Tim Dawson was inspired by his mother, a band director. All of her children played a musical instrument and Tim found the trombone! After serving as a band director for three years, Tim f...
James Decker had been an active music maker ever since performing with his mother on radio broadcasts while he was a child. Over the years, he continued his pursuit of music study and eve...
Martin Denny cornered the market on the musical style of the early 1950s known as exotica. The smooth melody of the songs were enhanced by hundreds of different tropical sounding instrume...
Jim DePriest has been teaching for 28 years, He has taught students at Stuart-Menlo Community Schools, West Burlington Independent Schools, Notre Dame Catholic Schools, and Mt. Pleasant C...
Gary DeShazo began his musical career as a Texas bandmaster and then worked with James Caldwell, the founder of Caldwell Music. With a great understanding of the educators’ needs, Gary so...
Chip DeStefano has served as the Director of Bands at McCracken Middle School for fifteen years now. Under his direction, the McCracken Middle School Symphonic Band has received first div...
Ronnie Drumm had a full and fulfilling life in music! As a child he picked up the trumpet, which he played during his time as a big band leader, musical director and educator. Ronnie work...
Greg Duncan began his music journey in the sixth grade playing trombone out in Longview, Texas. His passion grew and he played throughout high school and into college where he focused on ...
David Eccles is the Director of String Music Education at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. He speaks here about the first steps for any new teacher and how to keep music ...
Bill Eckroth enjoyed being a band director in his home town of Mandan, North Dakota, just across the Missouri River from Bismarck. He started out teaching junior high school students, ma...
Mary Ann Eckroth quietly sat behind the desk working on the books while her husband Bill traveled to the local schools to help the band directors. She took care of the customers and clea...
John F. Edmunds began arranging music as a high school student, when he found that commercially available arrangements were not suitable for his band of non-standard instrumentation. Afte...
Ida Eleck worked alongside her husband who was a big band musician and band director who had the idea of opening a music store. Ida was thrilled with the idea as it gave her more time to...
Richard Ellis was proud of the three main areas of his professional career; playing, teaching and selling musical instruments. As a teenager Richard traveled with a big band, playing danc...
John Espy teaches at Milford Exempted Village Schools in Milford, Ohio, where he teaches music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Here, he speaks about transitions into mi...
Frank Fendorf served as a school band director for many years beginning with the high school band in Warrensburg, MO in 1947. He enjoyed the role of band director and in fact was doing ...
Anne Fennell knew she wanted to be involved with music from a very young age. Learning to read music was difficult for her and yet, she was not discouraged. Despite these roadblocks, Anne...
Cheryl Filipek is the Band Director at Niles North High School. She speaks here about how to connect to students and how to create interest in music to recruit and retain for her program....
Richard Floyd, whose school bands have performed all over the country including at the Midwest Band Clinic, is among the best known Texas bandmasters. He has developed programs and materi...
Terren Frenz has been likened to Mr. Holland from the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” a dedicated and long lasting music educator who cares deeply about bringing music into the lives of his st...
George Gaber was the noted percussionist with symphonic orchestras who parlayed his performing into an historic role as professor of music at the University of Indiana at Bloomington begi...
Colonel Arnald Gabriel proudly led the United States Air Force Band as well as the Symphony Orchestra, the Singing Sergeants and the McLean Orchestra over a long and celebrated career of ...
Duncan Goff was a band director in Mississippi for 33 years. His first teaching job, at a junior high school, showed Duncan he was in the right line of work as it was a meaningful experie...
Norman Goldberg studied music from an early age and became a band director early in his life. Seeing the needs of music educators, Norman opened his own store called Baton Music in 1948, ...
Nancy Golden teaches band in four of the seven elementary schools in the Hinsdale District 181. She discusses various methods of recruiting new students for the band, such as showing recr...
Doice Grant follows in the traditions of Alto Tatum, the founder of his store, and Doice’s father Neil who took over from Mr. Tatum. Being the third generation means a great deal to Doice...
Mel Graner was a school band director for nearly 30 years--it was in his blood and he very much enjoyed each class. When the school district let him go to hire a younger teacher, he was ...
Neil Grant worked with Alto Tatum long enough to understand some of the magic behind the man who defined music retail in Texas. Well respected and often sought out for advice and ideas, A...
Ron Griggs dreamed of being a band teacher as a child. His career as a teacher was rewarding as he was often stopped in the street by former students who would remark on how much of an im...
Gordon Grubbs grew up in a very musical home. His mother was a professional pianist and was very encouraging to Gordon when he was three and wanted to play. Gordon was later guided by a...
Joe Guercio is best known for the 8 years he served as Elvis Presley’s musical director, beginning in Las Vegas in 1969. He formed the orchestra that backed Elvis and his band on every to...
Joe Guth’s career in the music products industry began with a short stint with Selmer and as a former band director he brought a great perspective to selling instruments to school music p...
