Who we are: BNYS Staff, Interns, and Board of Directors
Music Director & Conductor
Logan Campbell
Logan Campbell enjoys a robust career as a conductor, equally passionate with repertoire for Orchestra, Wind Band, Pops, Opera, and Musical Theatre. Logan is the Director of Large Instrumental Ensembles at Illinois Wesleyan University and also teaches courses in conducting and double reeds as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music. As of August 2023, Campbell also assumed the position of Music Director of the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony.
Logan is the Founder and Artistic Director of Appalachia: A Southeastern Wind Symphony, now in its 6th season. Aiming to offer networking opportunities for collegiate students and recent alumni from Southeastern universities, Appalachia has grown tremendously well and now has over 15 universities represented every concert cycle. Campbell has worked as a guest conductor, rehearsal conductor, and cover conductor with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Scruffy City Orchestra, Morristown Community Orchestra, and Brevard Philharmonic. As a student at UT, he worked with the UT Symphony Orchestra, UT Opera Orchestra, UT Chamber Orchestra, VolOpera, and UT Opera Theatre.
Logan has performed internationally, mostly in Germany. Selected as an ambassador for the State Department funded program, The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, he lived in Leipzig, Germany for a year and studied German language, politics, and music. He worked as a conducting assistant at Oper Leipzig and with the Gewandhaus Orchester. Outside of conducting, he performed as an oboist with STÜBA, the Youth Wind Symphony of Saxony, and the Leipzig Wind Ensemble.
Campbell holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Furman University and a double Masters of Music degree in Voice Performance and Orchestral Conducting from the University of Tennessee.
Program Manager
Colby Powers
Born and raised in Aurora Colorado, Colby Powers has a Bachelor's degree in Music Education with a minor in Jazz Studies from Illinois Wesleyan University. He currently attends Illinois State University as he pursues his Masters of Music in Wind Band Conducting. His duties include assisting with the Big Red Marching Machine, Pep Band, assisting with undergraduate conducting courses, as well as guest conducting the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band, and University Band. While his primary instrument is the clarinet, he has also taken lessons and performed on the alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and bassoon. Colby has played in Orchestras, Wind Ensembles, Jazz bands, Jazz Combos, and Musical Pits at both the collegiate level and as a gigging musician.
Professionally, Colby has made a name for himself in Bloomington-Normal as a jazz band director, private studio teacher, performer and conductor. Since 2023, Colby has been an Assistant Jazz Band Director with the Normal West High School jazz bands, where he directs the “Jazz Katz” ensemble. In 2024, Colby added an additional jazz band position as a Jazz Director at George Evans Junior High. In both positions, Mr. Powers has been responsible for leading and scheduling rehearsals, choosing appropriate music, and preparing for performances. Outside of teaching in the public schools, Colby’s personal studio is currently made up of over 14 students all from a wide variety of backgrounds. Colby is also a teacher through Illinois Wesleyans preparatory program which supplies lessons to local kids in the Bloomington-Normal Area. As an up and coming music educator Colby strives to inspire his students to follow their passion and go find what makes them happy in this world.
Intern
Katelynn Lesinski
Katelynn Lesinski is a junior majoring in Music Business at Illinois State University, where she studies viola under the direction of Dr. Katherine Lewis. Currently, Katelynn works as the Assistant to the Director of ISU’s String Project, where she gains hands-on experience in the behind-the-scenes work of running a youth orchestra program: a dream that she has had since she joined the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten. In addition to her String Project involvement, Katelynn has held a variety of positions within the Illinois State University School of Music, her favorites being a social media intern and Student Ambassador for the School of Music, as well as the co-founder and president of the ISU Viola Chamber Society. In addition to her administrative work, Katelynn enjoys playing her viola as much as she can, and has performed in ISU’s Symphony Orchestra, the ISU Viola Ensemble, ISU’s American String Teacher’s Association Quartet, and other various chamber ensembles. Outside of the School of Music, Katelynn pursues a minor in Mass Media communications, where she has worked as the Assistant Director of Radio Traffic for WZND, Illinois State University’s student-run radio station.
Intern
Diego Martinez
Diego Martinez is from Normal, Illinois and is currently a Junior Music Performance major at Illinois Wesleyan University studying Double Bass under Dr. Renata Caceres and Dr. Reginald Lewis. Diego is involved in many aspects of music, playing with Choirs, Orchestras, Wind Ensembles, Experimental Ensembles, and Jazz Bands during his High School and College career. He was selected to the Illinois All-State festival for Orchestral Bass and was a part of the Normal Community Chamber Orchestra selected to perform at the Illinois Music Educators Conference in 2023. He is an active performer in the Bloomington-Normal area having performed with the likes of Thaddeus Tukes, Darius Botley, Jameel Stephens, Dr. Reginald Lewis and performing with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons.
Board of Trustees
These individuals meet monthly and work diligently to ensure the smooth running of the BNYS during the orchestra season. If you are an individual who has a passion for music, education, and building our community, please be in touch about joining our Board of Trustees.
President: Kim Woodman
Vice-President: Melissa Miles
Secretary: Kristy Sheridan
Treasurer: Jennifer Harris
Historian and Grant-writing: Lisa Rattan
Member-at-large: Cassie DeGuido
Ex officio Members: Logan Campbell (Music Director), Laura Dolan (Manager)
Where we were: BNYS History
In 1989, the formation of the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony was made possible by the desire, knowledge, and skill of Dr. Howard H. Rye, as well as a considerable donation from the Amateur Musical Club, which phased out of existence at that time. The Amateur Musical Club had an impressive 100-year history of procuring world-class musicians to perform in Bloomington-Normal solo recitals and with the Bloomington Normal Symphony. The legacy of community enhancement through musical performance continues on today in the spirit and mission of the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony.
The first youth symphony grew out of many ensembles that Dr. Rye coached in his home, beginning with string groups and gradually adding wind players. The need for a full orchestra became evident and BNYS was formed, performing its first concert in November of 1989. Sponsored solely by the Amateur Musical Club, the first five BNYS concerts were organized by Dr. Rye, with input from several key members of that club. He served as the conductor until 1994 when Deanne Bryant was approached and asked to take on the role. Mrs. Bryant accepted and continued to develop the youth symphony, adding a Board of Directors that same year.
After serving the youth orchestra and continuing its standard of excellence for two decades, Deanne Bryant entrusted the next chapter of BNYS’ life to Logan Campbell, the new Director of Large Instrumental Ensembles at Illinois Wesleyan University. He began at IWU in January of 2023 and assumed the position of Music Director with BNYS in the 2023-2024 season.
Where we are: BNYS Today
The Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony continues to thrive through musical exploration, community engagement, and fostering a passion for orchestral music in young people. Here is our mission statement:
Mission Statement:
The mission of the Bloomington Normal Youth Symphony is to enhance our members’ musical education, cultivate a love for music, and encourage them to achieve artistic excellence that will foster lifelong relationships with music. Further, it is our goal to inspire and shape future leaders on and off stage through collaboration, discipline, cultural appreciation, and compassion for others. We offer practice and performance of orchestral compositions by traditional and diverse composers, community outreach, collaboration with professional and collegiate musicians, scholarship opportunities, and an annual concerto competition to empower each musician on their musical journey.
Fast Facts:
The group rehearses on Monday evenings from 7:00-9:00 pm at Illinois Wesleyan University in their School of Music (Presser Hall).
Membership is contingent on an audition at either the beginning of ending of a season. Audition information may be found on our Auditions tab. Once admitted, there is a membership fee of $200 per student. We do offer a multi-student discount for families with multiple musicians. Scholarships are also available. Information on all things membership may be explored on our Membership tab.
We have roughly 60 student participants each season, but are always eager to welcome new musicians!
The season runs from late August through early May with a break from mid-December until February.
There are two masterwork concerts; Fall and Spring. We also join the Illinois Symphony Orchestra for a holiday pops concert in December. All concerts and projects can be found under our Events tab.
Part of the BNYS mission is to provide “opportunities for students to study, learn, and perform music of important classical composers.” All concerts contain works from the great masters of orchestral music, along with modern composers, composers of color, and composers of various gender expressions. It is a priority to provide a well-rounded performance experience for our students and our community.