Mercedes Maglio, a Music Education student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is an educator localized in the greater Chicagoland area, and has an extensive virtual network of students from across the country. Previously, she earned the John Phillip Sousa Band Award and the Semper Fidelis Marine Corps Musical Excellence Award for leadership, musical talent, and dedication in music. At the University of Illinois, she studied under prestigious trumpet professors Ronald Romm, founder of the Canadian Brass, and Charles Daval, former principal trumpet player of the Boston Pops; She was privately taught for many years under Dr. Rod C. Schueller, a leader in trumpet and music education who formerly taught at Michigan State, Texas State, and Western Illinois University. Mercedes has been developing curricula for music, trumpet, and digital music production since 2015, and has taught countless musicians between the ages of 9 and 18; she has experience teaching beginning trumpet, intermediate, and advanced classical and jazz music at the high school, college, and professional level. Mercedes attended West Aurora High School in Aurora, IL as the principal trumpet player in the concert and jazz ensembles, and was a trumpet section leader and drum major of the 312 member marching band. She graduated in the top 1% of her class of 800 students. As well, she attended and worked at the prestigious Smith Walbridge Drum Major Clinics, where she earned my 1st class rank nationally as a leader in teaching music and marching band methods. "With my students, I work on creating a positive and comfortable playing environment so that the student feels safe making mistakes and asking questions. The only way to grow as a player is find the confidence to fail. As brass players, we need diligence, patience, and strong work ethic to improve, and a safe place to gain these skills is essential to every student. I want to get to know exactly how the student plays and what their goals are so I can work with them on achieving and exceeding them; success at ANY level is the key to staying motivated and excited to play! Learning how to play an instrument or get better at it goes far beyond simple instruction- it comes from a connection to making music and a joyful willingness to mess up sometimes! That's how we grow. Teaching is one of the greatest experiences I have ever had, and doing what I love for the rest of my life is a blessing in itself!"