About the Director – Neil Proff
Neil Proff has been the Director of Bands at Lake Stevens High School since 2006. He grew up in Edgewood, Washington and attended Surprise Lake Middle School and Fife High School under the direction of Mel Hotchkiss, Don May, Tom Isaacson, and Karl Sorensen, graduating in 1996.
Receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Broad Area (Band and Choir) Music Education from Central Washington University in 2002, he went on to the American Band College of Southern Oregon University and received his Master’s Degree in Instrumental Music Education and Conducting in 2009. He received National Board Certification in 2012 and from 2014-2017 served as Music Facilitator and Subject Matter Expert for the University of Washington’s National Board program. In 2012 he was also named the Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the Washington Association of School Administrators and was an Apple Award winner in the spring of 2007 and again in 2018.
Since 2004 he has served as director and lead alto (earlier on lead tenor) of what was once called the Woodinville Community Jazz Band and has since split into the Pacific Cascades big band and the Eastside Modern Jazz Orchestra. When the group grew too large and split he enlisted the help of my best friend Cameron Davison to take the PCBB while ran EMJO.
Since 2016 he has also served as the lead tenor of the Northwest Jazz Conspiracy, a group of music educators playing out of the Everett area. He performs all around the northwest playing saxophone and teaching improvisation. He has served as a judge and clinician on both sides of the Cascades since 2003 and keeps an active lesson studio.
Currently at Lake Stevens High School he teaches 0 hour Jazz Band 1, Music Appreciation/History, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Class Guitar. In addition he also directs the Marching Band, Pep Band, co-directs the Percussion Ensemble, and Drumline and dabbles in audio production on the side.
Members
| Director | Neil Proff | |
| Saxophone | Brian Carr Ian Jellison James Myles Aaron Roney | |
| Trumpet | Richard Cary Douglas Hodges Michael Lundquist Cody Maynor Trevor Parrish | |
| Trombone | Mike Andrewartha Erik Holt Brian Koreski Jeremy Pritchett | |
| Percussion | Devan Stovall | |
| String Bass | Drew Baddeley | |
| Piano/Keyboard | open | |
| Guitar/Bass | open | |