Darin Graber is the Director of Bands and Fine Arts Department Chair at Bingham High School, a position he has held since 2000. He holds a Masters Degree in Instrumental Conducting from Washington State University, Pullman WA studying under the baton of the late Dr. L. Keating Johnson, a Bachelors of Music Education Degree with an emphasis in Secondary Instrumental Music from the University of Kansas, Lawrence KS performing under the direction of Robert E. Foster & James Barnes, and an Associates Degree in Education from Hutchinson Community College, Hutchinson KS while on a full jazz scholarship. He is a current or past member of the Utah Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, Washington Music Educators Association, Kansas Music Educators Association, Kansas Bandmasters Association, and National Bandmasters Association. He is a past President of the Utah Bandmasters Association and has also been a member of such music associations as SPEBSQSA, Kappa Kappa Psi, and the American Federation of Musicians, local #110. He is also currently serving, or has served on the UMEA Band Committee, the Utah All-State Band committee, and the UMEA Marching Band Committee.
Originally from and teaching in the Midwest, Mr. Graber taught middle school and high school band, orchestra and choir for 6 years in Kansas, spent two years at Washington State University as a graduate teaching assistant with the WSU Bands, and is in his 25th year teaching in the Jordan School District, 24 of which have been at Bingham High School. He was a member of the Idaho/Washington Symphony Orchestra and has performed on trumpet with groups backing up such musical and jazz greats as John Faddis, James Moody, David Steinmeyer, Clark Terry, David Foster, Frank Mantooth, and Aaron Neville and the Neville Brothers. He also has credits on several independent albums, received a Downbeat magazine student musician award, has done some studio work in the Kansas City area, and occasionally freelances on trumpet in the Salt Lake valley with different semi-professional jazz big bands and other ensembles. He enjoys restoring british sports cars in his spare time, and currently lives in South Jordan UT.
Dane Peterson was first introduced to the marching arts under duress his freshman year of high school in 2005, but immediately came to love it and has been involved ever since. Introduced to drum corps for the first time that year, he joined the Blue Devils B corps in 2007 and played with them for two years before moving to Utah. His indoor experience includes 3 years in the CCGC (Now NCPA) with Amador Valley High School, and 3 years as quad section leader/tech for South County Percussion in Utah. After playing for BYU in 2009 and 2010, he taught at Provo High, Maple Mountain High, Juan Diego Catholic High, West Jordan High, and Copper Hills High. Dane is an active clinician and private teacher for the marching arts, and is currently pursuing a degree in Cell & Molecular Biology at the University of Utah.
Heather Davidson has been the color guard director at Bingham High School since 2020. Some of Heather’s earliest memories are watching her older brothers perform in their high school marching band, which is where her love of color guard began. She started performing in 8th grade with the American Fork High School Marching Band and the American Fork High School Winter Guard. As a performer, Heather was able to compete in multiple state, regional, and national competitions, including the 2012 Rose Parade and 2009 and 2013 Grand National Championships. After graduating, Heather attended Utah State University and completed a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Psychology. While attending USU, Heather directed the Ridgeline High School Color Guard for 4 years. As director, she helped to start their competitive winter guard program, eventually placing 2nd in the 2020 state championships. Heather also teaches Language Arts at Bingham High School and loves being able to interact with her students on the field and in the classroom.
Mitchell Atencio completed his Honors Bachelor of Music degrees in Flute Performance and Instrumental Music Education at the University of Utah in 2019. His primary flute teachers include Lisa Byrnes, Caitlyn Valovick-Moore, and Tiffany Sedgley. He works in the Utah Symphony Music Library during the USUO summer season, previously winning the audition for the library fellowship at the Sarasota Music Festival and working for Utah Festival Opera preparing their materials. He also completed a degree in mathematics through Utah State University during 2021.
Mitchell currently plays with the Utah Wind Symphony, where he also serves on the board. He also freelances and plays with orchestras in the Salt Lake City area. During his undergraduate, he played in the top orchestras and bands at the U on both flute and piccolo. He began marching at West Jordan High School, and continued marching at the University of Utah, serving as the piccolo section leader.
Presently, Mitchell teaches instrumental music and AP Music Theory at Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah, additionally conducting pit orchestras and acting as the Artistic Director for the Canyons Symphony Orchestra. He oversaw the UFA Sonata Competition for several years, and additionally created an Adult Amateur nationwide competition through UFA which still runs annually today.
He loves working as an educator, performer, librarian, musician, and advocate.
John Tergina is a French Horn and Mellophone player from Orange County in Southern California, graduating from Brea Olinda High School in 2023. He started with the BOHS band in 2019, playing in marching band, wind ensemble, and jazz band after playing Trumpet, French Horn, and Piano throughout
middle school.
After discovering Drum Corps International, John joined Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps in 2021 for their program “eX” and returned to Brea to serve as high brass section leader and march Bass 4 with BOHS’ winter drumline. John went on to compete for three additional seasons with Pacific Crest and made history with the Corp’s highest score and placement in history with their production “The Broken Column” in 2024.
These days, John has been performing with the Marching Utes at the University of Utah since 2023, majoring in Applied Mathematics with the goal of becoming an Actuary, with teaching music on the side. Other than music, John enjoys card and board games, pickleball, video games, and various other activities.
Ben Blodgett is currently pursuing a degree in Instrumental Music Education at the University of Utah. He is the principal euphonium in the Wind Ensemble as well as the section leader for Marching Utes’ Mighty Utah Tuba Section. Ben began his marching career at West Jordan High School before transferring to Bingham where he played in the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Winter Drumline, and Marching Band. He was Principal Euphonium in the Utah All State Wind Ensemble, was selected as a BHS concerto performer, and performed in Europe with the Utah Ambassadors of Music before he graduated from Bingham High School in 2021.
Ben graduated in the top tier of his class at the Army School of Music and now performs professionally as a member of the 23rd Army Band of the Utah Army National Guard on euphonium, trombone, and tuba. He has performed all over the world including the United States Capitol, the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, London, Paris, Germany, Switzerland and Salzburg. He is an active performer with the Marching Utes, Ute Pep Band, U of U Wind Ensemble and performs regularly in a wide-ranging schedule of ensemble and solo engagements. Outside of music, Ben enjoys weight lifting, video games, and hiking.
Jordan McMillan is a Bingham alum who graduated in 2022 with a huge affiliation in the music department, participating in all three band, orchestra, and choir branches simultaneously by his senior year. Starting his musical experience on piano from a very young age, his percussion career began when he was 12 years old. He participated in Bingham's drumline from 2018 to 2022 as part of both the front ensemble and battery percussion during that time. Jordan would later be accepted to The University of Utah, joining the Utah Drumline playing snare drum under the direction of Dr. Michael Sammons. He would go on to participate in the university's football games and championships in 2022 and 2023, traveling and playing at events such as the 2023 Parade of Roses in California. He built his interests as a clinician and private instructor, and in 2023, he became the Front Ensemble Director for Bingham High School's Marching Band and Winter Drumline programs.
Jordan is currently continuing his undergraduate education through the University of Utah School of Music, studying percussion and composition. He enjoys his time composing works and participating in ensembles at the U of U, such as the Utah Percussion Studio, Wind Ensemble, Pep Band, and Drumline-- of which he is excited to be the snare captain for in his junior year. Playing in the pep, orchestral, soloist, and jazz settings as a student and freelance musician, Jordan is constantly looking for ways to explore the world of performing, writing, and coaching music. Between attending classes, rehearsals, and performances, he enjoys working with the high school students and helping expand their experiences as developing musicians and team players.
Sydney Cardwell started out her performer career in both gymnastics and dance, as well as participating in team sports since she was little. In 2016, she started her competitive dance career, and enjoyed the near constant strive for improvement. Eventually in 2019, after she had been doing color guard for one winter season, she decided to make color guard her full focus and moved on from her competitive dancing career. She have been apart of the color guard world since her first year at Westlake High School in 2018. She started out doing junior guard her 8th grade year and didn’t stop, continuing every year and participating in both marching band and winter guard. She's been to San Antonio Super Regional 2019, St. George Regional 2019-2022 and was awarded the visual caption year 2022, the San Diego WGI Regional 2022, and the 2023 WGI World Championships. She interned with the Westlake junior guard both 2022 and 2023 gaining experience in show design, technical expertise, and leadership with middle school age students. Currently she participates in as many local color guard opportunities as she can, and she hopes to continue with color guard for as long as she possibly can. Her goal is to gain year after year of experience with veterans in the sport, and work with like minded people working to improve the color guard environment in our community as a whole.
Andrea Pischnotte has been working with the Bingham High School Marching band since 2022. Originally from Australia, Andrea’s first career was in K-12 admissions before moving to Utah in 2012. She initially worked in special education and university administration and admissions, but after encouraging many students to follow their dreams after high school, she finally followed her own of wanting to become a band director. She attended Westminster University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music and was awarded the Outstanding Senior award. Andrea also completed her Master of Education, publishing her thesis titled “Harmonic Progressions: Undergraduate Music Major’s Experiences and Career Aspirations,” and co-authored a published journal article titled “Statewide Arts Integration Programming: A Closer Look at Successes and Challenges for Elementary Students, Classroom Teachers, and Arts Educators.”
She has been performing with the Westminster University Chamber Orchestra since 2018 on flute, piccolo and French horn, and has sung with the Westminster University Community Choir as alto section leader in the performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall. Andrea is currently the band and choir director for 7th, 8th, and 9th grades at West Hills Middle School in Jordan School District.
