2026 Band Leadership

We elected a new slate of leadership for 2026. Thank you to our outgoing 2025 leadership: Elaina, Kelton, Mykaspyke, Azreanna, and Leo ❤️

President

Current Office Holder: Birb - Piccolo (she/her) Responsibilities:

• Drives band toward charter goals
• Main point of contact for media
• Leads and schedules leadership meetings

Birb founded Notes of Dissent in April 2025, it all starting with a Reddit post asking for fellow musicians to help make joyful noise at local actions. It has been a roller coaster of a journey since - fast, unexpected turns, but overall the ride of Notes of Dissent has been fun and full of adventures! For 2025 Birb did not hold an official position in the band, instead assisting in various roles/tasks as needed. But for 2026 she was elected both Band President and Social Media Manager. Prior to starting NOD she hadn't played the flute/piccolo since she graduated high school in 2006, not finding many hobby level opportunities to play the flute in adult life. Another personal inspiration for NOD was to bring marching band back in our lives, where there is not much recreational opportunities to do so after high school/college. When not organizing for NOD you can find Birb with a Coke Zero by her side, playing Sonic the Hedgehog games, her pet cockatiel on her shoulder waiting for snacks.

Social Media Manager

Current Office Holder: Birb - Piccolo (she/her) Responsibilities:

• Manages social media accounts and helps generate content to post
• Outreach for new members

Secretary

Current Office Holder: Emily - Vocals (she/her) Responsibilities:

• Takes notes during leadership meetings and makes them available to the band
• Ensures band files are stored in as logical a manner as possible

Serving the band as Secretary and Equipment Manager is Emily, who joined Notes of Dissent at its inception in April 2025. Emily joined primarily to support the band from the sidelines as she has no marching band experience, but strongly believes that music and art are powerful tools in activism. Emily’s experience in choir and opera ensemble has found her a place in the band as a vocalist when she is not assisting with support duties. While she is learning to get comfortable with a megaphone, she is committed to “speak (or sing) though your voice shakes”, and helping other shy folks know that they, too, can have a voice in the resistance.

Treasurer

Current Office Holder: Eve - Horn (she/her) Responsibilities:

• Tracks financial information for the band
• Main manager of band bank account

Librarian

Current Office Holder: Nathan - Horn (he/him) Responsibilities:

• Stewards music purchased by/for the band
• Ensures band members have access to sheet music
• Researches new music arrangements
• Decides on official arrangements used by the band
• Makes changes to music folders and music lineup for various events

Nathan is a software engineer and amateur Horn player based out of Denver. He grew up in Hawaii, studied Computer Science at South Dakota School of Mines (no relation), and has been living in Denver since graduating in 2019. Nathan has been playing the French Horn since middle school, played through High School, was in many various wind ensembles through his four years at college, and now plays with the Denver Concert Band. While he went to a very small school in Hawaii, he did have experience in marching band (parade marching specifically), marching with his high school band annually in the Merry Monarch Parade in Hilo, as well as with the Hawaii All-State Marching Band in the 2012 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade. Nathan is a "southpaw" horn player, preferring to play on Bb horn (but reading typical F Horn music). He got into Notes of Dissent on the ground floor as the original Equipment Manager, though he has now transitioned roles to being the Band Librarian in charge of the music library and flip folders. He got into activism in early 2025, with Notes of Dissent now being his primary activist organization. Nathan loves chilling at home with his cats Nova and Phoebe, playing video games, watching 49ers football, and playing Horn with Notes of Dissent.

Organization Liaison

Current Office Holder: Allie - Trumpet (she/her) Responsibilities:

• Main point of contact for other organizations that want us to perform at their events
• Sets up practice or performance venues for the band

Allie (aka lowercase @allie, not to be confused with upper case FoCo Allie; we both play trumpet, its a bit of a meme) moved to Colorado 10 years ago and has made this her new and permanent home. She has played trumpet since the sixth grade all the way through senior year of college. While there was a break with trumpet, she continued making music and pursuing a passion for production and recording arts, as well as musical arrangement and composition. With the interlude of trumpet-less young adulthood behind her, she's happy to again be playing trumpet with a band. She is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, specializing in keys but plays a little bit of most things. She organizes with many groups and has found a passion for the activism community. When she isn't raging against the machine, she likes building stuff in her 824 Maker hobbies.

Equipment Manager

Current Office Holder: Emily - Vocalist (she/her)

• Manages equipment sharing
• In charge of event equipment (e.g. Tent/table)
• In charge of instrument lending
• Keeps inventory of current band equipment

Band Director - Colorado Springs

Current Office Holder: Colm - Percussion (he/they)

Colm, short for Malcolm, was born and raised (mostly) in Colorado. His love for music started as far back as he remembers, being introduced to icons like The Ronettes, Celine Dion, and many more. In the 6th grade he started playing multiple percussion instruments, and was on drum line throughout school. He went on to study Cinematography and Post Production at Colorado Film School, followed by working in advertising, news, and sports tv. He now puts those skills to use as stage or production crew at multiple theater and concert venues in Colorado Springs. Outside of work, he acts as an NoD Band Director and creates music under the moniker Oxy Petal Project. Inspired by the lyrics “chin held shut so my heart could talk louder”, he loves to express himself through music.

Band Director - Denver

Current Office Holder: Emmett - Percussion (he/him)

Originally from Arizona, Emmett has studied several different areas of music, ranging from marching band to symphonic band and orchestra (but his heart and soul lies in rock/metal/punk music). He studied percussion and music education at Southern Utah University, but is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition for Film, TV, and Games at Berklee College of Music. Although percussion is his principal area, he is a multi-instrumentalist, and also specializes in strings and music theory/composition! Emmett serves as the bassist/co-founder for the Denver based metalcore band, Give Me Gold, as well as being the Band Director for the Denver chapter of Notes of Dissent! When not performing with his bands (and the occasional musical theater gig), he runs his own private music lesson business, sharing his knowledge and love of music with his students! He’s also a goofy nerd who loves comic books, video games, and soda.

Band Director - Fort Collins

Current Office Holder: Allie - trumpet (he/they/she)

Born and raised in Colorado, Allie got their instrumental start in 6th grade concert band. After learning the Star Wars theme song on their dad's old trumpet, there was no looking back as the music hyperfixation took over. Allie studied trumpet all through college, practicing everything including jazz, marching band, concert band, symphonic orchestra, and pit orchestra before putting the horn away to join a medieval choir. From there, there was a big side track into belly dancing for nearly 20 years. They picked up oud and doumbek, studying Middle Eastern maqam and rhythms while performing with Rachid Halihal and Musical Ambassadors of Peace. More recently, Allie sang vocals for the pop-up group, "Raq Hafla", entertaining in Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, and English. Now they're mostly tooting trunpet in Notes of Dissent as director for the Northern Colorado chapter. When not being a total band nerd, Allie can be found elbows deep in a craft project, sewing, stamping, or knitting to stay sane. They also enjoy studying human physiology and kinesiology.