David Gregory

David Gregory, Director of Bands/Coordinator of Music Education at Reinhardt University and Director Emeritus of Tara Winds, has conducted elementary, junior high, high school, community college, university, and professional bands. A former director of bands at Hardaway High School in Columbus (GA), Forest Park High School in Forest Park (GA), and the University of Florida in Gainesville, (FL), and former Clayton County (GA) Coordinator of Instrumental Music, Dr. Gregory served as Assistant to the Superintendent in that school system for twelve years until his retirement from public school work in 2003. Dr. Gregory is a Past President of the National Band Association and currently serves as Advisor to the Executive Committee of that organization. At Reinhardt University Dr. Gregory teaches Music Education classes, music technology, conducting, and orchestration and arranging courses; conducts the Wind Ensemble; supervises student teacher interns; and is coordinator of the Music Education program. He has been the state CMENC advisor and coordinator of all state CMENC activities for GMEA since 2007.

Bands under Dr. Gregory’s direction have received invitations to perform at virtually every music conference of regional and national significance, including the National MENC Convention, the American School Band Directors Association National Convention, the Mid- East Instrumental Music Conference, the University of South Carolina Band Clinic and Conductors’ Symposium, the Western International Band Clinic, the Florida State University Tri-State Music Festival, the SEUS Concert Band Festival, Bands of America Invitational Concert Festival, the University of Southern Mississippi Conductors’ Conference (3x), the University of Georgia High School Music Festival (6x), the CBDNA/NBA Southern Division Conference (4x), the Atlanta International Band and Orchestra Conference, the Southern Division MENC Convention, the American Bandmasters Association National Convention (2x), GMEA state conferences (12x), and the Midwest Band Clinic (3x). Gregory continues to make numerous appearances as conductor, clinician and presenter at regional and national music conferences as well as all-state and honor band events throughout the United States. He has presented clinics/workshops at the Midwest Clinic on three occasions and at the GMEA Conference nine times. Tara Winds was the 1996 recipient of the Sudler “Scroll of Honor,” and his Hardaway High School Band was honored by the John Philip Sousa Foundation as one of the nation’s most outstanding high school programs for the decades 1960-1980. A highlight of Dr. Gregory’s career is the distinct and singular honor of having his ensembles invited to perform at 40 conventions and conferences of state, regional and national significance.

Many personal and professional awards, recognitions, and appointments have been awarded Dr. Gregory during his career. He has received the MAC Outstanding Bandleader award for the state of Georgia, the Southeastern United States Concert Band Clinic Citation of Excellence, the National Band Association Citation of Excellence in 1978, 1984, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 (2x), 2008, 2010, and 2011, the Phi Delta Kappa Excellence in Leadership Education Award, and the Sudler Foundation “Order of Merit.” In 1998 he was inducted into the Phi Beta Mu “Georgia Bandmasters Hall of Fame” and in 2003 received the Phi Beta Mu “Outstanding Bandmaster Award” for the state of Georgia. Dr. Gregory was featured on the cover of The Instrumentalist magazine with the lead article for the April 2003 edition of that publication. In 2011 he was presented with the prestigious GMEA “Distinguished Career Award.”

Maintaining a regular schedule of appearances, Dr. Gregory has received invitations to serve in thirty-one states, and has conducted all-state bands in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Alaska. He has served as clinician and lecturer throughout the country, and his band activities have taken him across the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and the European continent where twice he has appeared as guest conductor of La Banda dell’Esercito of Rome, Italy (one of only two American-born conductors ever to serve in that capacity), once with the Associazione Musicale “G. Verdi” Band of Aci S. Antonio, Sicily, once with the Lucania Orchestra di Fiati of Matera, Italy, and four times with La Banda di Sacrofano in Rome. Additionally, in 2007 and 2008 he was chosen to serve as an adjudicator for the La Bacchetta d’Oro national band contest of Italy. He has been a member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation “Legion of Honor” and “Sudler Scroll” Selection Committees, and he served eight years as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Band Association, eight years as Advisor to the Executive Committee of the NBA, and eight years on the staff of Conn-Selmer Institute. His past and present professional affiliations include Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu, the National Band Association, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, Georgia Music Educators Association, American School Band Directors Association, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Phi Delta Kappa, the Florida Bandmasters Association, Pi Kappa Lambda. He is an elected member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.