Mr. Robby Burns - Band / General Music
Robby Burns is a music educator, freelance percussionist, and technology specialist residing in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Mr. Burns's teaching experience ranges from elementary school through university ensembles. He is currently an employee of the Howard County Public School System where he teaches band and general music at Ellicott Mills Middle School and has directed the HCPSS Middle School GT Honor Band.
Mr. Burns maintains a thriving private percussion teaching studio out of his home with students who have gone on to pursue music degrees, perform professionally, enter varying roles in the music industry, and participate in state and district honor ensembles. He is frequently invited to serve as an adjudicator, arranger, and clinician for schools and music organizations throughout the region.
Mr. Burns is the recipient of the 2025 Mike Kovins Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year award.
Mr. Burns has presented sessions at music education conferences all over the country on the subjects of band and orchestra directing, music production tools, productivity software, and their connection to creativity in the music classroom. Mr. Burns's first book, Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers, published by Oxford University Press, is available now. He writes and speaks about music, education, and technology on his blog and podcast, Music Ed Tech Talk.
As a freelance percussionist, Mr. Burns is comfortable with all styles, specifically including orchestral, musical theater, opera, chamber, rock, and jazz. He has performed with the Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Opera Camerata of Washington, D.C., and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under such conductors as Marin Alsop and Lorin Maazel. Mr. Burns has also worked with a variety of local music projects including rock cello quartet, Primitivity and nine-piece funk band, The Superland Stage Band.
Mr. Burns holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Masters of Music from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied orchestral percussion with Tony Ames (NSO) and timpani with John Tafoya and Benjamin Ramirez (both former NSO). He has also benefited from the instruction of Steve Fidyk (Army Blues Band) and Janis Potter (solo marimba artist). During his time at UMD he also devoted attention toward orchestration, theory, conducting, and jazz arranging.
Mr. Burns is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher. He is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the Percussive Arts Society, the Maryland Music Educators Association, and TI:ME, the national organization for Technology in Music Education.
He serves as a Member-at-Large on the TI:ME Board of Directors and as Technology Chair for the Maryland Music Educators Association's Executive Board.
Mr. Benjamin Denne - Orchestra
Ben Denne is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied Euphonium performance with Rex Martin and conducting with Mallory Thompson and John Paynter. He received a bachelor of music degree with an emphasis in both performance and education. He received his masters' degree in music education from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Mr. Denne has directed the orchestra program at Ellicott Mills MS since 1998. In that time, the orchestra has grown from a small group of 4 violinists to a program that currently reaches ~150 students in four orchestras. Mr. Denne is a frequent guest conductor around the state of Maryland, where he has conducted county middle-school and high-school honor groups. He has also served on adjudication and assessment panels for Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford, and Montgomery Counties. He has had a place on the music leadership team in Howard County for 8 years and has worked on many curriculum writing teams over the past 18 years.
A conductor of the Howard County High School Gifted and Talented Orchestra (formerly the Howard Regional Youth Orchestra) since 2002, Mr. Denne has taken students to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Midwest Clinic, and most recently the Kennedy Center, where the orchestra performed a side-by-side concert with the top student orchestra from Beijing, China.
For 10 years, Mr. Denne also served as the director of the Howard High School orchestra, adding a second orchestra and doubling the number of students reached in the program. The Howard High Orchestras and Mr. Denne were awarded recognition and won compeitions for performances in Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Virginia Beach, and Myrtle Beach.
Ben maintains a small studio of private students on euphonium, trombone, and tuba, performs with One Flight Up on trombone, and performs as a bass soloist at the Zion Lutheran church. He resides in Columbia, MD with his wife Beth and daughter Katie.
Mr. Caleb Lee - Vocal Music
Caleb Lee, a native of Howard County, Maryland, is the Choral Director at Ellicott Mills Middle School and is thrilled to join this stellar program in 2024. Mr. Lee received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of Maryland - College Park, during which time he studied privately, performed in small and large musical ensembles, and conducted multiple choral groups. He grew up in Howard County and is excited to be coming back to teach and give back to the same county that provided him with so many opportunities.
Prior to teaching at Howard County Public Schools, Mr. Lee did his student teaching at Walt Whitman High School under the direction of Jeffrey Davidson and at Hollifield Station Elementary School under the direction of Aimee Winner. He also worked as a long term substitute teacher at Wilde Lake Middle School and Clarksville Elementary School.
Mr. Lee has previously performed all over the world: touring across Europe, touring in South Korea, performing with world class ensembles such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, but he is most happy when he is in front of his students and can share his love of singing with them. When he is not teaching, he can be found singing in other choral ensembles such as the Howard County Employee Chorus, Six Degree Singers in Silver Spring, and the Washington Master Chorale. He loves spending time with his friends and five younger siblings, as well as his Doberman pup. He has also been known to weep over his favorite food in the entire world, cheesecake.
Ms. Nicole Sobel - Band / General Music
Nicole Sobel received her formal training from Peabody Conservatory, where she studied Music Education and Wind Conducting. Mrs. Sobel holds two bachelor degrees and a master’s degree in Music Education, under the guidance of Dr. Harlan and Laura Parker. Her conducting experience includes working as the assistant conductor for the Peabody Preparatory Wind Orchestra and Youth Orchestra. For 6 years in that position, she had conducted rehearsals with Dr. Harlan Parker and Eli Wirth.
Mrs. Sobel currently teaches band and general music. Prior to her time at Ellicott Mills, she has taught band and strings for three years at Centennial Lane, Waterloo, and Thunder Hill elementary school, and also was Director of Bands at Mt. Hebron High School for two years.
While teaching at Howard County Public Schools, she has an active private studio with students who are regular members of Maryland Junior and Senior All State, concerto competition winners, and solo and ensemble performers. She has coached sections and judged auditions for GT ensembles of all levels.
As a performer, the majority of her experience have been in symphony orchestras. She was a member of the New York Youth Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Concert Orchestra, Peabody Wind Ensemble, and Queens College Wind Ensemble. Her notable performances have included the premier of Paquito D’Rivera’s Improviacion, performing Tchaikovsky 4, Mahler 5, and Symphonie Fantastique at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Orchestra, and performing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Queens College Orchestra.
Mrs. Sobel is a member of the National Association for Music Education and the Phi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. In her spare time, she loves to listen to podcasts and cook.