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Adjudicators

Events  /  Heart of Carolina  /  Adjudicators
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Chief Judge

Richard Holmes
Richard Holmes received his Bachelor of Music Education from Winthrop University in 1989 and his Master of Music Education from Appalachian State University in 2000. He is currently in his his twenty-seventh year of teaching. Mr. Holmes is currently the Director of Bands at Southwest Middle School in Charlotte, NC. Some of Mr. Holmes' professional affiliations include, North Carolina Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, American School Band Directors Association, North Carolina Bandmasters Association, South Central District Bandmasters Association. Mr. Holmes is currently serving as Treasurer and Webmaster for the South Central District and as the Immediate Past President for the North Carolina Music Educators Association and is a Past President of the North Carolina Bandmasters Association. Some Mr. Holmes’ personal honors include receiving the 2004 Award of Excellence from the South Central District, being recognized by Who's Who Among America's Teachers in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 from nominations of former students. Mr. Holmes has also served as a clinician for several All-County Honor Bands in North Carolina. He has also served as a judge for marching band contests and concert band festivals in North Carolina and Virginia.

Percussion

Greg Shull
Greg Shull just retired from PurrCussion, the official drumline of the Carolina Panthers, in which he co-founded nearly 10 years ago. 

Greg has judged for the Carolina Indoor Performance Association, Atlantic Indoor Performance Association, Carolina Winter Ensemble Association, North Carolina Bandmasters Association, and many other outdoor marching competitions.  He has also judged multiple rounds of auditions for one of the NFL’s premier dance and cheer squads, the Carolina Panthers TopCats.

For thirteen years, Greg toured the United States teaching percussion and marching camps with Superior Marching Camps Enterprises.  He was the assistant band director at Butler High School for 8 years and has invested many instructional/consultation hours into various band programs throughout the Carolinas.  Greg was a co-founder and director of Constitution, an independent percussion ensemble that competed in Winter Guard International’s “World” classification.

Many years ago (well, not that many), Greg performed with Carolina Thunder, an earlier ensemble that also competed in WGI’s percussion “World” class. He now spends the majority of his time with his lovely wife, Amy and daughter, Reagan. Greg holds a Bachelors of Science degree in business administration, a Master’s in educational leadership, and is working on his doctorate in organizational leadership.

Color Guard

Shannon Proctor-Nystrom

Ms. Shannon Proctor-Nystrom is a graduate of NCSU with a BS in Business Management and a graduate from Meredith College with a teaching license in Dance K-12.  She has been teaching dance and guard for over twenty years with various schools such as Wakefield HS, Cape Fear HS, Corinth Holders HS, South Granville HS, and Scotland HS.  She was a guard performer for many years with groups such as Blessed Sacrament Winter Guard, The Study Winter Guard, Carolina Visual Productions Winter Guard, and Carolina Gold Drum and Bugle Corps.   

Shannon Proctor-Nystrom is in her 14th year working for Wakefield HS in both Dance and Color Guard.  She is the current Caption Head of the Wakefield Color Guard and Winter Guard programs. Throughout her teaching and design, the winter guards have grown to a national level achieving WGI World Championship Finalist positions four times, semi-finalist positions seven times, and being the first Wake County guard to be promoted into Open Class.  Her biggest achievement is showing her love of the activity to  her students who have continued with their guard careers in groups such as Pride of Cincinnati, Blessed Sacrament, First Flight, Amachi, Legacy, Carolina Visual Productions, Carolina Crown, and Carolina Gold.

Drum Major

Matthew Parunak
atthew Parunak is a professional music arranger, visual designer, and trombonist from Chapel Hill, NC. Currently, he serves as music director for Orquesta K'Che Salsa band, bass trombonist for the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Durham Symphony Orchestra, and the assistant band director at Jordan High School in Durham, NC. Matthew also serves as adjunct faculty at Elon University in Music Education, as well as brass staff with the University of North Carolina Marching Tar Heels. Matthew is also the founder of Tobacco Road Trombones, a community trombone ensemble that rehearses and performs in the triangle area.

He received his Bachelor's Degree in Tuba Performance in 2008 and his Master's Degree in Arts and Teaching in 2009, both from UNC-Chapel Hill. From 2009-2012, Matthew was the Director of Bands at Forbush High School and Forbush Middle School, where his marching and concert bands received consistent Superior and Excellence ratings.  As an active arranger and clinician, he has written more than 50 marching band shows for bands across the state of North Carolina, while consulting with many band programs across the state of North Carolina. 

Joanna Ross Hersey, former principal tubist of the United States Coast Guard Band, commissioned Matthew to write an original theme and variations piece for solo tuba and wind ensemble. It was premiered in November of 2016 by the ECU Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Scott Carter.

In his free time, Matthew enjoys traveling with his wife, Sarah, and spending time with their pets Izzy (cat) and Maestro (golden retriever).