Clinician Detail

Making Connections: Musical and Professional Advice for the Young Band Director

Clinic Synopsis:

We will share experiences and advice for the young band director related to making connections in professional relationships and in student/parent/community relationships, as well as making connections in rehearsals to philosophy of teaching and practice of teaching. The idea is to build a solid foundation of approach in the workplace and to connect the foundation to the acts of music education and performance. (No Handout Available)

Andrea Brown - Biographical Information

Andrea Brown is currently the Director of Orchestra and Assistant Director of Bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. Brown recently completed a DMA in Instrumental Conducting at UNC Greensboro where she was a student of John Locke and Kevin Geraldi. She was named a 2010 Outstanding Teaching Assistant at UNCG and was both guest conductor and principal horn on UNCG Wind Ensemble’s fireworks! CD released on the Equilibrium label. From 2004 to 2010, she was a member of the brass staff of the Drum Corps International World Champion Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Ill., and was recently selected to serve on the instructional staff for the 2012 US Army All-American Marching Band. Brown is an active clinician and adjudicator throughout the southeast. In 2005, Brown was awarded a CBDNA grant to attend the UNT Conducting Collegium where she studied with Eugene Corporon, Dennis Fisher, and Jack Stamp. Her other conducting workshop experiences include study at the University of Michigan with Michael Haithcock and Jerry Schweibert, and at Michigan State University with Kevin Sedatole, Robert Reynolds, Richard Floyd, and John Madden. In 2009 she received the Sigma Alpha Iota Conducting Scholarship and Doctoral Study Grant as well as the Chi Omega Graduate Education Grant. Brown has also had four rehearsal guides published in the popular GIA Publications series, “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.” While at UNCG, Brown was a member of the AA Brass Quintet, which won the 2001 International Brass Quintet Competition hosted by Fred Mills at the University of Georgia. As principal horn with the UNCG Wind Ensemble during her doctoral and master studies, she performed at both the 2009 National CBDNA Conference and at the 2000 Southern Division CBDNA Conference. She performed as a guest artist at the 2010 Focus on Piano Literature at UNCG as well as with the horn sections of the Boston Brass All Stars Big Band, North Carolina Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Long Bay Symphony, and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. Brown has studied brass performance and pedagogy with Abigail Pack, J.D. Shaw, Freddy Martin, Jack Masarie, Dottie Bennett, Randy Kohlenberg, Richard Steffen, and Ed Bach. Originally from Milan, Tenn., she is a graduate of Austin Peay State University where she was named “Outstanding Student in Music” and “Madame Governor.” Brown earned a master of music degree in horn performance and a master of music education degree in instrumental conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to her position at Georgia Tech, Brown was the assistant director of bands at Austin Peay State University for five years and also taught public school in both Wisconsin and Texas. Brown's previous marching experience includes membership in the 1994 Cadets of Bergen County and 1993 Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps. She has also previously been an instructor with Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, McGavock High School Band, Father Ryan High School Band, and Kennesaw Mountain High School Band. Brown is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda, GMEA, MENC, CBDNA, CODA, and Conductor's Guild. She was awarded the Rose of Honor as a member of Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Music Fraternity and was recently made an honorary member of both Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.