WSO Junior Strings

Nelson Rodriguez-Parada currently serves as the Orchestra and Modern Band Director at the Shamokin Area School District in Coal Township, Pennsylvania. His mission as a music educator is to use music as a social and developmental outlet for everyone involved while giving students learning experiences to use throughout the rest of their lives whether or not they decide to pursue music professionally.

Rodriguez-Parada began his career in Riverview, Florida at Spoto High School as the Orchestra, Chorus and Modern Band Director. An avid supporter of community music performance, he founded and conducted the Tampa Music Society Orchestra. He also played with several jazz bands, wind ensembles and orchestras throughout central Florida, including Walt Disney World’s Encore Symphony Orchestra.

Before moving to central Pennsylvania, Rodriguez-Parada worked for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as their General Manager of Training Programs, responsible for managing the Civic Youth Ensembles and the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra, serving over 1,000 students in orchestras, wind ensembles, choirs and jazz ensembles annually. He also founded and conducted in the Detroit Symphony’s Community Ensembles program, an orchestra and wind ensemble dedicated to giving adults lifelong music playing opportunities, regardless of prior experience.

Rodriguez-Parada is originally from Tampa, Florida and holds degrees in music education from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and The Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to his role at Shamokin, Rodriguez-Parada conducts the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra’s Junior Strings, teaches double bass and guitar at Susquehanna and Bucknell Universities, and plays regularly throughout the region for musicals and other concerts. He currently lives in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania with his wife Adrienne, daughters Lucy and Eliza, and dog Phoebe (who is a very good dog).