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Director of Bands |
William K. Wakefield is Director of Bands, Ensemble Division Coordinator, and Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma. His responsibilities include guiding and directing all aspects of the band program, conducting the Wind Symphony and coordinating the doctoral and masters wind conducting programs. Since his appointment in 1985, the OU Wind Symphony has received acclaim for performances of the standard and contemporary band literature while performing for fifteen national and regional conventions of the College Band Directors National Association, American Bandmasters Association, Music Educators National Conference, and the Oklahoma Music Educators Association. Most recently the OU Wind Symphony performed for the 2004 MENC conference in Minneapolis, the 2001 Oklahoma Music Educators Association Conference, the 2000 American Bandmasters Association and CBDNA Southwestern Division conferences. The OU Wind Symphony has cultivated new music through commissions for composers Christian Asplund, Roland Barrett, Carolyn Bremer, Ken Fuchs, Don Grantham, Daron Hagen, David Maslanka, Cindy McTee, Steven Stucky, Dan Welcher, and Charles Rochester Young. The ensemble has a compact disc recording of wind music spanning three centuries with premiere performances of compositions by Cindy McTee and Carolyn Bremer.
Dr. Wakefield is active as a guest conductor of university ensembles, intercollegiate bands, all-state and all-region bands as well as clinician for music education conferences throughout the United States. He is also a collaborative participant in the Music Education Division, which offers an innovative teaching/conducting performance-oriented curriculum that is based on sociological principles of role development.
Previous positions include Director of Bands at Indiana State University and secondary school positions at Dickinson and Nimitz High Schools in the Houston, Texas, area. He has also served as Music Coordinator for the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Recently he was elected to the American Bandmasters Association and in 1997 Wakefield received the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from The University of Oklahoma College of Fine Arts. Previous awards include Phi Mu Alpha's Orpheus Award for significant contributions to music in America and the Blue Key Society's award for teaching excellence.
Wakefield's educational background includes a DMA in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, an MM in Trombone and teaching certification from the University of Houston, and a BM in Trombone from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Additional studies were obtained from three summers at the Aspen Music Festival, the Juilliard School, and the University of North Texas. He is currently President-Elect for the College Band Directors National Association, Treasurer for the Big 12 Band Directors Association, Past-President of the Big 12 Band Directors Association, and a member of MENC, OMEA, OBA, Phi Beta Mu, and Pi Kappa Lambda.
