Administration & Faculty Wind Faculty
Wind Faculty
Jeana Melilli, Flute and Piccolo Faculty
An Atlanta native, Jeana Melilli earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., and a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from Northwestern University. Since high school, she has studied piccolo with Carl Hall of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; while in graduate school, she studied with Walfrid Kujala, former piccoloist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Jeana was a 2003 prizewinner in the Flute Society of Washington Piccolo Competition. Currently, she performs with several regional orchestras, including the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the South Carolina Symphony Orchestra, and as an extra for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She has been teaching flute and piccolo since 1999. She has the flexibility and expertise to instruct beginners and intermediate players, but she is also gifted and experienced in successfully preparing more advanced students for honors and all-state band auditions and college placement.
Will Scruggs, Saxophone Faculty
Born in Atlanta, Will Scruggs began playing saxophone at the age of eight. He was voted Most Outstanding Member of the Enloe High School Jazz Band in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was selected as First Chair Baritone Sax in the 1998 Honor Band of America. Will attended Emory University, where he studied saxophone with Nathanael Fareed Mahluli and worked with Gary Motley and Dwight Andrews. During this time, the Alabama Jazz and Blues Federation named Will the top college jazz musician of 2001, and he became the first Emory graduate with Highest Honors in Jazz Performance. He was also featured as a special guest soloist with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Emory Symphony Orchestra. Following his graduation, Will joined Teach for America and taught first grade in Southeast Atlanta.
After graduating from Emory, Will recorded two full-length albums of original music with Cadillac Jones, performed with Perpetual Groove, sat in with the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth Brass Bands, and opened shows for Charlie Hunter and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Since 2003, he has appeared on over 20 albums, recording and performing with eight-time Grammy Award winner Natalie Cole, the roots-reggae band Revelation, vocalist Audrey Shakir, and the Kingsized Orchestra.
In 2004 Will formed the Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship. They released a self-titled CD in early 2005 and won the annual Future of Jazz Competition that same year.
Read more about the Will Scriggs Jazz Fellowship
Miranda Dohrnman, Clarinet Faculty
Dane Philipsen, Oboe Faculty
Dane Philipsen is the principal oboist for the Atlanta Opera and the Cobb Symphony Orchestra. He played second oboe and English horn for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra from 2003 until 2006. He has performed with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, and the New World Symphony.
Dane studied with Tom Barry at the University of Northern Iowa, where he received a Bachelor of Music, with honors, in 2006. He then studied with Martin Schuring at Arizona State University, where he received a Master of Music in 2008.