Our Teaching Staff
Meet our talented team of educators.
Daniel F. Smith
Daniel F. Smith is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Northern Colorado Youth Orchestra, an organization he established in 2020 in response to the challenges facing music education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his visionary leadership, NoCoYO has grown from three socially distanced string ensembles to a nationally recognized program serving over 120 students annually. The organization now includes multiple large ensembles, including The Apprentice Ensemble, The Concert Ensemble, The Symphony Orchestra, and a chamber music program.
Mr. Smith’s achievements with NoCoYO have garnered national attention. In 2022, the Chamber Orchestra was selected to perform at the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National Orchestra Festival, placing third in the nation. In 2024, the orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall, premiering Interstellar Dreams by Colorado composer Chris Pilsner. NoCoYO is currently preparing for its debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2026. In recognition of his work, Mr. Smith was honored as the ASTA String Teacher of the Year in 2021.
A dedicated educator and conductor, Mr. Smith also serves as Director of Orchestras at Loveland High School and Lucile Erwin Middle School, where he oversees a comprehensive program of sixteen ensembles spanning grades six through twelve. His orchestras consistently receive superior ratings at regional and state festivals, and the Loveland High School Chamber Orchestra has qualified for the ASTA State Festival every year under his direction.
Mr. Smith holds degrees in Music Performance and Music Education from Colorado State University. He served for sixteen years as Principal Bassist with the 101st Army Band and has maintained a successful private studio, The Arco / Pizzicato Music Studio, for over two decades. His professional affiliations and collaborations extend throughout Colorado, where he remains an active performer, clinician, and advocate for youth in the arts.
Through his work with NoCoYO and the broader musical community, Mr. Smith continues to champion the mission of Inspiring Harmony for Tomorrow, creating transformative musical experiences that nurture young artists and strengthen the future of classical music.
Joshua Greiner
Joshua Greiner is a Fort Collins native and Poudre School District alumni, attending Olander, Blevins, and Rocky Mountain High School. Growing up in Fort Collins, he learned a love for the outdoors through mountain biking, hiking, camping, skiing, and playing disc golf. Joshua started learning the Cello at Blevins Middle School and has been in love with all things Orchestra and music ever since.
He received his Undergraduate degree from Colorado State University in Music Education, Cello Performance, and Cello Pedagogy in December 2019. Mr. Greiner has experience teaching students across Northern Colorado from beginners to advanced, state recognized ensembles. In addition to teaching, Mr. Greiner has performed with his quartet throughout Northern Colorado.
This year is Mr. Greiner’s first year teaching Orchestra at Preston Middle School, starting in August of 2020. Mr. Greiner’s goal is to provide as many opportunities for students to grow as individual players, as leaders, and together as an Orchestra. Mr. Greiner is excited to provide the opportunity for string players in Northern Colorado to participate in a youth orchestra and can’t wait to see where NoCoYO goes in the next few years.
Drew Mendizabal
Drew Mendizabal is an aspiring new conductor who recently graduated from the Colorado State University with a Master of Music in orchestral conducting. He studied under the guidance of Wes Kenney and worked in partnership with the CSU orchestras during his time as the Graduate Teaching Assistant. Although primarily a clarinetist, Mr. Mendizabal studied and played viola, piano, and harpsichord while at CSU to supplement his string education.
Mr. Mendizabal was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada and attended the University of Nevada, Reno for his Bachelor of Music Education. HIs passion for band and orchestra led him to pursue an education degree while studying privately with the Director of Orchestras, Dr. Jason Altieri. Mr. Mendizabal held leadership roles in both the Marching Band as Drum Major for four years, and as President of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity for two years.
Mr. Mendizabal is excited to join the Northern Colorado Youth Orchestra’s conducting staff. He currently serves as the Instrumental Director at Ridgeview Classical Schools for 5th-12th grade band and orchestra. In addition to this new post, he works with Leslie Stewart and the Health and Wellness orchestra as the Assistant Conductor. He strives to make a difference in the music community of the next generation with an emphasis on diversity in the orchestra.
Outside of music, Mr. Mendizabal enjoys spending quality time with his dog son, Rocky Mendizabal. He enjoys watching Spanish and Korean films and series, swimming, cooking, and indulging in hot cups of green tea.
Cathy Verbyla
Cathy is elated to be joining the Northern Colorado Youth Orchestra as a director. With a passion for pedagogy and conducting above all else, Cathy has been an educator for band, choir, orchestra, and theatre in Colorado for the last eight years. She has made it her life’s work to build foundational musical experiences for young students so that they can make their own voices heard within the performing arts.
Hailing from the small town of Benton, Pennsylvania, Cathy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and her Master’s degree in French Horn Performance from the University of Northern Colorado in 2016. Alongside teaching, she has built a career in horn performance around the country and Europe playing principal horn in Spain, Italy, France, and the Czech Republic with various orchestras. She even attended the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England with the Spirit and Pride of Pennsylvania Marching Band. (In Colorado, Cathy has performed with the Longmont Symphony, Boulder Symphony, Colorado Chamber Orchestra and a handful of other groups. Cathy is also an avid pianist having been a choir accompanist since the age of 10, and continues to play for musical pits around the Northern Colorado area. Presently, she regularly plays horn with the Fort Collins Wind Symphony, Loveland Opera theater, and sings with the Rocky Mountain Chamber Singers.)
Cathy currently teaches orchestra and theatre at Severance Middle School, where she has been a part of their amazing performing arts program since 2018. When she is not teaching, Cathy enjoys exploring Colorado’s open roads on her bike, diamond painting, attending stand-up comedy shows, watching extreme weather livestreams, and memes.
Barbara Thiem
Barbara Thiem is an internationally acclaimed cellist who combines teaching cello and coaching chamber music with her active schedule of solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in Europe and the United States. She is a founding member of the Mendelssohn Trio that regularly performs in the United States, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with an appearance at the International Mendelssohn Festival in Berlin. Her prolific performance schedule includes 20-30 concerts each year across Europe, the U.S., Canada, and South America, including many guest artist appearances at the International Draeseke Conference in Coburg, Germany.
In addition to concertizing, Thiem has recorded for many radio stations and has produced several CDs, among them a set of Bach Suites for solo cello, Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Felix Draeseke with pianist Wolfgang Mueller-Steinbach, Works for Cello and Organ with organist Robert Cavarra, and cello/bass duets with Gary Karr. She has published translations of Gerhard Mantel's Cello Technique, and Ernst Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s From New York to San Francisco, both from Indiana University Press, as well as a number of articles on good postural and practicing habits, which appeared in the American String Teacher Association Journal and the American Suzuki Journal.
As an active clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator, Thiem has been a guest at the Encontro Orquestra de Cordas da UnB in Brazil, the Pan American Cello Festival in Texas, at prominent national association conferences, including the Music Teachers National Association, the American Musicological Society, and the American String Teachers Association, and at state music teacher’s conferences and contests.
Thiem teaches and performs within the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Colorado State University where she teaches cello and chamber music, leads a three-semester course in cello pedagogy, and teaches in the Pre-College Chamber Music Program. The Mendelssohn Trio is in residence at the University, and Thiem has also participated in research within CSU’s renowned music therapy area. Previous teaching appointments include the University of Wyoming, Indiana University, Lamont School of Music, University of Colorado, University of Texas, and Iowa State University. She has often administered the International Summer Academy of Schloss Ort, Austria.
Thiem holds an M.M. in cello performance from Indiana University where she was assistant to Janos Starker and was awarded the coveted Performer’s Certificate, as well as degrees from Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany where she studied with avant-garde cellist Siegfried Palm.
She is a ‘Best Teacher’ award-winner at Colorado State University, and a ‘Teacher of the Year,’ nominee for the College of Liberal Arts.
