia Southern University, the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, Buffet Crampon Summer Clarinet Academy, Peach State Summer Theatre, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. She is featured on saxophonist Joren Cain’s CD “Voices of Dissent” and clarinetist Linda Cionitti’s “Jag & Jersey.” As a collaborative pianist, Maila has performed at prominent conferences, including the U.S. Army Tuba Euphonium Workshop, the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest, and the North American Saxophone Alliance. Recognized by American Record Guide for her solid technique and musical touch, Maila has collaborated with renowned artists including Steven Mead, Adam Frey, Daniela Mack, Taye Diggs, Nestor Torres, and Yo-Yo Ma. She holds degrees from Syracuse University (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM), where she received the Excellence in Accompanying Award twice.
Collaborative pianist Nicole Ying has built a career at the intersection of artistry, innovation, and service. An active performer, educator, and arts administrator, she is deeply committed to expanding the reach of collaborative piano through performance, teaching, and community engagement.
Equally at home on the concert stage and in the classroom, Nicole has coached singers, instrumentalists, and chamber ensembles, mentoring young musicians across both traditional and contemporary repertoire. A passionate advocate for new music, she has premiered works with ensembles including The Ensemble under Nicholas Deyoe and Christopher Rountree, NOVA under Elizabeth McNutt, UNT Wind Symphony under Eugene Corporon, and has performed landmark pieces such as Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire and Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King. She is the co-founder of duo (i)-ll-us-ion, the world’s first suona–piano duo, which commissioned and premiered multiple works during its residency at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. The duo introduced the first-ever body of repertoire for this unique instrumentation under the mentorship of internationally acclaimed composer Chen Yi and Pulitzer-winning composer Zhou Long.
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Nicole has collaborated with leading artists such as Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, Allen Fogel, Lorenz Gamma, Adam Liu, Andrew McIntosh, Mark Menzies, Stephen Miahky, John Michel, Mitchell Newman, Phil O'Connor, Dennis Parker, and Vicki Ray, as well as exceptional musicians from major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, and Florida Orchestra.
Her festival fellowships include the Music Academy of the West, Eastern Music Festival, Mostly Modern Festival, and the Castleman String Quartet Program. She has worked and performed with students from the distinguished studios of Rebecca Albers, Atar Arad, Jeff Bradetich, Victoria Chiang, Hans Jensen, Mark Kaplan, Eric Kim, Robert McDuffie, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Kurt Muroki, Alan Stepansky, Peter Stumpf, Jeffrey Turner, among many others. She also collaborated with students in masterclasses with influential artists such as Timothy Day, Michelle DeYoung, Glenn Dicterow, James Ehnes, Christian Lindberg, Matthew Lipman, Paul Merkelo, Raman Ramakrishnan, and Astrid Schween.
Nicole holds degrees from UCLA (B.A. in Anthropology, minor in Korean), California Institute of the Arts (M.M. in Piano Performance), Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (Performer Diplomas in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano), and University of North Texas (D.M.A. in Collaborative Piano with a related field in Music Business). She is the inaugural Artist Diploma candidate in Collaborative Piano at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University as the Renasant Scholar. Her primary mentors include Anne Epperson, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Steve Harlos, Kevin Murphy, Ming Tsu, Elvia Puccinelli, and Kyung-A Yoo. She has also worked under the guidance of renowned collaborative piano figures Jean Barr, Jonathan Feldman, Martin Katz, Kathleen Kelly, Ana María Otamendi, and Howard Watkins.
In addition to her artistic work, Nicole is an experienced administrator and advocate. She has served as Advancement Scholar at UNT, Chief Assistant at the Borromeo Music Festival, Social Media/Marketing/Sales staff for the Mostly Modern Festival, and Social Media Director for the Collaborative Piano Institute and ChamberFest at CSUN. Her collaborative piano–focused social media reels have garnered over two million views worldwide, supporting her goal of demystifying classical musicians, promoting classical music, and connecting with audiences on a larger scale.
Nicole’s musical journey is also informed by her early studies in anthropology, which continue to shape her collaborative philosophy: music as dialogue, cultural connection, and service. Outside of music, she is an avid reader and traveler, and she currently resides in Georgia with her Shiba Inu, Verse.