Mr. Claudio Alcantar is an active freelance musician, educator and clinician in Southern California. He has taught and directed Bands, Orchestras, Choirs, and General Music classes for the last 11 years ranging from kindergarten to the university level in both the nonprofit and public school sectors. He is a proud graduate of LAUSD and received his Master of Music in Conducting, a Bachelor of Music in Saxophone Performance and his Music Teaching Credential from California State University, Northridge. Mr. Alcantar helped build the music instruction curriculum, supervised the teaching staff, led teacher professional development, conducted the ensembles and served on the Board of Directors for The Saturday Conservatory of Music. His recent article “Collaborating with Your Community Music Schools: A Win for Music Education” was published by The School Band and Orchestra Magazine. Currently Mr. Alcantar is the music director and ASB Leadership teacher at Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy, and a Teaching Artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s ‘El Sistema’ program, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) at the Heart of Los Angeles Site (HOLA). Mr. Alcantar is also an in school Mentor Teacher for the Longy School of Music of Bard College’s Master of Arts in Teaching program.