About the Event
The IN-ASTA High School Orchestra Invitational will take place on November 7 and 8, 2025 at Ball State University. Directors may choose to attend Friday evening or Saturday morning/afternoon.
The process will run similar to the ASTA National Orchestra Festival. In three 25-minute segments, each orchestra will receive a warm-up time, performance time (two pieces of director’s choice), and a clinic with one adjudicator after their performance. Lunch, dinner, and travel plans will be at the discretion of the directors. Register today!
Clinicians
Dr. Brenda Brenner is a Professor of Music Education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she specializes in string music education, teaching applied violin, as well as courses in violin and string pedagogy. Additionally, as Director
of the Jacobs Academy, Brenner oversees the precollege and community educational initiatives of the Jacobs School. She serves as co-director of the IU
String Academy, a position she has held since 1993. Her String Academy students have been featured in concerts in major venues throughout the United States and have presented tours throughout Europe, Asia, and South America.
As director of the Fairview Project - a program in which every first and second grader in an underserved school is taught the violin as part of the curriculum - Brenner researches the cognitive, academic, and social outcomes of early instrumental music instruction. She also teaches and conducts at the IU Summer String Academy and is Assistant Director of the IU Retreat for Professional Violinists and Violists.
She is an active international clinician, with recent appearances at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the ASTA National Conferences, and Music Educators Conferences throughout the United States. Brenner is a Past President of the American String Teachers Association and is on the board of directors of the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.
Frank Lestina received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Roosevelt University and his Master’s Degree in Administration from the University of Illinois.
Mr. Lestina started his teaching career in Danville, Illinois where he taught orchestra at Southview Middle School and Danville High School. In 1986, Mr. Lestina accepted the Orchestra Director position at Libertyville High School, Libertyville, Illinois. The Symphony Orchestra was invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic in 1991 and again in 1996. In addition, the LHS Orchestras traveled extensively, including three tours to Europe. In the fall of 2000, Mr. Lestina accepted the position of Fine Arts Supervisor
and Orchestra Director at the new school in District 128, Vernon Hills High School, where the string enrollment eventually grew to 150 students in three orchestras. The VHHS Orchestras have also continued the tradition of travel including tours to China in 2001, Spain in 2006, Italy in 2008 and Prague/Austria in 2012. Mr. Lestina retired from Vernon Hills High School in June of 2013 and currently serves as adjunct faculty in Music Education at DePaul University.
Mr. Lestina is a member of American String Teachers Association and was very active in the Illinois Music Educators Association where he served on the ILMEA State Board as the District 7 President for two terms. Mr. Lestina currently serves on the Midwest Clinic Advisory Board and moderates the New Music Reading Session for Orchestra. Mr. Lestina is very active as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator and has served as guest conductor for many of the ILMEA District Orchestras at both the Middle School and High School levels. Mr. Lestina conducted the ILMEA All-State Orchestra for the 2014 Conference in Peoria, Illinois.
Conductor Paul Hostetter is the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the acclaimed Sequitur Ensemble, the Principal
Conductor of the Flageolet Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City.. Recently he served as Conductor for the Pixar Live show at Disney World's Hollywood Studios. He also serves as the Artistic Director for the Music Under the Dome series, in partnership with the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, GA.
In the world of education he has led programs for Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Manhattan School of Music's Graduate Orchestral Performance Program, and has presented master classes at the Mannes School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Michigan, William Paterson University, and the University of San Paulo. He has led conducting workshops for the NY Philharmonic/NY Pops/ NY City Board of Education and has also led numerous honors orchestras including the NJ All-State and Florida All-State Orchestras.
An avid instrumentalist, Maestro Hostetter performed as a percussionist/timpanist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom he toured and recorded extensively (including a Grammy Award) as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and many others. He has recorded for labels including Argo, Decca, Delos, Deutsche-Grammaphon, Naxos, New World, Polygram, Pro-Arte, RCA Victor, Sony Classical, and Warner Brothers, and has appeared on numerous movie soundtracks and jingles, as well as over ten Broadway productions.
He holds degrees in performance from the Florida State University and the Juilliard School of Music and has appeared in master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Slatkin, Larry Rachleff, and Christopher Wilkins.