2023 NATIONAL WIND BAND HONORS ADJUDICATORS
Gary Hill
Gary W. Hill is in his 20th year as Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Arizona State University, where he conducts the Wind Orchestra and teaches graduate conducting. The 2018/19 academic year marks Hill’s 45th year as conductor, his 50th as a music teacher, and his 60th as a performing musician.
Prior to Hill’s appointment at ASU, he was Director of Bands at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, where he also served as Music Director for the Kansas City Youth Wind Ensemble, and conducted two professional groups: the Kansas City Symphony Brass Ensemble and newEar, a chamber ensemble devoted to contemporary music. Previously, he held a similar post at East Texas State University (Texas A&M-Commerce) and was Associate Director of Bands at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Hill began his teaching career in Michigan where he served as Director of Bands for the West Bloomfield and Traverse City public schools.
High school, university, and professional ensembles under Hill’s direction have given performances for the National Band Association, the Music Educators National Conference (NAfME), the College Band Directors National Association, the American Bandmasters Association, the International Horn Symposium, the National Flute Association, at many state conventions, and throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Performances conducted by him have consistently drawn praise from composers, performing musicians, and critics alike for their insightful, inspired, and cohesive realizations, and for their imaginative programming.
As a guest conductor and clinician, appearances in more than a dozen countries and throughout most of the United States have included performances with myriad high school honor bands, numerous college and university wind bands and orchestras, many professional ensembles, at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, and at World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles’ conferences. Gary W. Hill is one of the most sought after guest conductors and clinicians in the instrumental music education field; during the past four decades, he has presented hundreds of workshops on conducting and rehearsal technique for music teachers of all levels and has served as a clinician for thousands of bands and orchestras.
During Professor Hill’s 39 years as a collegiate conducting teacher, he has taught scores of undergraduate and graduate conducting students and served as the primary mentor for 53 graduate conducting majors, 8 who are serving as conductors of US Armed Forces’ ensembles and other professional groups, and 42 who have won university teaching positions. Hill’s current creative/research agenda includes an exploration of biochemical reactions spawned by the musical process and work concerning the past, present, and future of instrumental music in schools.
Gary W. Hill is a member of numerous professional organizations including the National Association for Music Education, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the American Bandmasters Association, and the College Band Directors National Association, for which he hosted the “Fiftieth Anniversary National Conference” (1991), co-hosted the 2019 biennial national conference, as well as the joint conferences of the North Central and Southwestern Divisions in conjunction with The Society for American Music (1998), served as president of the Southwestern Division (1989-91), and as national president (2003-05).
Nicholas Enrico Williams
Nicholas Enrico Williams is a Professor of Music and serves as the Director of Bands at the University of Georgia, where he coordinates one of the country’s largest and most comprehensive university band programs, conducts the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, and oversees the graduate wind band conducting area. Prior to his time in Athens, he was the Director of Wind Bands at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (Melbourne,Australia). Before venturing to Australia, Dr. Williams flourished for sixteen years as the Assistant Director of Wind Studies, the Conductor of the Wind Ensemble, Brass Band, and Concert Band, as well as the Director of Athletic Bands at the University of North Texas. For a decade, he was the Conductor of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony and continues to be a frequent guest conductor of the Dallas Winds (formerly Dallas Wind Symphony), one of America’s few professional civic wind bands. Professor Williams earned the Bachelor of Music (music education), MM (performance-conducting), and DMA (conducting) degrees from the University of North Texas.
As an advocate of chamber music, Professor Williams was the founder and conductor of the East Plano Brass and was the principal guest conductor for the Harmoniemusik chamber ensemble. In the wind band world, he has been a guest conductor with the World Youth Wind Symphony at the Interlochen Arts Camp; Royal Australian Navy Band; United States Air Force Band; Dallas Wind Symphony; Lone Star Wind Orchestra; at the annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois; the College Band Directors National Association national and regional conferences; the Texas Bandmasters Association Convention; and the Texas Music Educators Association Annual Clinic/Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Williams is active in Australia, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, consultant, and arranger; his arrangements and transcriptions for wind band, percussion ensembles, drum corps, and school pageantry ensembles are performed by outstanding organizations throughout the world. A member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs), he is a sought-after recording session producer, associate producer, editor, and conductor, having been involved with numerous CDs and DVDs on the Klavier, Mark Records, and GIA labels, as well as UNT projects, including the 2019 worldwide release of “FIESTAS” by the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble. In addition to his work in the recording arts, he has written several conductor study guides published in the multivolume series of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. He is a primary consultant of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music and is an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity for women. His professional affiliations include the Georgia Music Educators Association, Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Phi Beta Mu, an international bandmasters fraternity.
Steve Peterson
Stephen Peterson has enjoyed a forty-three-year career teaching and conducting throughout the United States and around the world. Most recently, he served as director of bands at the University of Illinois, where he served from 2015 until his retirement in 2022. At Illinois, he conducted the Illinois Wind Symphony, led the graduate wind conducting program, taught courses in wind literature, and guided all aspects of one of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most storied band programs.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, he served as director of bands at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York for seventeen years. From 1988–1998, he served as associate director of bands at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Dr. Peterson was also conductor of the renowned Northshore Concert Band. He held positions as associate and interim director of bands at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas and has several years of successful teaching experience in the public schools in Arizona.
Peterson maintains a busy schedule as a conductor and clinician, and, as such, has appeared on four continents and in forty-four states. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association and has been honored with membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, where he has served on the Board of Directors. He is also a member of Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda, and an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi. He is past president of the College Band Directors National Association.
The first to receive the doctor of music degree in wind conducting from Northwestern University, Peterson also earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Arizona State University. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Ithaca College Faculty Excellence Award, recognizing his contributions to Ithaca College. His ensembles have appeared before national conventions of the American Bandmasters Association (three times), the College Band Directors National Association (twice), the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, the American School Band Directors Association, and at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City.
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.