Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where he also leads the renowned NIU Steelband. Teague is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022) and a Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018).

Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, his commitment to demonstrating the great musical possibilities of the steelpan has taken him to throughout the world, and he has received many awards from his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver) and the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence. In 2022, The San Fernando City Council honored Teague with the Keys to the City of San Fernando, his hometown in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council (IACA) 2023 Artist Fellowship Award. Teague has won several notable competitions such as the Trinidad and Tobago National Steelband Festival Solo Championship and the Saint Louis Symphony Volunteers Association Young Artist Competition.

He has also performed with many diverse ensembles which include National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, University of Wisconsin-Madison Marching Band, Nutrien Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has appeared in concert with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and has regularly collaborated with NIU colleagues Robert Chappell (multi-instrumentalist) and Faye Seeman (harp) with whom he co-founded the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic.

He has also presented and performed at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (PASIC) and educational institutions across the globe. Liam Teague has served as an adjudicator for many events including the International Pan Ramajay Competition and Virginia Arts Festival- PANorama Caribbean Music Festival. Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with MaumauMusic, PanPress, RamajayMusic, Wendeln Music Works, and he has commissioned outstanding composers to write for the steelpan, including Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas. He served as steelband director at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wisconsin, and has also taught and performed at the California State University Summer Arts Camp and at the Interlochen Academy for the Performing Arts.

Teague is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest publisher of print music.

Yuko Asada is the musical instrument technician at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where she builds and tunes steelpans, teaches steelpan construction, directs the NIU Community School of the Arts Steelband, and serves as the director of steelband at NIU Percussion Camp. She regularly collaborates with engineering students at NIU to bridge the gap between music and technology. Yuko holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University and a Master of Music degree, as well as a Performer’s Certificate in steelpan from NIU, where she gained extensive experience in steelpan building, tuning, and transcription under the mentorship of Dr. Clifford Alexis.

Yuko has taught steelbands at elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as at the university and community levels. She has also presented her work at national and international conferences, including the Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at Princeton University, the International Conference and Panorama, the World Steelpan Day Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, and the National Society of Steel Band Educators. In addition, she has conducted workshops in the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Thailand.

As a co-founder of Pastiche Steel Ensemble, Virtual Steelband, and Pan in Unity, Yuko has been involved in projects that promote steelpan education and performance. In addition to her work in building, tuning, and teaching, Yuko transcribes panorama arrangements, serves as a clinician and adjudicator for steelpan festivals, and composes music for steelbands and chamber groups. Her original compositions have been featured at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and in 2022, she co-produced a mass steelband performance dedicated to Dr. Alexis.

In recognition of her contributions to the steelpan art form, Yuko was featured in the Japanese documentary Gutto Chikyubin (Earth Mail) in 2017 and 2020. In 2022, she was also featured in the Trinidad and Tobago-produced documentary Women in Pan. Her works are published by Percussive Notes, Steel Times, Maumau Music, and Ramajay Productions.

Jui-Ching Wang, D.M.A., is professor at Northern Illinois University where she teaches music education and world music courses and coordinates world music ensembles such as the Chinese music ensemble, Indonesian gamelan ensemble and Middle Eastern music ensemble.

Wang received her bachelor’s degree in music from Soochow University in Taipei, master’s degrees in piano performance and music education from Northern Illinois University, and her doctorate in music education from Arizona State University. Prior to her studies in the United States, she taught music classes and directed choirs and recorder ensembles at a middle school in Taiwan. While completing graduate course work at ASU and NIU, she taught courses in world music and music education and participated in several world music ensembles such as the NIU Gamelan ensemble, ASU Javanese Gamelan ensemble, and Marimba Maderas de Comitan.

Wang is currently the coordinator for the Asian American Certificate Program an academic program that gives students a deep understanding of Asian American cultures and history in the U.S. This program is available for all majors.

Fulbright scholar, composer, educator and “prodigiously talented percussionist” (Chicago Classical Review), Gregory Beyer is a contemporary music specialist who blends the disciplines of orchestral, jazz and world music into a singular artistic voice.

He is artistic director of Arcomusical, an organization dedicated to the Afro-Brazilian berimbau. Arcomusical released its first album, MeiaMeia, in 2016 on Innova Recordings and has subsequently appeared on WNYC, WBEZ and NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. Arcomusical received a 2016 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant to create the 22-minute, four-movement “Roda” with composer Elliot Cole. “Roda” has received over two dozen performances and most recently was performed as a concerto with the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra as “Roda Grande.” In March 2019 on National Sawdust Tracks, Arcomusical released its second album, Spinning in the Wheel.

Professor Beyer is the director of Percussion Studies where he directs the New Music Ensemble and New Music Festival, the Latin Jazz Ensemble, and co-directs the award-winning Percussion Ensemble with his colleague Ben Wahlund. A strong advocate for new music, he is a core member of two Chicago-based new music ensembles: Dal Niente and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition Grossman Ensemble.

Beyer has held long-term visiting scholar appointments at universities in China and Brazil. He is capable of developing a rapport with anyone in the world and sees the art of percussion as a vehicle for intercultural understanding and the betterment of society through a commitment to daily work and personal growth. He demands the very best out of each student and is committed to offering life-changing experiences through the realization of a student’s inner potential.

Austyn Vaughn Menk is a pianist, organist, composer, arranger and educator from Le Center, Minnesota currently based outside of Chicago, Illinois. At Northern Illinois University, Austyn serves as the music admissions coordinator, a position he entered after completing his M.M. in Jazz Studies at NIU in May 2023.

Austyn has had the great pleasure of playing with groups including Dave Stamps’ MODx big band, active in the Twin Cities area; the Blueshift Big Band led by Joel Baer and Chris Parsons, active in the Chicago area; and is a founding member of IRIS, a quintet led by Arman Sangalang. In July of 2022, IRIS attended the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Academy after having been selected alongside three other groups from the United States. Austyn plays weekly services at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Hinckley, IL and frequently performs with other Chicago-based artists.

In his teaching, Austyn emphasizes playing healthily and mindfully as well as practicing technical exercises creatively and intentionally to inform the mind and music, a combination of approaches inspired by his former instructors Reggie Thomas, Masayoshi Ishikawa and Paul Baumgartner.