ΤΒΣ

Sponsor

Dr. Anthony Pursell

Trombone

Director of Bands

Dr. Anthony Pursell is the Director of Bands at Tarleton State University where he directs the Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, teaches courses in Instrumental Conducting, Band Methods, and Arranging.  As the Director of Bands, he oversees the entire instrumental music program including the athletic and jazz bands. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Dr. Pursell taught high school marching band, jazz band, concert band and fine arts for six years before moving to Indiana where he served as a graduate assistant at Ball State University. Afterwards, he served a one-year appointment on the faculty at Northern Illinois University as the Assistant Director of Athletic Bands.  In 2005, he was named the Assistant Director of Bands at Kansas State University where he assisted with the 325-member marching band and directed the athletic pep bands for volleyball and basketball.  He was also the conductor for the Concert Band and taught graduate and undergraduate level classes in Marching Band Techniques, Instrumental Conducting, and Arranging for Bands.  Under his direction, the Kansas State Concert Band was invited to perform at the 2007 and 2009 Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) state convention in Wichita, Kansas.  He holds the Doctor of Arts degree from Ball State University (Instrumental Conducting and Music Education), and the Master of Music Education and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Loyola University (New Orleans, LA).

Dr. Pursell has participated in conducting clinics with such notable conductors as Eugene Corporon, H. Robert Reynolds, Jack Stamp, Dennis Fisher and James Ogle and has conducted concerts throughout the South; the Midwest; and throughout the South Pacific (Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia). He serves as an adjudicator, conductor, and clinician and is in demand as a halftime show writer, arranger, conductor, and clinician for marching bands, concert bands, and jazz bands throughout the United States. He served as the National Band Mentor for the National Association of Music Education's Mentoring Project and has given clinics and sessions at the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic and several state and regional conferences including Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas on a wide variety of topics related to wind band education.  He has contributed to GIA's Teaching Music Through Performace in Band and has articles published in The Instrumentalist, The Journal of Band Research, and The Southwest Musician. His book, Improving Music Sight Reading: An Iconic-Based Approach to Teaching Rhythm, is published by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG (Saarbrücken, Germany).

Dr. Pursell's professional affiliations include: the Texas Music Educators Association, the College Band Director's National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Phi Beta Mu.  He has honorary memberships in Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.