Composer Michele Fernández
Michele Fernández’s La Fiera Asturiana received its inaugural performance by Northshore Concert Band on December 19, 2025, at The Midwest Clinic. This fiery Spanish march is a highlight of our winter 2026 program.
Ms. Fernández says of this work:
This particular work is actually the fulfillment of a promise that I made to my father in my early 20s when I started out as a young band Director in Miami. He had asked me to write a piece someday for his mother (my grandmother, who I had never met.). Among being a devoted mother to three children, she was also a flamenco dancer from Asturias, Spain. She passed away from cancer when my father was only six years old. Last summer, I simply woke up one day and decided that it was time to keep that promise to my father.
Michele Fernández is a published composer, active guest clinician, adjudicator and performer. Her Jazz and Symphonic compositions have been premiered at Midwest, CBDNA, IAJE, MEA's and All-State /Regional venues as well as professional venues. Her works are currently (and/or scheduled to be) published through Hal Leonard, Excelcia/Kendor, Doug Beach, JW Pepper, Murphy Music Press, EJazz Lines/Walrus, Jazz Zone (as well here: *Michele Fernández Music*). She is a member of Phi Beta Mu (Omega Chapter) and an active member of FBA, JEN, ISJAC, MBDNA. She frequently serves as a guest clinician/conductor for All-State groups and Regional Honors Jazz/Symphonic groups. She has appeared as a Midwest Clinic lecturer (’07 / ’16), JEN '22, various State MEA's. She is a Conn-Selmer and Hal-Leonard sponsored clinician, as well as a freelance guest clinician/conductor for universities and districts across the country.
Michele recently retired from teaching in Miami after 30 years, where (among other teaching positions) her Miami Senior HS ensembles earned top honors/gained international acclaim. Her groups have been selected for Midwest Clinic (Chicago ’93 & ’98), IAJE (Boston ’94 & NYC ’97), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland ’96), FMEA (Tampa ’94 & ’97) and various national publications. She and her students were the subject of a documentary on CBS Sunday Morning, cover story in Band Director’s Guide and featured as an outstanding educator in DownBeat Magazine. Before focusing on writing/clinics, she served as an active oboist in the Miami area, as well as a rhythm section player in a busy Afro-Latin /Jazz group.
We contacted Michele Fernández and asked her to share her journey in music, her favorite musical memory, and more.
Please tell us about your journey in music and life. In brief synopsis: it began with an out-of-the-blue phone call during the spring of 1989, during my senior year in college, that offered me the chance to come back to my old high school and take over teaching band after my HS director had left. I was planning on going to law school because I wanted to be a trial attorney and major in music education to keep my oboe scholarship while I took some legal centered classes on the side. I decided to try teaching for a year just to see where it went, and 30 years went by. I have zero regrets. In 2002, after losing our 3-year-old son, Sean, I decided to leave music and began teaching special education at the same high school. My daughter, Sara, was 2 at the time. Four years later, when she was 6 years old, she gave me a “lecture” about going back to music because it “made you happy“. Illumination. The next day, I accepted an offer to teach band that I had just turned down. That was in 2007. In reality, her lecture is a major reason I am a composer today. She is 25 now, majored in Flute performance at UNT, was a grad assistant at Vandercook, and has already made valuable contributions to others through music.
What have been some of your musical influences? My influences span anywhere from Debussy to Paquito D’ Rivera :-) .
Please share your favorite musical memory. Being five months pregnant with our first child (Sean) in 1998 on stage of Midwest with my jazz band (when it was at the old Hilton). I had written a piece for him to be our closer, that depicted the stages of a child’s life. I called it, “Ojitos“, which means “little eyes” (because I couldn’t wait to see them). It was a special moment between all of us: the audience, my students, myself, and the little peanut who still had 4 months to go before meeting us. When he died 3 1/2 years later, I discarded the score, parts and Midwest cassette, never wanting to see them it again. I found them in a box, unexpectedly, 17 years later. I shared on FB the experience of hearing it after all those years, and received a call from a prolific composer friend urging me to submit it for publication. I did not want to do that at first. I finally did cave and sent it to Hal Leonard. The rest is… well, the rest.
What is on your Spotify playlist or in your music library? I don’t use Spotify. But my favorite CD’s include Billy Joel, Chicago, Yes, Rush, Chet Baker and Michel Camilo.
Which composer/musician, past or present, would you most like to meet for a coffee and why? My son. He wrote “Ojitos”, not me. I had no clue what I was doing back then.
What inspires you? Seeing people fight cruelty. That inspires me.
What do you do to relax? I scroll for signs of people fighting cruelty until I fall asleep assured that there is good in the world.
Do you have any advice for young musicians? Yes. Try to choose a career that heals in some way. Nobody escapes this life unscathed: being in a field that brings some type of healing to others heals You. Besides, waking up to a job you can’t stand for 40 years is an awful thought; as long as you can pay your bills- waking up to a job that you (at least mostly) enjoy is definitely worth never making the extra money that you’d spend on silly things, anyway.
Please share any thoughts that you may have about the Northshore Concert Band. I didn’t want your concert at Midwest to end. You all said so much without saying a word. You supported and rallied for so many people without saying a word. And dang! You all sure did say it beautifully.
Is there anything else that you would like our audience to know about you? To everybody reading this: Thanks for reading, but you are far more fascinating than I am. Don’t ever let anyone out there cause you think otherwise.
A special thank you to Michele Fernández for speaking with us and giving permission to reproduce this material. Read more about Ms. Fernández HERE.
IN GOOD COMPANY
Sunday, February 22, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Evanston, Illinois
Learn more about the Northshore Concert Band at www.northshoreband.org
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