Austin Hilla, M.Ed., D.M.A.

Dr. Austin Hilla is the incoming Director of Bands and Percussion at the Terry P. Bradley Education Center. As the Head Director, he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, CS Jazz Ensemble, the Sanchez IS 8th Grade Band, and Sanchez IS Beginning Band. Dr. Hilla maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator for high schools and middle schools in Jazz and Concert Band settings. He also is an active researcher and presenter on musical programming and presenting diverse styles of music in concert and jazz settings.

Prior to working at TBEC, Dr. Hilla taught in Canyons School District in Salt Lake City, Utah and in Houston Independent School District and in the Greater Houston Area in Houston, Texas, where he conducted concert bands, revived defunct jazz ensemble programs, and taught marching band as well as restarting a defunct marching band in Utah. Bands and chamber groups under his direction have enjoyed artistic and personal success in performance settings, with students earning superior ratings at district, region, and state major performance assessments and earning historic area placements in marching band through Texas UIL and through the Utah High School Activities Association.

Dr. Hilla earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a concentration in Wind Conducting and a Cognate of Music Education at The University of Utah as a student of Scott Hagen, Dr. Jared Rawlings, Dr. Rebekah Daniel, and Dr. Jason Missal, Director of Bands at The University of Utah. He completed his Bachelor of Musical Arts and Master of Education in Secondary Music degrees at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he studied with Mr. Gilbert Long on Tuba and Dr. Thomas Verrier in Conducting. As a graduate assistant with The University of Utah Bands, Dr. Hilla guest conducted the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band as well as coaching multiple chamber ensembles in classical and contemporary wind settings. Dr. Hilla has been the Director of Wind and Jazz Ensembles at Encore/Coda Music Camp in Sweden, Maine for the 2022 and 2024 Summer Sessions. His professional affiliations include the National Association for Music Education, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Educators Association, the Association of Texas Small School Bands, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity.

He is a proud father to his soon to be kindergartner, Gregory, and husband to Sarah Crass Hilla, the Director of Undergraudate Admissions and Transition at the Eccles School of Business at The University of Utah. He is an avid coffee nerd, practicer of Hatha Yoga, cooking enthusiast, and music programming dork, listening to wind band music in his FREE TIME!