Frank Felice
Music Director
In June of 2022, Frank Felice was appointed as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Winds, which he served as the Associate Director for the past nineteen years. Mr. Felice is only the third person to serve as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Winds, which was founded in 1993 by Randol Bass.
Frank Felice also serves the teachers and students of Little Elm ISD (TX) as the Director of Fine Arts. Prior to his appointment to this position in 2021, he served as the Director of Bands at Little Elm High School for seventeen years, as well as nine years as an assistant director and middle school director. While at LEHS, he oversaw the band program district-wide, while also serving ten of those years as Fine Arts Coordinator and department chair at Little Elm High School. Under his direction, the band at LEHS grew from 32 members to over 220 members strong. Mr. Felice’s bands have competed in the Bands of America Concert Band Festival, Dallas Wind Symphony Invitational at the Meyerson Symphony Center, National Adjudicators Invitational Festival in San Antonio, the All-American Music Festival in Orlando, Magic Music Days in Orlando, The Breckenridge Music Festival, the Gulf Coast Showcase of Music in South Padre, as well as other festivals throughout the country. Mr. Felice’s bands have received numerous Sweepstakes and “Superior” ratings from the University Interscholastic League and throughout the states of Texas and Louisiana.
Throughout his career, Mr. Felice has served as a guest honor band clinician, adjudicator, marching clinician, drill instructor, low brass technician, and summer band camp conductor. Mr. Felice has also performed throughout Louisiana and Texas as a guest performer on euphonium, trombone, and tuba.
Frank Felice received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Louisiana State University and holds membership in the Texas Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Music Adjudicators Association, Texas Music Administrators Conference, and the National Band Association. In his free time, Mr. Felice loves to spend time travelling with his family and cooking outdoors. He and his wife, Ginger, are most proud of their two children, Claire and Ryan.
Greg Hustis
MUSIC DIRECTOR EMERITUS
Gregory Hustis, former Principal Horn (1976- 2012) and Principal Horn Emeritus (2012-2014) of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is an active conductor, educator, and advocate for the arts. Mr. Hustis has taught horn for nearly 40 years at Southern Methodist University, where in 1995 he was presented the Meadows Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition to his presence at SMU, he has held positions as the Director of both the Wind Ensemble and the University Orchestra at the University of Texas at Dallas and as Visiting Artist at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Other duties include his role as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Winds, a civic wind ensemble based in the DFW Metroplex. Mr. Hustis also serves as the Artistic Director of the Music in the Mountains festival in Durango, Colorado, a position he has held since 2007.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mason Jones, Mr. Hustis has performed as a concerto soloist with numerous orchestras including the Abilene Philharmonic, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony, the Latvian Chamber Orchestra, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra (Seattle), the National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge), the Hamilton Philharmonic (Ontario), the Wichita Falls Symphony, and, on numerous occasions, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Hustis has premiered and recorded many concertos for horn and orchestra, including Joseph Schwantner’s Beyond Autumn, a work commissioned by the International Horn Society. He also premiered and subsequently recorded concertos by Eric Ewazen, Simon Sargon, and Augusta Read Thomas. Prior to joining the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, he appeared on many occasions with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and was, for four years, principal horn of the Hamilton Philharmonic in Ontario, Canada. He has performed and toured with Summit Brass, and in 1986 performed with Lorin Maazel and the World Philharmonic Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Hustis has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including those of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, the International Horn Society, the American Horn Competition, Voices of Change, the Blue Candlelight Series, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society, where he currently serves as president.
Randol Bass
Music Director Emeritus
Mr. Bass, the composer, has achieved an impressive array of performances and commissions by prestigious ensembles throughout the United States, among these: the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. His Gloria was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1990 by the New York Pops Orchestra under Skitch Henderson; this same composition has been recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra with Keith Lockhart and can be heard on their Christmas CD release, Holiday Pops.
Active since the late 1970’s as an arranger, Mr. Bass is now focusing his talents on original composition, largely due to the demand for his music. In addition to compositions for several of this nation’s Armed Service Bands, he has composed an extensive Christmas cantata, commissioned and premiered by the First Methodist Church of Lancaster, PA.
Mr. Bass has historically worked actively in his various communities to further the non-professional musician’s understanding and appreciation for the musical arts. He has founded several civic wind and choral groups during his career, helping to provide other musicians the opportunities he enjoyed as a young performer in civic orchestras, bands and theater groups. He founded the Austin Symphonic Band in 1982 and was its Music Director and Conductor for four years. That group continues to perform as the official musical ensemble for the City of Austin. He was with the Metropolitan Winds from June 1993 to June 2015.