Victor Battista

About Victor

Victor Battista is an instrumentalist and music educator from The Hudson Valley in New York State. He has had the privilege of performing professionally as a guest artist with The Austin Symphony Orchestra, The West Point Band, The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, The United States Air Force Band of the West, and The Central Texas Philharmonic. He has toured Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Virginia giving concerts and outreach performances at various colleges as a guest artist with The United States Air Force Band, JBAB. Battista has been a finalist in professional auditions for The West Point Band, The “Pershing’s Own” U.S. Army Concert Band, and in international music competitions. In the summer months, Battista has toured various cities around Mexico giving concerts as principal clarinetist of The Opera Maya Orchestra, has won fellowships with The United States Air Force Band, JBAB, and The Chautauqua Institute, has performed professionally as a doubler for Zilker Theatre Productions based in Austin, and has taught at prestigious camps such as Interlochen.

Battista has dedicated his life to showing his students how capable they are of success and mastery of the clarinet. His students represent the best high school student clarinetists in the state of Texas; they have earned spots in Texas all-state orchestra, have ranked first in 5A and 6A region band auditions, and have received perfect scores at UIL State Solo Contests. Through Battista’s guidance, his students have been accepted into prestigious music programs, including Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, The University of North Texas, and Florida State University. Passionate about the role of music in promoting social change, Battista has led songwriting workshops to students involved in different organizations in Austin Texas, including OutYouth, an organization that supports the wellbeing of middle and high school students identifying within the LGBTQIA+ community.

The reason I am an educator today is to show students how capable they are of learning through the pacing of my feedback and guided questions. My mission is to shape my students into independent thinking learners, musicians, and people. A great quote that summarizes my philosophy on teaching is: “When we treat a man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be.”