Selecting quality literature is a challenge for any new band director. As music education majors, students perform in high quality wind ensembles that play advanced literature, but often, first jobs lead new teachers into situations where the level of the ensemble is different. As a result, choosing the best music for these ensembles can be difficult. The purpose of this session is to help new directors discover the tools needed to select good music for their bands, regardless of grade level.
Craig Aarhus
- Biographical Information
Craig Aarhus is Associate Director of Bands, Associate
Professor of Music, and Music Education Area Coordinator at Mississippi State
University. At MSU, he co-directs the Famous Maroon Band and basketball pep
bands, conducts Wind Ensemble “B,” Concert Band, and Campus Band, teaches
Conducting and Brass Techniques, and supervises student teachers. Prior to his
appointment at MSU, Dr. Aarhus was a successful high school and middle band
director in the public schools of Alabama. He received his BME from Auburn
University and his MA and DMA degrees in Conducting from The University of Iowa
and is a member of several professional organizations including the College
Band Directors National Association and the Mississippi Bandmasters
Association. Dr. Aarhus is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the
National Band Association and is a former governor for the Southeast District
of Kappa Kappa Psi. He is also the Past-President of the Delta Chapter of Phi
Beta Mu. Dr. Aarhus has been an adjudicator and clinician throughout the
country and in Canada and is a contributing author to five volumes of the
popular Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. The Southeast
District of Kappa Kappa Psi recently named their "Outstanding
Director/Sponsor" Award after Dr. Aarhus. He has been a clinician/instructor
at the Smith-Walbridge Drum Major Clinics for nearly 20 years. He and his
family reside in Starkville and are members of First Presbyterian Church, where
he has served as Music Director since 2007.