MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

After serving as the choir director at Glacier High School in NW Montana for five years, Nathan Connell now serves as the Executive Director of Bear Grass Performing Arts, a non-profit based in Kalispell, Montana. His passion for connecting young musicians with current composers led to the creation of the annual Composer Festival in Kalispell, bringing in names like Jake Runestad, Ethan Sperry, and Ryan Main to connect with young musicians. Nathan served as the High School R&R chair for NW ACDA from 2022-2024. 

Allison Cottrell is in her eighth year as Director of Choirs at Cleveland High School and her seventh year as Director of Music and Chancel Choir Conductor at First United Methodist Church in Portland.

Allison holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music (2009) and a Master’s degree in Teaching (2010) from Eastern Oregon University. She earned a second Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Portland State University in 2018. While at PSU, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for both the Choral and Music Education departments under the mentorship of Dr. Ethan Sperry and Debra Glaze, conducting the Rose Choir, co-directing the University Choir, and taught courses such as Introduction to Conducting, Fundamentals of Music, and K–12 Vocal Techniques.

Allison is an active leader in the choral community, serving as Web Director for the Northwestern Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) since 2019 and previously was a choir co-manager for the Oregon Music Educators Association (OMEA). Her accolades include Eastern Oregon University’s Music Student of the Year (2009) and Master’s in Teaching Student of the Year (2010), as well as Teacher of the Year for the Coos Bay School District (2015). During her time at Cleveland High School, the school received the National Federation of State High School Associations' “School of Excellence” Award in Performing Arts—the first urban school to receive this honor.

Jens Lovtang (he/him/his) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, choir teacher, guitar teacher, songwriter, and composer living in Corvallis, Oregon.  Born and raised in San Luis Obispo, California, music is a second career for Jens.  After studying natural Resources at Humboldt State (now Cal Poly Humboldt) and getting an MS in Fisheries from Oregon State University, he spent over two decades as a fisheries biologist, primarily in the Deschutes River Basin. He went back to school at OSU relatively late in life to get his MAT in Music Ed, and he now teaches Choir at Corvallis High School and just started a new Guitar and Songwriting program at Crescent Valley High School.   He also serves as the Director of Music at the Corvallis First United Methodist Church.   Jens and his wife Sara, an ecologist, are newly-minted empty nesters, with two college-age daughters moved away from home and pursuing higher education.