2016 National Wind Band Honors Project

Paula Crider

Following a distinguished 33 year teaching career, Professor Paula A. Crider continues to share her passion for making music through an active schedule as guest conductor, lecturer, clinician and adjudicator. She has enjoyed engagements in 47 states, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom,
France, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Spain and Australia. Professor Crider has taught in the public schools at all levels, and holds the unique distinction of having been the first female in the state of Texas to serve as director of bands at a class 5-A high school. Her Crockett High School Bands in Austin, Texas enjoyed both state and national recognition for musical excellence on the concert stage, and were twice named Texas 5A State Marching Champions.
A tenured Full Professor at The University of Texas, Professor Crider conducted the Symphony Band, and was Director of the acclaimed University of Texas Longhorn Band. During her 17 year tenure, she was twice accorded the “Eyes of Texas” Award for distinguished teaching. She continues to serve as visiting guest professor at universities throughout the country. She has written numerous articles for The Instrumentalist, The Band Director?s Guide, the National Band Association Journal, and has published manuals for Brass Techniques, Marching Band Methods and Instrumental Conducting. She is co-author for the Hal Leonard “Masterwork Studies” series, and author of The Composer?s Legacy, Conductors on Conducting for Wind Band published by GIA.
Professor Crider has presented professional teacher seminars throughout the United States, and has served as Chief Adjudicator for the London New Year’s Day Parade. She is coordinator for the National Band Association Young Conductor/Mentor Program, is an Educational Consultant for Conn-Selmer, Inc., and serves on the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Board of Directors. Crider is a Past President of the National Band Association, and the American Bandmaster?s Association. Awards and honors include the Tau Beta Sigma/Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music Award, the Sudler Legion of Merit, The Women Band Director?s International Rose, The Grainger Society Medal, the National Band Association AWAPA Award, 2004 Texas Bandmaster of the Year, Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame, and the Midwest Medal of Honor. In 2013, she was honored with a Doctor of Music Education Honoris Causa from the Vandercook School of Music. She was inducted into both the Women Band Directors International and the National Band Association Hall of Fame, and in 2015 was elected tothe Phi Beta Mu International Hall of Fame.

Gary Green

Gary D. Green is Emeritus Professor of Music and Director of Bands at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. While teaching at the University of Miami Frost School of Music in addition to supervising all band activities, he was the conductor of the Frost Wind Ensemble, supervised all graduate conducting students in the wind and percussion area and served as the Chairman of Instrumental Performance for seventeen years. He is the current Music Director for the Greater Miami Symphonic Band.

Prior to coming to Miami, Professor Green served for ten years as Director of Bands the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. While at the University of Connecticut, Professor Green was influential in commissioning and recording new works for winds and percussion including Symphony No. 3 by David Maslanka and A Cornfield in July and the River by William Penn.

During his tenure at the University of Miami, professor Green continued the commissioning and performance of important new repertoire for winds and percussion. Under his direction, the Frost Wind Ensemble has performed on two separate occasions for the convention of the American Bandmasters Association as well as twice for the national convention of the College Band Directors National Association.

Recent commissions and consortia from composers include William Penn, Joel Puckett, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, David Maslanka, Paul Dooley, Steve Danyew, Steven Bryant, David Gillingham, James Stephenson, Christopher Theofanidis, John Harbison, James Syler, Eric Whitacre, Frank Ticheli, Thomas Sleeper, Kenneth Fuchs and others. Urban Requiem by Michael Colgrass was commissioned by the Abraham Frost Commission Series and has become a standard in the repertoire for wind ensemble. Among other new compositions written for winds and percussion was the commission for the Frost Wind Ensemble of Christopher Rouse’s Wolf Rounds.

Professor Green is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Florida Bandmasters Association, and the Florida Music Educators Association. He received the Phillip Frost Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship in 2002. In March 2007, he joined the ranks of Frederick Fennell, William Revelli, and John Paynter in the Bands of America Hall of Fame.

Professor Green is an active conductor and clinician and has appeared with international, national, and regional bands and intercollegiate bands in all of the continental United States and Hawaii. He has conducted the Texas All-State Band frequently and premiered Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre with that ensemble. He has also conducted in Taipei, Taiwan where he appeared with the Republic of China Army Band and the Taiwan National Wind Ensemble as part of the 2005 International Band Association Festival. Additionally he has conducted in Austria, Germany, Japan and England, having performed there in the Royal Academy of Music. In March of 2008, Professor Green hosted the annual convention of the American Bandmasters Association on the campus of the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

James Keene

In 2008, Professor James F. Keene retired from the University of Illinois School of Music, where he held the titles of Director of Bands and Brownfield Distinguished Professor of Music. Appointed in 1985, he was only the fourth person to hold the Director of Bands position since 1905. During his 23-year tenure at Illinois, the UI Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony, under his direction, were selected to perform for every major music conference in the U.S., have toured internationally and have performed in many of America’s most prestigious concert halls, including New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall and several performances in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. The Illinois Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band have produced one of the most extensive bodies of commercial band recordings. These recordings have been broadcast on National Public Radio in the U.S., as well as radio programs in Asia, Australia, and several European countries.
Mr. Keene is a Past-President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, having also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He is a Past-President of the National Band Association, having previously served in several other NBA offices, and is a Past-President of The Big Ten Band Directors Association. For several years he served as chairman of the ABA/Ostwald Composition Contest, and is currently a member of the Editorial Band of The Journal Of Band Research. In addition to membership in several professional and honorary societies, Mr. Keene is an Evans Scholar, Past-President of the Champaign Rotary Club, and a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary International Foundation. In 1993 Professor Keene was named as an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the international Percy Grainger Society in recognition of his devotion to the music of Grainger; he also serves on the Board of Directors of the John Philip Sousa Foundation and the Historic Goldman Memorial Band of New York City. Previous to his appointment at Illinois, Professor Keene taught at all levels, including building nationally recognized programs at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M – Commerce), and at The University of Arizona.
In 2002, Professor Keene was named Honorary Life Member of the Texas Bandmasters Association, becoming only the sixth person to be so honored in the 55-year history of that organization. He is in constant demand as conductor, clinician and adjudicator and has appeared in those capacities in forty-four states and on four continents. In 2011-12, Professor Keene is scheduled to conduct in Australia, China and the United Kingdom, in addition to a busy schedule of appearances in the U.S.