Second Lieutenant Luke Camarillo is the Flight Commander and Associate Conductor of the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America. In this role Lt Camarillo assists the Commander in leading, organizing, and equipping the Band of Mid-America in over 400 annual engagements throughout a 10-state region.
Lt Camarillo earned his commission in September 2025 after graduating from Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. He has appeared as a guest conductor with an array of orchestral and new music ensembles, most recently the Berlin Sinfonietta, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, and the OSSIA New Music Ensemble. Prior to joining the Air Force, he led the band programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
A Texas native, Lt Camarillo holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music where he studied conducting with Mark Davis Scatterday and served as assistant conductor of the legendary Eastman Wind Ensemble. At Eastman, he was a Fennell Conducting Fellow, Donald & Polly Hunsberger Fellow, and received the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize. He earned a Master of Music in Instrumental Conducting (with honors) from the New England Conservatory, in the studio of Charles Peltz and William Drury, and a Bachelor of Music Education (summa cum laude) from Baylor University.