Colleen Hallett

Colleen Hallett graduated from the Senior Years Instrumental stream of Brandon University’s concurrent B. Music/B. Education program in 2023, with an applied concentration in French horn studies. She is the concert band and jazz band director at Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute, where she runs the grade 9-12 program. 

When Colleen started at NACI in September of the 2024/25 school year, there were zero French horn players enrolled in the high school band program (to which she said: “challenge accepted”). By the winter concert in December, she had a thriving section of five horns across the junior and senior concert bands, all of whom started from square one that fall. In the recent 2025/26 school year, the NACI horn section grew to be seven players strong.

One of Colleen’s greatest passions is turning timid beginners into confident, independent “French horn Jedis” by using loads of encouragement, tricks of the trade, and a fair bit of Star Wars humour. Bring a horn and learn how to “master the ways of the force” (a.k.a. partials) so that you can build a stellar horn section in your program!