Her previous teaching positions include: Texas Woman’s University, Eastern New Mexico University, East Texas Baptist University, Kilgore Junior College, and Tyler Junior College; and her prior performing ensembles include: the Dallas Asian Wind Ensemble, Lubbock Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Plainview Symphony, and the East Texas Symphonic Band. Dr. Denis currently performs as principal horn with the Longview Symphony and performs regularly with the Stonefort Wind Quintet and the SFA Faculty Brass Quintet. She is also a strong advocate for new horn music and is often premiering new works and working with composers to promote their compositions. Dr. Denis is married to Oscar, who is the head band director at Garrison High School, and they have two beautiful children, Madeline (6) and Eliana (3). Entropy In 2015, Zach Cooper and Nathan Dishman set out to provide entertainment through creative means while stretching the bounds of brass performance. Six years later they took the name Entropy, which is defined as “a lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.” This definition perfectly describes the back-and-forth discussions that occurred when forming this chamber group. Entropy is committed to diverse programming and close-knit collaborations with rising composers including Austin Hammonds (LA based film score composer) and Amy Riebs Mills (east coast composer/conductor). Hammonds’s new work for horn and trombone, Entropy….a degrading conversation about a degrading conversation (2022), highlights the current political divide in the United States and was premiered at the 2022 International Duo Symposium. Mills’s exciting new work for horn, trombone, and piano, One More Mountain (2022), was scheduled to be premiered at the American Trombone Workshop in Washington, D.C., but was cancelled due to the pandemic. The 2024 MidSouth Horn Workshop performance will be the official world premiere. In addition to their performance careers, Zach and Nathan mirror one another with their positions in academia. Both members teach in their applied area as well as music theory. Dr. Zach Cooper is Assistant Professor of Horn and Coordinator of Brass at Butler University.
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