Conductors & Officers

Getting to know us… getting to know all about us! Learn more here about our music directors and officers of the Contra Costa Wind Symphony. Click here to view our musician roster.

Dr. Luis Zuñiga

Music Director and Conductor

Luis Zuñiga is a conductor, saxophonist and educator. He attended the National Conservatory in his native Panama. After graduating from high school, Zuñiga received degrees in audio engineering, MIDI production, and performance from Shoreline Community College in Seattle. In addition, he completed his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami, Florida, a Master of Musical Arts in saxophone performance at UCLA and a Masters degree in conducting from California State University, Los Angeles.

In 2010, during his graduate research, Zuñiga was a member of the world-renowned saxophone class of Jean-Yves Fourmeau in Paris. In 2011 he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in saxophone performance and pedagogy from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Besides being a professional musician and educator, Zuñiga holds a college degree in automotive technology and enjoys car restoration and car racing.

Brad Hogarth

Former Music Director and Conductor

Brad Hogarth joined the Contra Costa Wind Symphony as music director and conductor in August 2015. He brought to the Wind Symphony an uncommon combination of talent and experience as a conductor, performer, educator and arranger. In 2015 he also became the assistant professor of Conducting and Wind Ensemble at San Francisco State University. In addition to conducting and teaching, Hogarth is a professional trumpeter who has performed throughout North America, Europe and Japan as well as locally with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and other professional ensembles.

Hogarth completed a double major in trumpet performance and music education at the Eastman School of Music and graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree in trumpet performance. His primary conducting teachers have been Mark Davis Scatterday and Brad Lubman, and his principal trumpet teachers have been Mark Inouye, James Thompson, Anthony Plog and Roger Bobo.

Dr. Duane A. Carroll

Founder, Former Music Director and Conductor

Dr. Carroll was born in Porterville, California. He holds Bachelor and Master degrees in music from San Francisco State University, and a Masters in Educational Administration from Saint Mary’s College. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree is from The University of Michigan. He attended the U. S. Naval School of Music and played clarinet, saxophone and oboe in the Third U. S. Army Band in Atlanta Georgia and the 4th Armored Division Band in Germany. He studied conducting with Denis deCoteau, Emeritus Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet.

Dr. Carroll has taught at all levels from elementary through university and for a period of time was the Visual and Performing Arts Program Administrator for the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. He served eight years on the State Board of the California Music Educators Association as their Legislative Representative. He has conducted musical theater with the Piedmont Light Opera Theater and concerts with the Oakland Municipal Band.

He has been honored with the Diablo Symphony Association’s Distinguished Music Educator’s Award and has received the prestigious Arts Recognition Award of the Arts & Culture Commission of Contra Costa County.

In April, 2008, Dr. Carroll was a guest conductor with the Wind Band of the University of Szeged with concerts in Szeged and Budapest, Hungary. The Budapest concert was recorded with a live audience for future broadcast on Hungarian National Radio. He was also a guest conductor in southern Germany with the Stadtkapelle Markdorf.

Dr. Carroll has been the Music Director and Conductor of the Contra Costa Wind Symphony since 1981. He retired at the end of the 2014-2015 season.