Mexican conductor and violinist, Dr. Sergio Espinosa is music director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving and associate professor of string music education at The University of Texas at Arlington. He also maintains an active schedule as a clinician throughout Texas and internationally and is senior examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization in Wales, UK. He has served as music director of the UTA Symphony as well as a permanent or guest conductor in the United States, Switzerland, France, Italy and Mexico. Dr. Espinosa studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; the Conservatoire de Neuchatel, Switzerland; Ithaca College, New York; and received his DMA in orchestral conducting from the University of Iowa. As a performing violinist, Dr. Espinosa has been a member of the String Quartet Boccherini in Spain and has played in many orchestras in Mexico, the United States and Europe. As music director, he works with the orchestra’s artistic committee to plan each season’s concerts, commission new music, collaborate with other arts groups and extend invitations to guest soloists
NPOI’s assistant conductor also serves as our timpanist, a post he has held for several years. Born in California, he grew up in Dallas. The son of an airline pilot/jazz guitar-playing father and a mother who loved music, Pandolfo began playing clarinet in elementary school but switched to percussion in high school. Influenced by his high school directors, he developed a love for classical music, particularly the works of Beethoven and Mahler. A student of Kalman Cherry and Douglas Howard of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pandolfo holds a music education degree from The University of North Texas. He taught middle school band in Childress and Grand Prairie for 22 years. And in addition to his musical career, he also works in information security.
Mark Bryant has served as the president of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving’s Board of Directors beginning 2019 after serving as the orchestra’s Vice President for several years. Mr Bryant began playing the violin and viola since elementary school, and has made classical music a life-long avocation. He studied viola at the University of Wisconsin (UW) under esteemed educators Dr. Marvin Rabin and David Becker, and opera under Karlos Moser. Mr Bryant joined the orchestra as a violist during the 1995-96 season, but is sometimes known to moonlight in the violin section. Mr Bryant is a retired financial professional and Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A) who holds a bachelor’s degree from the UW’s School of Business and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.
Susan Scheib is a retired news professional, serving from 2001-2006 as associate editor of the United Methodist Reports (a national religion newspaper). An arts writer for the Dallas Times Herald in the 1970’s, she has also worked as a freelance writer, copy editor, cello and bass teacher, and English-as-a-second-language adjunct professor for the Dallas County Community College District. A cellist in the orchestra, she holds a master of humanities degree from The University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor’s degree in music education from St. Olaf College. As NPOI general manager, Ms. Scheib produces the orchestra’s annual concert program, distributes news releases and oversees email and other marketing efforts for NPOI programs and announcements.
James Nicholson holds a bachelor’s degree in music, with emphasis in business, from West Texas A&M University. During his time at WTAMU he was a member of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Music Amarillo. Currently Mr. Nicholson works for Madeleine Crouch and Company, Inc., where he manages a variety of local and national non-profit organizations.
As NPOI stage manager and librarian, Mr. Nicholson’s various duties include coordinating with technical staff during on-stage performances, set-up and clean-up at each rehearsal and performance, managing music rentals/purchases for the orchestra library, and overseeing the distribution and collection of music among musicians for each concert. He also sits as principal bassist for the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving, where he has been a member for over 10 years.