2025-2026 Concert Season

Nathan Spencer 

Performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, 1st movement

Nathan Spencer is a senior at Prescott High School where he plays as the orchestra’s concert master. He’s enjoyed playing with the Prescott Pops Symphony Orchestra since age 14, where he’s been featured as both a piano and violin soloist, as well as assistant concert master. This past spring, Nathan won the Concerto Grand Prix division of the Northern Arizona Piano Competition, resulting in a performance engagement as soloist with Orchestra Northern Arizona. The two consecutive years prior, he won first place in the NAPC’s Senior Division. Nathan represented north-central Arizona on the Arizona Youth Arts Council for two years, working to bring grants to local young musicians. This past summer, Nathan participated in a humanitarian trip to Malawi where he worked with a crew to expand classrooms at an overcrowded elementary school. In his spare time, Nathan loves composing digital music and weight-training. Nathan is grateful for the opportunity to play with Maestro Place and the wonderful Pops musicians!

Craig Fry

Performing the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto in C Major, 1st Movement

Craig Fry is an Arizona native and began studying the violin at age four. As the son of Sharon Fry, Principal 2nd Violin with the Phoenix Symphony, playing the violin was a compulsory activity. He studied at San Francisco State University with Lazlo Varga and Daniel Kobialka and was a long-standing member of California’s “Freeway Philharmonic”, performing with the Monterey Symphony, the Santa Cruz Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Sacramento Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, and more. Craig focused his performing career on contemporary music and was the solo violinist with the Paul Dresher Ensemble from 1991 to 2003, performing and touring extensively and accompanying several acclaimed modern dance companies, including the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and the Oberlin Dance Collective. He also performed for over a decade with the Bay Area’s premier Klezmer ensemble, Klezmania of San Francisco. He returned to his home state in 2024 and is very happy to be performing with the Pops, teaching and participating in numerous musical events in Prescott and the surrounding area!

Clydene Dechert

Conducting the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto in C Major, 1st movement

Cydene Dechert conducted for the first time as a child of four when she directed Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March” with the Allentown Band of Pennsylvania, which, at the time, boasted twenty-six former Sousa musicians.  She is the third generation of a musical family and began the study of the piano at age four.

Ms. Dechert studied percussion at the Aspen School of Music and was a member of the Aspen Festival Orchestra.  She studied conducting with Darius Milhaud in a class with James Levine and Leonard Slatkin and continued with Elizabeth Green of the University of Michigan and with Philip Greenberg, former associate conductor of the Phoenis Symphony Orchestra.
Clydene has served as instrumental music director for the Scottsdale Symphony Youth Division, Associate Conductor of the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Scottsdale Chamber Orchestra.  She has also performed in the percussion section of the Phoenix Symphony.

Since coming to Prescott, she has conducted “Oliver”, “A Chorus Line”, “Damn Yankees”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “The King and I”, and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.  She has served as chair of the Scholarship Committee of the Prescott Fine Arts Association.  In addition to many other local musical endeavors, she is currently principal timpanist for the Prescott Pops Symphony and has served as guest conductor.

In 1997 along with Bob Boorn, Clydene contributed to the start-up of the Central Arizona Concert Band, which has grown into a semi-professional organization of some sixty musicians.  The Band regularly performs during the Summer on the Courthouse Square and in several formal concerts throughout the season.

Dr. Curtis Peacock

Performing his own arrangement of “Beelzebub” for Tuba solo and orchestra

Dr. Curtis Peacock, a native of Prescott, Arizona, is a performer, composer, and educator whose career began with a first-place win in the Arizona All-State Tuba Auditions as a high school freshman. He went on to perform as a soloist on National Public Radio and played principal tuba in the National High School Honor Bands in Washington, D.C. and at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Dr. Peacock holds music performance degrees from the University of Washington and Arizona State University, where he studied with Sam Pilafian, Patrick Sheridan, and Chris Olka. While in Washington State, he was the first tuba player to win the Frances Walton Classical Solo Competition, leading to a statewide tour and recital on Seattle’s KING-FM.

Now in his fourth season as principal tuba with the Prescott Pops Orchestra, Dr. Peacock is featured in this concert performing Beelzebub. Written 130 years ago by New England tubist Andrea Catozzi as an entry in a Carl Fischer Music competition, Beelzebub has become a cornerstone of the tuba repertoire, with its theme-and-variations design, cadenza, march section, and fiery finale. Dr. Peacock previously arranged Beelzebub for solo tuba and band, published by Carl Fischer, and for this concert he presents a new edition for solo tuba and orchestra, to be published this fall by Cimarron Music Press.

In addition to his orchestral role, Dr. Peacock performs with the King Copper Jazz Band alongside trumpeter Dave Len Scott, who also serves as principal trumpet of the Prescott Pops Orchestra. Dr. Peacock’s Concerto for Tuba and Winds and editions of Beelzebub are published works, and his book, Peacock’s Perfectly Complete Collection of All Possible Scales, has been praised in international music journals.

Dr. Peacock teaches at BASIS Prescott and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Lynn Drye

Performing her own arrangement of “Celtic Hymn” for Glass Armonica 

Lynn Drye received her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Northern Arizona University and her Master’s Degree in Percussion 
Performance from North Texas State University.  She is a member of Glass Music International, Inc. and has served as editor for the Glass Music World newsletter. Lynn was a performing artist on the Arizona Artist Roster from 1996 to 2010. She is one of the few glass concert artists in the world today. She performs on a number of glass instruments including the Glass Armonica (or Glass Harmonica), Glass Harp, Musical Bowls, and Glass  Xylophone. Lynn performs classical works written specifically for the Glass Armonica in addition to compositions and arrangements of folk tunes, classical pieces, and contemporary works by her and her husband Toby.  

Performance highlights include the International Glass Music Festivals in Boston, MA and Williamsburg, VA, International Glass Art Society Conference in Tucson, AZ, Inland Empire Symphony Orchestra, Southwest Arts Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, Music on the Divide Concert Series, Georgetown, CA, Prescott Pops Symphony Orchestra, Prescott, AZ, Glendale Public Library Concert Series, Glendale, AZ, and Mohave County Library District, Kingman, AZ.  Lynn’s website can be found at www.glassvirtuoso.com.

Kristie Janczyk

Performing “Bella’s Lullaby” from the movie Twilight. 

Known for passionate performances with impeccable acuity for color, textural balance and keen attention to detail, Dr. Kristie Janczyk is one of today’s young prolific American pianists. Playing since the age of three, Kristie is sought after around the world as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist. She is consistently praised for her inspiration and flair by communicating the energy and musical impulses in the pieces, as well as for presenting programs full of confidence and passion that underscore her love for the piano.

Dr. Janczyk currently resides in Phoenix, AZ and is Principal Pianist with Prescott Pops, 2nd pianist with Phoenix Symphony, collaborative vocal coach and pianist for voice students at ASU, Adjunct Music Professor at Ottawa University (Surprise campus), Collaborative Pianist at Phoenix College, and Piano Instructor at Rosie’s House.

Kristie received her Doctorate in Music with a specialization in Collaborative Piano from Arizona State University. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Master’s and Bachelor of Music Degree in piano performance both under the direction of Alfred Mouledous. Check out her website: www.drkristiepiano.com for more information.