Directors

Christopher J. Nichter (b. 1980) is the fourteenth Director of Bearcat Bands at the University of Cincinnati. He possesses a Master of Music in Conducting degree (2009) and a Bachelor of Music in Education degree (2003) magna cum laude, both from West Virginia University. Mr. Nichter was appointed for ten academic years (2008-2017) to the WVU School of Music as Assistant Director of Bands serving as Assistant Director of the Sudler Award-winning "Pride of West Virginia," the Mountaineer Marching Band and Basketball Pep Band; Conductor of the Concert Band; Assistant Conductor of the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band; and a coordinator of the annual High School Honor Bands while also instructing music arranging, conducting, and band repertory courses. He founded and directed the summer Mountaineer Music Leadership Academy (2015 & 2016) providing immersive training for high school drum majors and section leaders. Prior to graduate study, Mr. Nichter served as Director of Bands and Instrumental Music at Fort Hill High School in Cumberland, Maryland (2004-2005). His professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Association for Music Education, and Ohio Music Educators Association. He is an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi (Omicron 2007), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Epsilon Sigma 2013, Province 39 Governor 2016-2017, Province 3 Governor 2018-2019), and Phi Beta Mu (Tau 2016).

Alex Beltran is an active writer, teacher, performer, and clinician from New England, now based in Southwest Ohio. He holds a Masters Degree in Music History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he also received an Undergraduate Degree in Percussion Performance studying under Ayano Kataoka and Thom Hannum.

While at UMass, Alex was a member of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band Battery from 2010 through 2013. He was also a member of The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps from 2011 through 2014, where he won the DCI World Championship in 2011 and the Fred Sanford High Percussion Award while serving as battery section leader for the 2013 season. Following his age out from The Cadets, he transitioned to the battery staff as the main quad technician for the 2015 and 2016 seasons before joining the percussion staff at the Boston Crusaders in 2017.

During his graduate studies, Alex served as Teaching Assistant to Thom Hannum from 2014 to 2016 where he worked primarily with front ensemble. From 2016 through 2019, Alex worked as the primary instructor for the UMass Drumline, where he arranged for the battery alongside Thom Hannum and Colin McNutt, and facilitated daily rehearsals for the entire percussion section.

Alex is the Director and Battery Arranger for consistent WGI Independent World Finalist United Percussion. He is also the Battery Caption Manager for the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, where he handles the daily teaching, equipment, and logistical needs of the battery and coordinates the teaching staff. Since moving to Ohio, Alex has been percussion director and in-school specialist for the Miamisburg School District, as well as the assistant percussion director for the University of Cincinnati Bearcat Bands program.

Andrea L. Meyer is currently the Director of two-time DCA Class A World Champion, Cincinnati Tradition Drum and Bugle Corps. Previously she has instructed color guard with numerous high schools in the Cincinnati area including Moeller, Lawrenceburg, Colerain, Milford, Fairfield, Roger Bacon, West Union, and Peebles. Her teaching experience also includes tenures with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps as a color guard tech from 1991 through 1994, one year instructing the University of Louisville, and two seasons as a tech and visual ensemble specialist with the University of Cincinnati.

Her performance experience began in 1984 at Colerain High School and includes three years with the Bluecoats color guard from 1988 to 1990. She also was a member of the Cincinnati Tradition color guard in 1986 & 1987, 2007 & 2008, and 2010 through 2015. In 2016, she assumed the CT Assistant Director role.

Terren Frenz has been likened to Mr. Holland from the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” a dedicated and long lasting music educator who cares deeply about bringing music into the lives of his students. At one point in his teaching career, Terren drove the school bus to ensure his music students were never late for practice. After a long and successful career within the public schools, Dr. Frenz began teaching music at the University of Cincinnati. In Dr. Frenz’s own words:

Last Word: What I learned at UC (from UC Magazine, March 2017)

After a 54-year professional teaching career, I have realized that I have been going to school in the fall of every year since 1947.

The past 24 years I have found myself in the beguiling clutches of the University of Cincinnati, where I have been employed as the director of Bearcat Bands. Now that my body is giving up on me or at least is telling me to stop running up and down stadium steps, riding buses into all hours of the night and working 16-hour days every week, I have begun to wonder: What did I learn at UC?

I have been blessed with a lot of travel with 300 of my closest friends each year. The students in band (all 25,000 that I have taught — including three decades at the high school level) have become my friends. During my years at UC, we have traveled from Massachusetts to California and even from Canada to Mexico. So, I have definitely learned how to organize travel for a large group.

I have also learned that to be band director and have a family life, the entire family needs to be involved. My wife, Debra, served as supervisor for the band twirlers and color guard for 15 years.

Students enter the band with an extremely wide range of talent and personalities — teaching me that great people and great talent can come from anywhere. Students of all backgrounds, levels of training, ethnicities and genders make up a band.

I have learned that if students can play an instrument, want to participate and want to get better, they’ll succeed far more than they ever thought. One of the great by-products of playing in any band is not only the camaraderie but the actual improvement in intellect. In order to perform music, the left and right sides of the brain must interact with each other, and that process is vital to many other disciplines. My students realize that our experience together is not always about the music.

I’ve helped young adults truly recognize that “learning is about the journey” as much as it is about the knowledge component. We all learn that “life is about what happens to you while you are preparing for it.”

It is very safe to say that I have learned more than my students in this chapter of life. I have met thousands of wonderful people while teaching and learning at UC. It will forever be part of my life.

Terren Frenz retired as director of Bearcat Bands in June 2017. His charity, The Brass Factory Foundation, continues to provide scholarships for trumpet players attending college.