Join us for our annual Sundays in the Garden Spring Concert Series featuring chamber music by #InvestinEd Showcase: Sahuaro High School Chamber Ensembles. The concert is free with admission and free for members as one of the many amazing membership benefits.

Be sure to visit the cash bar for beer and wine, prickly pear lemonade, and our famous prickly pear margaritas. Treat yourself to a wonderful afternoon outdoors, sipping wine, and listening to live music. Seating is limited, so please arrive early. The concert series is brought you in part by the Tucson Guitar Society.

Hailing from a little town called Normal, Illinois, Hillary Engel got her start as a percussionist after trying the trombone in 5^th grade and finding her arms too short to reach 7^th position.  Picking up sticks was much easier, and she never did stop playing.  After receiving her Associates in Music from Parkland College, she moved to Tucson in the summer of 2009 to complete her bachelor’s degree in Music Education at the University of Arizona.  Upon getting this degree in 2012, she continued at the U of A and received her Master’s in Percussion Performance in 2014 where she also served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the U of A band programs.  Since then, she has been the Director of Bands at Sahuaro High School where she has built incredibly strong wind band, marching band, and percussion programs.

Outside of her appointment at Sahuaro, Ms. Engel has taught music throughout the country and the world.  She has served as the Front Ensemble instructor for the Normal Community West High School Marching Band and the Normal Community High School Marching Band, has been a guest clinician for the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield, New Jersey, taught percussion and been a conductor for the University of Arizona Outreach Honor Band, taught percussion at Tucson High School where she also did her student teaching, and has been an Opening Minds through the Arts (OMA) summer program and hand drum teacher.  Beyond this, she spent the summer of 2014 in White River, South Africa, teaching general music and African marimba to youth in the community.

When she isn’t teaching, Ms. Engel can almost always be found performing in Southern Arizona and around the world.  She has been a member of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, the Tucson Repertory Orchestra, the Green Valley Concert Band, the Sonora Winds, has been a substitute percussionist for the Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra, and has played with several gig bands throughout Tucson and the surrounding areas.  She has also been fortunate enough to travel and perform internationally multiple times thanks to music, including tours to China, Mexico, Brazil, and most recently South Africa.

Ms. Engel looks forward to continued growth and success at Sahuaro High School and honing her performing skills even more with upcoming recitals, concerts, and concertos with Southern Arizona ensembles.