About Us
International Music Education Project
The International Music Education Project (IMEP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing musical instruments, equipment, and support to international community music programs with limited access to financial resources. While we strive to serve communities around the world, our current focus is on the Dominican Republic.
Every few years our team, made up of collegiate music professors from the United States of America, travel to the Dominican Republic to personally deliver donated instruments into the hands of educators and students. In addition to bringing instruments, our team members conduct masterclasses, lead workshops, and have played key roles in conducting the country's National Trombone Seminar.
Meet the Board Members
Michael Smith
Professor of Music–Low Brass
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, USA
President
Education:
D.M.A., Trombone Performance and Literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; M.M.E., McNeese State University; B.M., Trombone Performance, Stephen F. Austin State University
Dr. Michael Smith is currently Professor of Music (Trombone and Low Brass) at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he teaches low brass, low brass methods, coaches small brass ensembles, and conducts the Luther College Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, and the Luther College Trombone Choir. His awards from the University of Illinois include the Robert Gray Trombone Award, the Albert A. Harding Award, and the Mark H. Hindsley Award. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Alpha Chi, and Phi Kappa Phi.
Prior to his appointment at Luther College, Dr. Smith taught at Millikin University, Knox College, and at the University of Illinois as the head teaching assistant in the trombone studio from 1996-1999. He has taught and performed at the Illinois Summer Youth Music Trombone Camps at the University of Illinois, the Georgia Honors Low Brass Choir at Valdosta State University, the Illinois Honors Trombone Choir (in Chicago and Champaign-Urbana), and was the co-founder and conductor of the University of Illinois High School Laboratory Trombone Choir. He has also taught at the Luther College Band Festivals and Luther College Summer Dorian Camps for more than 20 years.
Dr. Smith currently has more than 50 published works, which include both arrangements and original works for trombone choir, brass choir, low brass ensemble, tuba-euphonium ensemble, brass quintet, and bass trombone. He has performed at the 1997 International Trombone Festival at the University of Illinois and presented at 2018 International Trombone Festival at the University of Iowa.
In 2020, Dr. Smith was joined by one of his former Luther College students, Dr. Benjamin Yates ‘08, currently Associate Professor of Music (Low Brass) at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, for a series of virtual masterclasses and performances presented at the University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, University of Illinois, and Louisiana State University, among other institutions.
In January 2023, Dr. Smith was a guest artist and clinician at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica (National Conservatory of Music), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In 2023-2024, Dr. Smith presented a series of multimedia lecture recitals titled The Evolution of Low Brass and Electronics, that outlined the earliest use of low brass instruments with electronically-generated accompaniment. Also discussed was the history and development of the Moog Synthesizer in the mid-1960s, which was a direct catalyst for the rise of electronic music studios in the U.S. and Canada. This multimedia recital series included performances of some of the newest works for low brass and electronics, which were performed on alto, tenor, and bass trombones, and euphonium. This recital series was performed at Luther College, St. Norbert College (WI), University of Northern Iowa, Northwestern State University (LA), University of Louisiana-Lafayette, McNeese State University (LA), and the 2024 Great Plains Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conference at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Dr. Smith has also created the MKS Cutaway Mouthpiece, a unique diagnostic tool for brass players. His company can be found online at MKSCutaway.com.
Juan Tony Guzmán
Professor of Music–Jazz Band, Jazz Orchestra
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, USA
Secretary
Education:
Ph.D., M.A., Florida State University; B.A., Luther College, Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
A conductor, composer, arranger, and music educator from the Dominican Republic, professor Juan Tony Guzmán is director of the Luther College Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Program, and holds the Weston Noble Endowed Chair in Music.
Guzmán is a sought-after conductor of all-state and honor choirs, concert bands, jazz bands, and symphony orchestras across the United States. He frequently serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator at festivals across North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Guzmán has recently done clinics and presentations for the Singapore American School, The Choral Music Experience, Association for Music in International Schools, Universidade Federal da Paraíba and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, World Choral Symposium, the Scottish Association for Music Education, and the Festival 500 in Canada.
An active arranger, Guzmán is known for his choral arrangements of Caribbean and Latin American music, some of which are published by Boosey & Hawkes and Oxford University Press.
Benjamin Yates
Professor of Music–Low Brass
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, School of Music and Performing Arts
Layfayette, Louisiana, USA
Vice President, Treasurer
Education:
D.M.A., University of Iowa; M.A., University of Illinois;
B.A., Luther College
Trombonist and music educator Benjamin Yates is Associate Professor of Trombone at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Yates also teaches low brass at Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival. At UL Lafayette, Dr. Yates is a 2025 recipient of the prestigious Faculty Fellow program, holds the Heymann/BORSF Professorship in Music, teaches lessons; coaches brass chamber music; conducts trombone chamber ensembles; and performs with the Louisiana Brass Quintet.
As a trombone clinician, Yates presents master classes throughout the U.S., Austria, Brazil, China, Japan, Dominican Republic, and the United Arab Emirates. Students of Benjamin Yates become successful professional musicians and music educators throughout the United States and the world.
Yates performs regularly with Louisiana symphonies, wind bands, and chamber ensembles including the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Film Scoring Symphony, and Chorale Acadienne. As an active soloist and chamber musician, Yates performs and presents master classes and recitals at high schools, colleges, and universities around the United States. Yates is a member of Tromborgan, an active trombone and organ duo with keyboardist Brad Schultz. Additionally, Yates is a member of the clarinet, trumpet, bass trombone trio Oak Trio.
Dr. Yates is a M&W Custom Trombones artist and a MADPipe trombone mouthpiece and lead pipe system artist.
Alyssa Sobolik
Website Designer, Social Media Director
Decorah, IA, USA
Matthew Smith
Social Media Assistant
Decorah, Iowa, USA