Albuquerque Youth Symphony

Mr. Whisler has conducted over 700 works with over 130 ensembles, including professional orchestras in the USA, England, Spain, Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania. His awards as a conductor include the Downbeat Award in 2011 for Best U.S. College Classical Ensemble (conducting Hallfter’s Tiento del primer tono y batalla imperial), the Bel Canto Award for Excellence in Conducting, and winner of the 2015 American Prize in Conducting.

Mr. Whisler’s recent former positions include Director of Orchestras at the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, Kentucky, Conductor of the Indianapolis Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Indianapolis, Indiana, Director of Orchestras at Center Grove Community School Corporation in Greenwood, Indiana, Founding and Principal Conductor with Intimate Opera of Indianapolis, and faculty member of the String Quartet Program of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado.

An active supporter of new music, Mr. Whisler has premiered 35 works, both as a conductor and as a performer, including conducting the world premiere of the Celtic ballet, Diedre of the Sorrows. He is comfortable with opera and musical theatre literature as well, having been on the conducting staff with Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, and numerous opera scenes concerts for the University of Northern Colorado Opera Theatre, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd for Theater Workshop of Owensboro (Kentucky), Holst’s Savitri and Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Intimate Opera of Indianapolis, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with the YPAS music department.

An experienced musician (string bass and horn) and music educator, Mr. Whisler has worked with youth orchestras in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Indiana, and Kentucky. At Center Grove, he increased orchestra student enrollment by over 37 percent and won 17 ISSMA Gold awards in just three years. Under his direction, the YPAS Philharmonia was selected to perform in the 2015 Music for All National Orchestra Festival, the 2016 and 2019 Kentucky Music Educators Association Conferences, The Midwest Clinic (2019), and Heritage Festivals in Chicago (2017) and New York City (2018), as well as international tours to Costa Rica, England, and Wales. He graduated summa cum laude with a BME from Wichita State University (Kansas) and earned an MM in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. His primary conducting teachers include Russell Guyver and Mark Laycock, with additional studies at 15 conducting institutes throughout the USA, Canada, South America, and Europe with internationally-renowned mentors, including Jorma Panula, Craig Kirchhoff, Markand Thakar, Colin Metters, Victor Yampolsky, Larry Livingston, and Benjamin Zander.

Rafael Videira, DMA, enjoys a prolific and multifaceted career as a pedagogue, performer, and conductor. He has taught and performed across the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany.

He has over fifteen years of teaching experience working with students of all levels, from Pre-Twinkle through advanced repertoire in both violin and viola. His students have won many competitions and they have also been accepted into prestigious institutions such as The Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Jacobs School of Music (University of Indiana), and The Hartt School (University of Hartford).

Most recently, before relocating to Albuquerque, Dr. Videira was on the faculty of the Suzuki Music Schools of Westport and Orange, ACES Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School, and he was one of the conductors for the Norwalk Youth Symphony program, all in Connecticut. Prior to that, he taught violin, viola, group classes and orchestra at the University of New Mexico Violin Lab School, the University of Oregon Community Music Institute, and elementary school string classes through a program sponsored by the Eugene and Springfield Youth Orchestras (formerly ArtsUmbrella).

In 2018, Dr. Videira was awarded the Suzuki Association of the America’s Certificate of Achievement, designed to recognize teachers committed to excellence in teaching and to establishing standards within the frameworks of the Suzuki philosophy.

As a performer, he played and recorded under the direction of many distinguished conductors – including Kurt Masur – and has been a member of many ensembles in his native Brazil and in the USA. During the Summers of 2016 and 2017, he was an international audition winner to be part of an orchestra performing works by J. S. Bach under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, in the cities of Weimar, Erfurt, Leipzig, and Eisenach, in Germany. In May, 2022 Dr. Videira was invited by the American Viola Society to be one of the recording artists featured in its inaugural album, promoting music by underrepresented composers, to be released in 2023.

Dr. Videira holds a Doctoral degree (DMA) in viola performance with emphasis in violin/viola pedagogy from the University of Oregon and a Masters degree in performance from the University of New Mexico, where he completed his Long Term Training in the Suzuki Violin method with Prof. Susan Kempter. He also attended workshops and teacher development courses with Dr. Susan Baer, Dr. Robert Duke, Teri Einfeldt, Christie Felsing, Dr. Robert Gillespie, John Kendall, Lynn McCall, William Preucil, Sr., and Elizabeth Stuen-Walker.

He is a member of the American String Teachers Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the American Viola Society.