All-Illinois Junior Band

Illinois Band Directors

General Info

About AIJB

The All-Illinois Junior Band was founded for the express purpose of creating a premier musical experience for the state’s finest middle school band students. As the first statewide middle school honor band in over half a century, membership in AIJB is determined solely through competitive blind auditions. Its goals are to provide an opportunity for middle school students to perform excellent literature with a mature ensemble and distinguished conductor, to interact with similarly dedicated student musicians from around the State of Illinois, and to encourage and inspire these outstanding young musicians to continue their musical studies.

Nationally Recognized Guest Conductor

The finest national recognized conductors and music educators working with students.

Amazing Facilities

Rehearsal and performance in the world class Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois.

Highly Selective

Blindly adjudicated auditions with high standards for acceptance. Membership determined solely by audition.

Quality Repertoire

High quality literature prepared by the students in advance of the festival.

Instrumentation

Appropriately sized ensemble with balanced instrumentation.

Great Value

Single participation fee covers costs associated with the AIJB Festival, including a t-shirt, Friday night reception, and lunch on Saturday. (Free concert admission, no director fee, and no school participation fee)

2027 Guest Conductor

Carol Brittin Chambers is currently the composer and owner of Aspenwood Music, aspenwoodmusic.com, and a highly sought-after conductor and clinician. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is also on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University, teaching composition and serving as Composer in Residence.

Chambers is commissioned each year to compose and arrange works for concert band, marching band, orchestra, and various other ensembles. Her concert works have been selected to the J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice List and the Bandworld Top 100 and have been performed at state educator conferences across the country, the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, and other international events. She was named the winner of the 2019 WBDI (Women Band Directors International) Composition Competition and also served as the 2025 TBA Texas Bandmasters Association Featured Composer. She has arranged and orchestrated marching shows for multitudes of high school bands nationwide, as well as The Crossmen
Drum Corps. Chambers travels coast-to-coast conducting music ensembles of all ability levels and ages, and she has now joined the Conn Selmer Educational Team as an Educational Clinician.

At Texas Lutheran University, in addition to composition, Chambers has taught a variety of music education courses, including Band and Brass Methods, Orchestration, Music Technology, Ear Training and Sight Singing, and Trumpet lessons, to name a few. Before teaching at TLU, Chambers taught middle school and high school band for many years in the North East Independent School District, San Antonio, TX. She also taught private lessons in NEISD.

Chambers received a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Northwestern University and a
Bachelor of Music Education from Texas Tech University. She studied under Vincent Cichowicz, Will
Strieder, John Paynter, Arnold Jacobs, James Sudduth, and Pat Anthony.

Gold Sponsors

Testimonials

Thanks so much for putting in all of the work to provide the AIJB experience for the students! I am completely impressed with how well everything was prepared and organized. It certainly was the best middle level honor band with which I have ever worked — a joyful experience for me the entire time!

Dougles Akey, 2017 AIJB Guest Conductor

I truly appreciate the opportunity you’ve provided for our more motivated students. I look forward to being a part of it again in the future. My band parents were thrilled with the entire experience.

Tom Tedeschi, Lakeview Jr. High School

My applicants practiced harder than I’ve ever seen them, listening back, reflecting, recording…regardless of whether they make it into the ensemble or not, it has already been a great learning process.

Karen Moffett, Westview Hills Middle School

Thank you for your monumental efforts on behalf of these students in the All Illinois Junior Band. As a parent, I could not have asked for a better junior high band experience for my daughter. She returns from this weekend with new enthusiasm and a sense of pride from being a part of this group. The quality of the conductors and sectional staff give my child a level of instruction and musical experiences that are hard to match anywhere else in the state. I am forever grateful to both of you for your efforts to give all these band students a rewarding, educational, and inspiring band experience.