Band Directors
Dale Beacock grew up with a love of band music. After college he was hired as a band director and he felt as if his dreams had come true. He worked hard to design methods of teaching that brought out the best in his students, and he always sought ways of improving his bands. Over the years he felt...
Don Canedy was a beloved band director and professor at Southern Illinois University before being hired by the Roger’s Drum Company in 1961. Don played drums beginning at the age of 10 and was a perfect fit for the company’s Educational Director. Just prior to his job at Roger’s, which at the time...
Bennett Reimer’s name is familiar to millions of music college students who have read his books, A Philosophy of Music Education and the Silver Burdett Music book that he co-authored. The text book and its four editions have pioneered music education and brought to prominence the concept of...
Norman Goldberg studied music from an early age and became a band director early in his life. Seeing the needs of music educators, Norman opened his own store called Baton Music in 1948, in St. Louis, MO. A year later he began working with German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982) and Orff’s unique and...
George Gaber was the noted percussionist with symphonic orchestras who parlayed his performing into an historic role as professor of music at the University of Indiana at Bloomington beginning in the 1960s. George was closely associated with the music products industry going back to his playing...
Dr. Richard Brittain was invited to a small gathering of music educators in the months following World War II. The original goal of the meeting was to provide a venue for the music educators to distribute new music scores, which were difficult to obtain. The year was 1946. The first Midwest Band...
Andy Clark is one of the great characters of the music publishing industry! Over the years, Andy has served as a musician, band director, arranger, composer, and publisher. With a keen sense for school music programs, Andy has been able to develop and strengthen various programs by providing...
Joe Guth’s career in the music products industry began with a short stint with Selmer and as a former band director he brought a great perspective to selling instruments to school music programs. He later had a storied 25-year career at Gemeinhart Flutes in Elkhart, IN, where he furthered his...
Joe Hume was a veteran school band director before he opened Hume Music located in Kansas. His love of school bands continued as a retailer and as such he established new bands and expanded several other smaller school bands. Joe saw the importance of being a strong supporter of the school band...
Mel Graner was a school band director for nearly 30 years--it was in his blood and he very much enjoyed each class. When the school district let him go to hire a younger teacher, he was not yet ready to retire or give up on teaching music. He opened Graner Music in Colorado Springs, CO, and...