Directory

Elisha K. Wells is the Director of Bands, Brass, and Music Theory at Fresno City College. Prior to serving at Fresno City College, Elisha was a Horn Instructor and Lecture at Sacramento State, Stanislaus State, Delta College, College of Sequoias, Conductor of the Visalia Opera Company, and has been Horn Faculty at Cazadero Music Camp since 2015. Ms. Wells currently serves as Principal Horn in Sequoia Symphony, Wind Symphony of Clovis, and regularly performs with the Fresno Philharmonic, having served as Acting Principal Horn. Elisha studied at Chapman University in Orange, CA, University of Houston in Houston, TX, and Fresno City College briefly. However, her formal studies include a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts with an emphasis in Horn Performance from California State University, Fresno.

Elisha is an active faculty member at Fresno City College, and is a patron, supporter, educator and adjudicator within the music community. She is currently President of Friends of the Arts at FCC, serves on the Sequoia Symphony Board , and is the Higher Education Representative on the CMEA Central Section Board. Elisha regularly adjudicates Solo and Ensemble festivals regionally and state-wide, All-State & Regional Honor Band auditions, and presents clinics on Best Practices for Horn Players and Teaching Horn for Band Directors. She also is a current member of the Local 12 Musicians Union and the International Horn Society, and maintains an active teaching studio called the Happy Horn Studio, with students from Visalia, Fresno, Clovis, Modesto and Sacramento areas.

Her professional conducting career began in 2012, conducting Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Bizet’s Carmen, and an original Mariachi Opera with Visalia Opera Company. In the summer of 2014, she conducted a professionally-cast production of Les Miserable with the League of Christian Actors in Visalia, CA. Since then, Elisha has conducted junior high and high school bands in California, and has adjudicated wind ensemble festivals in the Central Valley and Bay Area. In 2019, Elisha was invited to be the Guest Conductor for the TKMEA and SCMEA Junior High Honor Bands, and was recently chosen to Guest Conduct the 2022 FMCMEA High School Honor Band.

Elisha has been an active horn soloist for almost 20 years. Earlier in her career, Elisha performed as a horn soloist and dancer in the Tony Award-winning Broadway show, “Blast!” . In April 2012, she competed with a group called The Edge for the nationally televised show called America’s Got Talent in New York. She has performed in Australia, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, and continually performs solos throughout the west coast with groups including Sequoia Symphony, Kingsburg Community Band, Stanislaus Community Band, and the Wind Symphony of Clovis. Additionally, she has played in accompanying orchestras for world-renown artists such as Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Renée Fleming, Andrea Bocelli, Jackie Evancho, Branford Marsalis, Juan Diego Florez, Sarah Chang, Jon Nakamatsu, Airborne Toxic Event, and Mannheim Steamroller. Elisha is also a noted Artist and Endorser of Robinson’s Remedies-Lip Renew.

Ms. Wells feels fortunate to have studied with world-class hornists such as Brian Drake (LA Phil), Nancy Goodearl (Houston Symphony), Dr. Tom Hiebert (Fresno State), and David Krehbiel (formerly, San Francisco Symphony).