Alamo City Arts
Artistic Director 

​Alamo City Dance Company
Company Director ​

Alamo City Arts Academy
Academy Director ​

Kathleen Rodriguez Hall

Katie Hall is native to San Antonio and has over 30 years experience in the performing arts. Mrs. Hall began her training with Scott Conway at the San Antonio School for the Performing Arts (SASPA) building a wide base of expertise in classical ballet, jazz, tap, folklorico, flamenco, latin ballroom, hip hop, musical theatre, comedy, and live performance.  She later became a member of the Alamo City Dance Company where she performed in the Nutcracker, Mid-Summer’s Night Dream and Lepidoptera.  Mrs. Hall has always maintained a strong love for the city of San Antonio and joined Fiesta Noche Del Rio as one of their core dancers.  

After her time with Fiesta Noche Del Rio, Mrs. Hall had the honor of being crowned Miss Fiesta San Antonio.  She temporarily left San Antonio to attend Texas A&M University.  During her time in College Station she became the president and choreographer of Texas A&M University’s Ballet Folklorico Celestial.  Mrs. Hall was then named Choreographer and Artistic of Director of the wild west dinner show Tombstone Texas, and Santa’s Wonderland.  After graduating from Texas A&M Katie moved to Austin, started a family, and then returned to San Antonio where she began teaching at SASPA.  Mrs. Hall then began instructing andchoreographing for the Alamo City Performing Arts Association (ACPAA) where she was quickly named as the companies Ballet Master.  Mrs. Hall has recently been asked to direct the live entertainment for San Antonio Riverwalk Association’s Halloween and the nationally syndicated Ford Holiday River Parade. Mrs. Hall has also returned to Fiesta Noche Del Rio where she is currently the Director and Choreographer.  This year, Mrs. Hall has come full circle to where her career began and has succeeded Mr. Conway as the Artistic Director for the Alamo City Performing Arts Association.

Alamo City ​Symphony Viva
Music Director, Conductor​

Joseph Kneer

Conductor and violinist Joseph Kneer currently serves as Conductor of the Campanile Orchestra at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Associate Professor of Music and Conductor of the Trinity Symphony Orchestra at Trinity University, and Music Director of Alamo City Symphony Viva, a concert and ballet orchestra based in San Antonio. Winner of the Audience Choice and Third Prize at the 2023 Los Angeles Conducting Competition, Kneer has conducted numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Oberlin Chamber Players, the Mercyhurst String Ensemble and community string chamber music program, the Mercyhurst Civic Orchestra, and the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Chancel Choir in Baltimore.

Recent collaborations and engagements include Dvořák’s Violin Concerto with Jinjoo Cho, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with pianist Carolyn True, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Trinity University Choir, a period production of Dido and Aeneas with Trinity’s Opera Workshop, Symphony Viva’s production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and the premiere of Roger Zare’s commissioned work Neowise for the TSO in May 2021. In demand during the 2023-2024 season, Joseph leads a full year of concerts and ballet performances, including productions of The Nutcracker and Little Red Riding Hood with the Alamo City Dance Company. Conducting mentors include Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Neil Thomson, Scott Weiss, John Farrer, and Howard Williams.

Kneer holds a B.M. in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.M. and D.M.A. in Violin Performance from the Peabody Institute, and an M.M. in Theory Pedagogy, also from Peabody. Joseph’s principal violin teachers include Mary West, Milan Vitek, Herbert Greenberg, and Violaine Melançon. Prior teaching appointments include Mercyhurst University and the Peabody Preparatory.

Heart of Texas Concert Band
Music Director, Conductor

Mark Rogers

R. Mark Rogers received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from The University of Texas, having previously earned his Masters and Bachelors of Music Education degrees from Texas Tech University. His early teaching career included Graduate Teaching Assistant at Texas Tech University and The University of Texas, and staff arranger for the Longhorn Band; member of the band staff at Spring and Westfield High School (1977); Assistant Professor of Music/Director of Bands at South Plains College (Levelland, TX) 1978-1985; Assistant Professor of Music/Director of Bands at the University of South Alabama (Mobile) 1987-1993.

In 1980, his first published work, the overture to Verdi’s Opera, La Forza del Destino appeared with Southern Music Company, and in 1993 he joined the firm full time as Director of Publications. He continues as Managing Editor of Kaiser/Southern Music Company. His editions of the music of Percy Grainger and John Philip Sousa have entered band repertory worldwide. He has had his works performed by all five of the Washington, DC service bands. Rogers is widely published, and has works represented in the catalogs of Alfred, Boosey and Hawkes, E. C. Schirmer, European American Music, Hal Leonard, Ludwig, and Southern Music Company (United States), as well as G & M Brand, Molenaar, Peer Music, Schott Musik International, and Tierolff Muziekcentrale (Europe). Articles by Rogers have appeared in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, The Instrumentalist Magazine, and the Texas Bandmasters’ Association Journal. Dr. Rogers is a current ASCAP member with over 60 works listed, (although his total number of collaborative works is much higher) earning royalties both domestic and international. His most recent works include the 5th Symphonies of Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich, complete.
Mark was a guest presenter at the Eastman School of Music on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Eastman Wind Ensemble. He has also guest conducted community and professional bands, regional honor bands and orchestras, and area high school and middle school bands and orchestras. Mark has multi-faceted experience in music theatre, appearing on stage many times, in substantial roles (notably Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady); conducting in the pit, countless times (Evita); as well as playing bassoon in many pit orchestras (Nutcracker). Mark serves on the San Antonio Arts Commission representing City Council District 10, is a member of San Antonio Musicians Society, Association of Concert Bands, Texas Music Educator’s Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and the International Double Reed Society. Rogers serves on the adjunct faculty of three colleges in south and central Texas; and performs on bassoon and contrabassoon with six regional orchestras. Former members of his private bassoon studio have been accepted and continue their bassoon studies in numerous collegiate music programs and in professional orchestras both in the United States and Europe.
Dr. Rogers is the founding conductor of the 80-piece volunteer community band, the Heart of Texas Concert Band, which has performed over 100 free concerts in the San Antonio area in its 10 year existence. Under his leadership, the band performed the American premier of Menu by Spanish composer, Carlos Pellicer, which led to the commissioning of Euphoric City, written for the Tricentennial of San Antonio. Mark was instrumental in bringing composer Pellicer to San Antonio for the premier in May 2018. Among the notable soloists who have appeared with the band is Barry Hearn, Associate Principal Trombonist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, who performed Johann de Meij’s T-Bone Concerto. Composer de Meij guest conducted the HTxCB at the Texas Bandmasters Association Convention/Clinic in 2012.
Rogers is the proud recipient of the Grainger Medallion, from the International Percy Grainger Society; the Commander’s Award for Excellence from the United States Army Field Band; and several Paul Revere awards for Graphic Excellence, from the Music Publisher’s Association.
His wife, Sudie, plays clarinet in the Heart of Texas Concert Band. The Rogers’ have a musical family, and all participate in the band performances when they can! Mark and Sudie take great delight in their family: Robert and wife Kelly and their daughters, Brynn and Olivia; James and wife Alyssa and their children, Bradley and Hannah; and John and wife Kami, and their sons Ethan and Levi.

Ballet Folklorico de Alamo City Arts
Company Director

Jesus Vazquez

Born and raised in Mexico, Jesus is an active member of the Centro Mexicano de la Danza in MX and the Asociacion Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos in US whose passion for Mexican folklore started as a child and developed professionally over the years.
After dancing several years in Mexico, Jesus became an instructor for the ITCM Folkloric Group in 2000, danced with the UAT Folkloric Dance Company until 2004 and for the Guadalajara City Folkloric Ballet until 2012.

In USA, Jesus was named Artistic Director at Veronica Robles Cultural Center in 2019 where he choreographed the Mexican Independence show for Boston MA, he danced with Bailadores de Bronce in Seattle WA and the Guadalupe Dance Company in San Antonio TX till 2022 prior to joining Alamo City Arts in 2023. Some of Jesus’s artistic accomplishments include several awards as soloist, duettist, and choreographer at national competitions in Mexico and USA including Festivales de Mexico National Competition, South Texas  College Dance Competition, Competencia Folklorica de Tejas and multiple National Competitions of Huapango Huasteco.
​