NASA Region 3 Conference

• Proposals will open in September and close on December 1, 2026. 
• Applicants will be notified of proposal status no later than January 15, 2027.
• Proposal categories include: solo performance, chamber performance, saxophone ensemble performance, jazz combo performance, and lecture. 
• Want to submit a performance proposal? Apply HERE! 
• Want to submit a masterclass proposal? Apply HERE!
• Want to submit a lecture proposal? Apply HERE! 

Kendra Wheeler 

Kendra Wheeler is a saxophonist whose work centers on the expansion of contemporary repertoire through performance, commissioning, and collaborative work with composers. Her practice spans standard classical literature, contemporary acoustic and electroacoustic work, and spatial audio, with a sustained focus on developing new repertoire that reflects a wide range of musical voices and approaches.

Since 2020, she has given over 50 invited performances and lectures across 20 U.S. states and nine countries, including appearances at the Sonorities Festival (Belfast, 2026), a residency in Lisbon, Portugal, and concerto performances with the LSU Wind Ensemble, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, and Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble. She has commissioned more than 25 new works and leads Beyond the Instrument, a commissioning and recording initiative supported by LSU Provost’s Big Idea and CMDA Matching Grants, which builds a sustained body of contemporary saxophone repertoire.

Her work has been recognized through national and international awards, including the Vandoren Emerging Artist International Competition Prize, the DownBeat Magazine Grand Prize, the Emerging Scholar Award from the International Conference on the Arts in Society (2022), recognition in the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition (2023), and a Global Music Awards Silver Medal (2026) for her performance of Karpathia with the LSU Wind Ensemble.

Wheeler is an active educator and clinician, with invited masterclasses and teaching residencies at UCLA, the University of Minnesota, Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, and the Saarburg International Music Festival, and was selected as a 2026 NASA Featured Masterclass Artist.

Wheeler holds the DMA in Saxophone Performance from Michigan State University, where she studied with Joe Lulloff, and BM and MM degrees from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Eugene Rousseau. She is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Louisiana State University, an Eastman Artist, and a performing artist for Légère Reeds, Silverstein Works, and Key Leaves.

Rudresh Mahanthappa

Hailed by Pitchfork as “jaw-dropping… one of the finest saxophonists going,” alto saxophonist, composer and educator Rudresh Mahanthappa is widely known as one of the premier voices in jazz of the 21st century. He has over a dozen albums to his credit, including the acclaimed Bird Calls, which topped many critics’ bestof-year lists for 2015 and was hailed by PopMatters as “complex, rhythmically vital, free in spirit while still criss-crossed with mutating structures.” His most recent release, Hero Trio, was considered to be one of the best jazz albums of 2020 by critics and fans alike. Rudresh has been named alto saxophonist of the year for nine of the last eleven years running in Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Polls (2011-2013, 2015-2018, 2020-1), and for five consecutive years by the Jazz Journalists’ Association (2009-2013) and again in 2016. He won alto saxophonist of the year in the 2015-2018 & 2020 JazzTimes Magazine Critics’ Polls and was named the Village Voice’s "Best Jazz Artist" in 2015. He has also received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, among other honors, and is currently the Anthony H. P. Lee ’79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University.

Born in Trieste, Italy to Indian émigrés in 1971, Mahanthappa was brought up in Boulder, Colorado and gained proficiency playing everything from current pop to Dixieland. He went on to studies at North Texas, Berklee and DePaul University (as well as the Stanford Jazz Workshop) and came to settle in Chicago. Soon after moving to New York in 1997 he formed his own quartet featuring pianist Vijay Iyer. The band recorded an enduring sequence of albums, Black Water, Mother Tongue and Codebook, each highlighting Mahanthappa’s inventive methodologies and deeply personal approach to composition. He and Iyer also formed the duo Raw Materials.

Coming deeper into contact with the Carnatic music of his parents’ native southern India, Mahanthappa partnered in 2008 with fellow altoist Kadri Gopalnath and the Dakshina Ensemble for Kinsmen, garnering wide acclaim. Apti, the first outing by Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition (with Pakistani-born Rez Abbasi on guitar and Dan Weiss on tabla), saw release the same year; Agrima followed nine years later and considerably expanded the trio’s sonic ambitions. In 2020, Rudresh released Hero Trio, an album of “covers” paying tribute to his musical heroes followed by the digital EP Animal Crossing in 2022 with the same trio. He also co-led a project celebrating the centenary of Charlie Parker with the blessing of the Parker estate.

Mahanthappa has also worked with Jack DeJohnette, Mark Dresser, Danilo Pérez, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, the collaborative trios MSG and Mauger, the co-led quintet Dual Identity with fellow altoist Steve Lehman, and another co-led quintet with fellow altoist and Chicago stalwart Bunky Green (Apex). His exploratory guitar-driven quartets on Samdhi and Gamak featured David Gilmore and Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski, respectively. In 2015 he was commissioned by Ragamala Dance to create Song of the Jasmine for dancers and a hybrid jazz/South Indian ensemble. He was also commissioned by the PRISM Saxophone
Quartet to compose a chamber piece, “I Will Not Apologize for My Tone Tonight,” which can be heard on the quartet’s 2015 double-disc release Heritage/Evolution, Volume 1. He was recently commissioned by the AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble to compose “Finding Our Voice” which premiered in 2021.

Mahanthappa is a Yamaha artist and uses Vandoren reeds exclusively.

Paul Harr

Acclaimed saxophonist Paul Haar has contributed his notable talent to numerous projects in both the jazz and classical genres and is recognized “one of the rare saxophonists who is equally gifted as a classical and jazz musician.” (Gary Foster).  

He has performed throughout the world including the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Asia. He has given performances at such noted venues as Carnegie Hall, Spivey Hall, The Shanghai Conservatory, The Theatro da Paz (Brazil), the Tanglewood Institute and the Sichuan Conservatory of Music

Haar has commissioned and performed works by Stacy Garrop, Jack Cooper, David von Kampen, Leslie Hogan, Ben Boone, Kenneth Fuchs, Randal Snyder and has premiered works with wind ensembles from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Tennessee, Pacific Lutheran University and The University of South Carolina. In addition to his solo performances, he has performed with such ensembles as The Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Orchestra, The Arapahoe Philharmonic, The Austin Symphony, The Asheville Symphony, Lincoln Symphony and the Omaha Symphony. 

In the jazz idiom he has performed with such artists as Gary Foster, Dave Brubeck, James Moody, Bobby Shew, Jerry Bergonzi, The Manhattan Transfer, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Phil Woods, and has backed such personalities as Lou Rawls, The Chiffons, Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Glades Knight and the Temptations, Kristin Chenoweth.

He has recorded on the Sea Breeze label as a member of the Boulevard Big Band (with saxophonist Eric Marienthal and vocalist Kevin Mahogany), the Osland Saxophone Quartet and on the Centaur Label (the Chamber Music of Jack Cooper.) In addition to his solo work, Dr. Haar is active in such groups as The Heartland Duo, The TCB Saxophone Quartet, Group Sax, and The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra. 

As an educator, he has presented featured clinics and master classes The Sichuan Conservatory of Music, The Beijing Conservatory of Contemporary Music, The Shanghai Conservatory, The Carlos Gomes Music Conservatory (Brazil) at The 31st and 32nd Annual International Association for Jazz Education Conferences, The 59th Annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, IAJE Teacher’s Training Institute, Tennessee Music Educators Association, Arizona Music Educators Association, Nebraska Music Educators Association, The Jazz Education Network international conference, The U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, and numerous regional and national conventions of the North American Saxophone Alliance.

He has published articles in the Tennessee Musician, The Instrumentalist, Jazz Times Magazine, Jazz Times Jazz Education Editions (2003, 2004, 2005), and the Saxophone Journal (where he was a featured columnist for nearly ten years. In 2017-2022 he was the editor in chief of THE SAXOPHONIST Magazine. (www.thesaxphonist.org). This unique saxophone-centered publication is viewed in over 40 countries around the world.  

A native of Fremont, Nebraska, Dr. Haar received the B.M. and M.M. from The University of Kansas and received a D.M.A. in Saxophone Performance with an Emphasis in Jazz Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He currently serves as the Associate Professor of Saxophone at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  He is a proud affiliate-artist for Key Leaves Products, Conn-Selmer Instruments, and Drake Mouthpieces. 

• Evening Concert I: 
  • Friday, March 5, 2027 | 7:30pm
  • Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Great Hall
  • University of Northern Iowa Wind Ensemble
    • with Prairie Lights Saxophone Quartet and Kendra Wheeler
  • North American Saxophone Alliance Conference Attendees – free
  • General Public – freewill donation
• Evening Concert II: 
  • Saturday, March 6, 2027 | 7:30 pm
  • Russell Hall, Bengtson Auditorium 
  • University of Northern Iowa Jazz Band One
    • with Rudresh Mahanthappa
  • North American Saxophone Alliance Conference Attendees – free
  • General Public – freewill donation