Ashley Cypher is the Program Manager & Assistant to the Artistic/Executive Director. She joined as Assistant to the Artistic Director in the ‘24-’25 YSKC Season.

Prior to her appointment at YSKC she was the Department Chair and Director of Bands and Orchestra at Lincoln Northeast High School in Lincoln, NE. She is passionate about youth music programs and creating a community of artistic excellence.

Ashley is an active musician, conductor, and educator residing in Kansas City, Missouri. As a soloist she has won several competitions including the 2019 University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Graduate Concerto Competition and the 2018 Annual Concerto Competition at Liberty University (LU). She was also a featured soloist on a week-long tour in the Spring of 2018 with the LU Wind Symphony and has actively performed in various concert bands, theater, ballet, and opera productions, jazz groups, studio sessions, and orchestras. She is a founding member of Trio Ventorum, a music chamber ensemble based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Locally, Ashley can be found playing with the Lee’s Summit Symphony, Sedalia Symphony, Pinnacle Winds, and a guest musician for surrounding universities including University of Kansas, University of Missouri, Park University and various other groups such as the Barn Players and high school theater productions. Ashley was a member of the 2024 LAFCI Studio Intensive Orchestra which recorded an album in Warner Brothers Studio in Los Angeles, CA.

As a conductor she has attended numerous workshops, most recently including Everything Conducting in partnership with the Omaha Symphony, the Northwestern Conducting Symposium, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conducting Symposium, University of North Texas Conducting Collegium, and the Conducting Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. She has also been the conductor and assistant music director at the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg, Virginia and the assistant conductor with the Liberty University Theater Department.

As an educator Ashley has served as the Department Chair and Director of Bands and Orchestra at Lincoln Northeast High School in Lincoln, NE, which has consistently received superior ratings at marching and concert festivals and competitions under her direction. She has been a guest teacher at the Nebraska Wesleyan University Honors Band Festival and was a guest speaker at their NAfME chapter meeting. She adjudicated for the Lincoln Public Schools Middle School Solo and Small Ensemble Music Festivals.

Ashley is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Music Business from Berklee College of Music – Berklee Online and holds a MM in Woodwind Specialty from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a BM in Clarinet Performance, and a BM in Music Education from Liberty University. Ashley has enjoyed living in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Nebraska but is very excited to be a part of Kansas City and enjoy all it has to offer!