Denisse Vallecillos

Bio

Denisse Vallecillos is the new Director of Orchestras at Mountain Ridge Jr. High. A native of Arizona, Denisse has always had a love for music, taking an interest in the violin at age 9. Her passion for music and her desire to give music to future generations led her to pursue a career in music education. Denisse holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Brigham Young University, studying with Kory Katseanes and Dr. Don Peterson. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Arizona State University, studying Music Education with Dr. Marg Schmidt and violin with Danwen Jiang.

Her teaching experience includes Director of Orchestras at Juan Diego Catholic High School (including Saint John the Baptist Middle School and Saint John the Baptist Elementary School) where she taught for six (6) years. It included 5 orchestras and a high school guitar class. She was also co-chair of the Fine Arts Department and the Director of The Academy of Fine Arts for Juan Diego Catholic High School. Prior to Juan Diego, Denisse was at Saint Andrew Catholic School for 3 years, The Waterford School for 4 years, and with El Sistema Utah for 1 year. As a conductor, Denisse was the Music Director of the West Jordan Symphony for 3.5 years, and Associate Conductor of the Utah Philharmonic Orchestra for 2 years.

Currently, Denisse is a violin coach and a member of the Board of Directors for Mountain Springs Music, Inc., a chamber music organization that runs a summer music festival here in Utah. Denisse keeps busy playing violin particularly with seasonal volunteer orchestras and will be conducting a few performances of Lamb of God with Witness Music in 2024.