Dr. William K. Wakefield, is Professor of Music, Director of Bands and Coordinator for the Ensembles and Applied Division at the University of Oklahoma School of Music where his responsibilities include conducting the Wind Symphony and coordinating the doctoral and masters wind conducting programs. Since his appointment in 1985, the OU Wind Symphony has performed for two CBDNA National Conferences, four CBDNA Southwestern Division Conferences, two American Bandmasters Association conventions, numerous OMEA state conferences and the 2004 the Music Educators National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The OU Wind Symphony has cultivated new music for wind ensemble through commissions for composers Carter Pann, Kevin Walczyk, Jonathan Newman, Dan Welcher, Cindy McTee, Steven Stucky, Don Grantham, Daron Hagen, Carolyn Bremer, Bruce Adolph, David Maslanka, Charles Rochester Young, Roland Barrett, D.J. Sparr, Joseph Turrin, Jerry Neil Smith, Bruce Adolph, and Kenneth Fuchs.

Wakefield, active as a guest conductor for all-state and region high school honor bands, intercollegiate and university ensembles throughout the United States and Canada, is the recipient of Phi Mu Alpha's Orpheus Award for significant contributions to Music in America. He is also the recipient of the Blue Key Honor Society Teaching Excellence Award. In 1997 he received the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from The University of Oklahoma College of Fine Arts and in 1998 was inducted into the American Bandmasters Association. In 2001, he received Kappa Kappa Psi's Silver Baton Award for a record of excellence and quality of service to bands, band members, and instrumental music education. The Oklahoma Bandmasters Association inducted Wakefield into the OBA Hall of Fame in the summer of 2008. Wakefield completed the 2007-2009 term as President of the College Band Directors National Association and continues to serve on the CBDNA Board of Directors. In 2010, he was named the Irene and Julian J. Rothbaum Professor of Excellence in the Arts for OU's Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Art.

Wakefield's educational background includes a DMA in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, an MM in Trombone 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 summers at the Aspen Music Festival, the Juilliard School, and the University of North Texas. From 1980-85 he was Associate Director and Director of Bands at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. His secondary school experience includes positions at Dickinson and Nimitz high schools in the Houston, Texas, area. He is a past-president for the CBDNA Southwestern Division, treasurer and past-president of the Big 12 Band Directors Association. At the University of Oklahoma he is a faculty sponsor for the Delta Chapters of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.