About Our Judges

Shannon Jacobs has been an active percussion instructor, clinician, arranger and adjudicator in the DFW area for almost two decades. Shannon graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, TX, in 2004. From there he attended The University of Texas at Arlington. At UTA he was a member of the Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, World Ensemble, and Samba Band. Shannon has performed concerts with artists such as Ney Rosauro, John Riley, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and others. In 2006, the UTA Drumline placed 2nd at the PASIC marching percussion festival in which he was a member of the snare line. Shannon also has performing experience with the Syracuse Brigadiers, Insignia Indoor Percussion Ensemble, Surround Sound Indoor Drumline, and The Dallas Cowboys Rhythm and Blue Drum Line. As an arranger and clinician, he has enjoyed working with dozens of schools in the DFW area, as well as groups in south Texas and as far away as Maryland. Shannon has been a part of the staff at Forney High School since 2007 where he has been the private lesson teacher, battery technician and percussion arranger. While at Forney, the percussion section has been extremely successful, winning high percussion awards at multiple marching band contests and receiving medals at both the HEB and Lonestar Drumline contests. The forney percussion ensemble has also won the PAS percussion ensemble call for tapes and will perform at The Midwest Clinic and Convention in December 2023

Chris Nguyen currently serves as the Percussion Director/Assistant Band Director for Bridgeland High School in Cypress, Texas. His duties there include directing all aspects of the indoor percussion program, percussion ensemble, marching band, and assists with teaching of the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band, and Concert Band at Bridgeland. Mr. Nguyen is also an advocate for strong vertical alignment within the 6-12th grade cluster, and therefore assists with beginner percussion classes, percussion ensembles, and master classes within the strong middle schools that feed into Bridgeland. Chris Nguyen attended Sam Houston State University where he received his Music Education degree. At SHSU, he studied with Dr. Matthew McInturf and John Lane and was a member of the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and SHSU Percussion Group. During his time there, Mr. Nguyen was no stranger to the marching arts. He was a member of the Oregon Crusaders, Phantom Regiment, and ended his marching career with Monarch Independent in 2017. Chris also spent 3 summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School where he focused on orchestral percussion and studied with Cynthia Yeh, Dave Herbert, and Jonathan Haas. Chris Nguyen is professionally affiliated with the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, and Percussive Arts Society. He proudly endorses Vic Firth sticks and mallets and Zildjian cymbals.

Frank Connelly is a performer, teacher, composer, and software engineer with a diverse background in the marching arts, percussion ensemble, orchestra, wind ensemble, and solo playing. In the marching arts, Frank served as a percussion instructor at the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps in 2018 and 2019, teaching alongside world class instructors Russell Wharton, Michael MacIntosh, and Brett Kuhn. Frank also taught battery percussion at Monarch Independent from 2016-2019, amidst talented teachers such as Taha Ahmed, Brian Perez, and Don Click. Mr. Connelly is a Bachelor of Music graduate at Texas State University with an emphasis in Percussion. Frank is a proud endorser of Innovative Percussion, Mapex/Majestic Percussion, and Sabian Cymbals.