
BRUNSON MUSIC
Performance, Teaching, Reeds and Arrangements

ABOUT US
Richard Brunson, D.M.A.
Richard Brunson is a valued musician and educator. He has lived and worked in various places around the United States. Richard holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Brigham Young University, and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting, also from BYU. He began his teaching career in Utah teaching high school music. While there he founded the Taylorsville Symphony Orchestra, a community orchestra in the city of Taylorsville, UT, in the Salt Lake Valley. This orchestra soon merged with the orchestra students from Salt Lake Community College to help provide the students with a more rounded orchestral experience.
In 2006 Richard began a doctoral program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in Instrumental Music Conducting. While at UNLV Richard published an article in the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Journal discussing Vaughan Williams’s opera The Pilgrim’s Progress. While in Las Vegas Richard was appointed the Artistic Director of the Desert Springs Chamber Orchestra and Chorale.
Richard returned to teaching at Salt Lake Community College for two years after finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and again directed the Taylorsville-SLCC Symphony Orchestra. In 2011 Richard took a position in Wisconsin where he taught for twelve years. While there, Richard also directed the Central Chamber Chorale, and the Faith Lutheran Church Choir. In 2023 he moved to Indiana.
In January 2025 Richard was chosen as a presenter for the annual International Conductors Guild Conference in London. His presentation titled Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’: Problems and Solutions for Future Performances was enthusiastically received by fellow conductors from around the world.
In addition to his teaching and conducting positions, Richard has always been a busy studio teacher working with French horn and piano students one-on-one. Richard has also composed and arranged many works for school and church choirs throughout his career. Richard has been a long-time member of the International Conductors Guild, the International Horn Society, and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.
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Read Dr. Brunson's blog: Dr. B's Wonderful World of Music
Mika Brunson, M.M. is a member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic (3rd oboe/English horn), a position she won in 2006. She is also a member of the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra (2nd oboe/English horn) and was the co-winner of the June 2013 audition for the 2nd oboe/English horn position with the La Crosse Symphony, with which she performs regularly. During Summer 2015, Mika played oboe and English horn with the New Hampshire Music Festival in Plymouth, NH. She also subs with the Wisconsin Philharmonic in Waukesha, WI. Mika has taught Aural Skills, Music Appreciation and Group Piano at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point at- Marshfield and still serves as the vocal coach and accompanist for the UWSP at Marshfield Chamber Choir.
Mika is a frequent accompanist in Central Wisconsin, and keeps a large private studio of piano and voice students.
She plans to finish her licensure as an Andover Educator (teacher of Body Mapping) soon.
E V E N T S​
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Dr. Richard Brunson presents Ralph Vaughan WIlliams's "The Pilgrim's Progress": Problems and Solutions for Future Performances at the International Conductors Guild Annual Conference at the Royal College of Music in London
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Las Vegas Philharmonic
Smith Center
Las Vegas, NV
7:30 pm
Conducted by Leonard Slatkin
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