Dylan Parrilla-Koester serves as Assistant Director Bands at Tulane University where he instructs and conducts the athletic and concert bands including the Tulane University Marching Band and Tulane Concert Band. He is a doctoral candidate in Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University where he is pursuing research in the areas of college athletic bands, higher music education policy and admissions, and democracy in education. His latest publication on democratic pedagogy can be found in the upcoming volume of JEN’s Jazz Education in Research and Practice journal through Indiana Press. He teaches instrumental conducting at Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus during summer sessions, and he is an active clinician, conductor and adjudicator of scholastic ensembles, having worked with middle and high school ensembles from across the United States.

Prior to Tulane he served as Director of Instrumental Music at Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, CA where directed the 5-time California state champion Hoover Tornado Marching Band, concert band, string orchestra, winter line, and jazz band. His ensembles have achieved straight superior ratings at festival performance. Dylan has also worked on the faculty of St. Thomas University in Miami, FL. Dylan was a Graduate Instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder where he conducted the wind bands and assisted with the athletic bands. Dylan’s drill designs and music arrangements have been performed by high schools and universities across the country including the University of Colorado, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Tulane University. Ensembles under his direction have performed at high profile events and national TV productions such as American Idol Season 21 and the 2023 Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

Dylan has presented at national and state music education conferences including the College Band Directors National Association Athletic Band Symposium, the College Music Society National Conference, and the Colorado Music Educators Association conference. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in trumpet performance with Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa Honors from Tulane University, a Master of Music Education with an emphasis in wind band conducting from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Master of Education from Columbia University, and he is completing doctoral work in music education under the guidance of Patrick Schmidt at Teachers College, Columbia University. His conducting teachers include Donald McKinney, Matthew Dockendorf, Matthew Roeder, and Maxim Samarov. Dylan is an alumnus and the Tulane chapter sponsor of Kappa Kappa Psi, and he holds professional memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, the College Music Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the National Association for Music Education.