Clinician Detail

Thomas McCauley - Biographical Information

Thomas McCauley is currently the Director of University Bands in the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University in New Jersey where he conducts the Montclair State University Wind Symphony, the Montclair State University Symphonic Band, and teaches both graduate and undergraduate conducting. He has held similar positions in the states of Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, in addition to teaching high school instrumental music in Nevada for nine years. Composers including Karel Husa, Michael Daugherty, David Gillingham, Joseph Turrin, Bruce Yurko, Robert Aldridge, Morten Lauridsen, Armando Bayolo, and O’Neal Douglas have praised his work. Dr. McCauley has twice appeared as a clinician at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago (2010, 2018). Each November, he hosts and co-teaches a symposium at Montclair State University called the Weekend Wind Conducting Symposium with special guest clinicians and participants from around the world. Dr. McCauley often serves as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout North America. Ensembles under his direction have appeared at national, regional, and international conventions and conferences, and he has collaborated with artists including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Imani Winds, The Manhattan Brass Quintet, Warren Vache’, Demondrae Thurman, Monarch Brass, and Phil Smith. In February of 2019, Dr. McCauley led the MSU Wind Symphony in concert at the 2019 College Band Directors Association National Conference in Tempe, Arizona. And the appearance of the Montclair State University Wind Symphony at the WASBE International Conference in Prague, Czech Republic in July of 2022 was the first such appearance in the school’s history. Dr. McCauley’s book, Adventures in Band Building (or How to Turn a Less-Than-It-Could-Be into a More-Than-It-Should-Be), was published in 2015 by G.I.A. Publications. He has been published in The Instrumentalist magazine, several state music magazines, and in the second edition of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, Vol I published by G.I.A. Publications. In 1995, the Nevada Music Educators Association named Dr. McCauley Music Educator of the Year; in 2006, the Indiana Music Educators Association honored Dr. McCauley with an Outstanding University Music Educator Award. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the New Jersey Band Association, is the New Jersey State Representative of the College Band Directors National Association, and is the former New Jersey State Representative of the National Band Association. He is also an active member of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and the National Association for Music Education, in addition to serving as a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician.