LSU Band Graduate Assistants

Eric Melley
Eric Melley will graduate with a Master of Music in Wind Conducting degree. The last two years he served as a Graduate Associate Conductor with all of the concert groups, assisted with the Tiger Marching Band and Bengal Brass Basketball Bands, assisted with undergraduate conducting, and also performed in the LSU Wind Ensemble. Prior to coming to LSU, Mr. Melley served as Director of Bands at Belmont High School (Massachusetts). Mr. Melley attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree concentrating in Trumpet Performance and Education in the spring of 2000. While at UMass, Mr. Melley studied trumpet with Professor Walter Chesnut and conducting with Professor Malcolm Rowell and Dr. Benedict Smar. Mr. Melley has served as the Assistant Director of the Maudslay Arts Center Community Concert Band in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and as guest conductor for the Charles River Wind Ensemble in Boston. In the fall of 2000, he began teaching music at the Chenery Middle School in the Belmont Public School System, where he taught instrumental lessons and the 7th and 8th grade Concert Band. In 2002, he accepted a position as Director of Bands at Belmont High School where his ensembles performed for audiences in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg and have consistently earned superior ratings at regional and national festivals.

Active as a freelance trumpet player in Boston and throughout New England, Mr. Melley's performance credits include a performance for Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, Canada and membership in the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Malcolm Rowell. He is a 3-time Downbeat Award winner, and a 1995 Grammy All-American.

Mr. Melley has been accepted to begin studies in the DMA in Wind Conducting program at Arizona State University.

Ben Chamberlain
Benjamin A. Chamberlain will graduate with a Master of Music degree in Wind Conducting. In addition to assisting with the Tiger Marching Band and the Bengal Brass Basketball Band, he was a Graduate Associate Conductor with all of the concert ensembles. He also assisted with undergraduate conducting, and he was a performing member of the LSU Wind Ensemble. Mr. Chamberlain received the Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Minnesota. He studied percussion with Nebojsa Zivkovic, Phil Hey, Steve Yeager, and Fernando Meza and conducting with Jerry Luckhardt and Craig Kirchoff. Prior to Chamberlain's assistantship with the LSU Band Department, he was a music educator in the Forest Lake Area Schools in Minnesota from 2002-2006. His responsibilities included instruction of concert ensembles, general music, class guitar, and music theory. Over a four year period under his direction, the Jazz Ensemble and Concert Band received all superior marks, the highest level of recognition given by the Minnesota State High School League. An active advocate for improvement in education, Mr. Chamberlain worked in the music curriculum review process and served on the Rigor and Relevance Committee, a volunteer forum of teachers and staff dedicated to innovative excellence in public education. His work in Forest Lake led to his inclusion in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.

Mr. Chamberlain has served as a percussion arranger, composer, and instructor since 1995, and was a featured clinician for the Minnesota Percussion Association Symposium in 2000 and 2004. His Drum and Bugle Corps experience includes work with the DCA percussion title-winning Minnesota Brass, Inc. Drum and Bugle Corps and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps. Still an active performer, Mr. Chamberlain has played with such varied ensembles as the Big Stoop Big Band, the Lake Wobegon Brass Band and the avant-jazz group, The Liars' Club.

Mr. Chamberlain will soon begin a DM in Wind Conducting degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

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DMA in Wind Conducting Graduates

Dr. Rebecca Phillips
Rebecca L. Phillips was a Graduate Assistant with the LSU Bands from the fall of 2004 to the spring of 2007. She received the Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from LSU in August 2007. At LSU she served as a Graduate Associate Conductor with the LSU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, and Symphonic Band, in addition to assisting with the Tiger Marching Band and Bengal Brass Basketball Band. Under her direction, the LSU Symphonic Winds premiered Brett Dietz's Crop Circles as well as the LSU Wind Ensemble premiere of David del Tredici's In Wartime, which was produced on LSU's 2005 Compact Disc project. Dr. Phillips is now serving as Associate Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina.

A native of the Washington, DC area, Dr. Phillips moved to Florida in 1991 where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from the Florida State University. After teaching secondary school for several years, she attended the University of South Florida where she earned two Master of Music degrees (Wind Conducting and Trombone Performance.) While at South Florida, she taught the Brass Technique courses, applied trombone, assisted with the Herd of Thunder Marching Band and directed the HOT Show Band. In addition, she was the Low Brass Instructor at Manatee Community College.

In 2001, Dr. Phillips accepted the Director of Bands position at Howard W. Blake Performing Arts High School in Tampa, Florida where she developed the award winning Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band programs. HWB was one of only two schools in the state of Florida to have two ensembles receive straight superior ratings at the 2003 FBA State Festival and was awarded two Otto Kraushaar Awards for this rare and outstanding achievement. In addition, the HWB Wind Ensemble performed in the San Francisco Music Festival and the Smokey Mountain Festival, receiving first place in both events.

Dr. Phillips's conducting teachers include Professor Frank Wickes, Dr. William Wiedrich, Dr. James Croft, and Dr. Patrick Dunnigan. She has been a clinician throughout the Southeastern United States and has been a guest conductor of the FSU Symphonic Band, USF Wind Ensemble and various honor bands to name a few. She has performed internationally as a trombone soloist and feature in England, Mexico, the Caribbean, Russia, and Sweden. In addition she has performed with the National Symphony, U.S. Navy Band (Washington, DC), US Army Band (Washington, DC), Tallahassee Symphony, the Tampa Bay Opera Orchestra, and has toured with the Johnny Mathis and Berry Manilow Orchestras.

Dr. Corey Spurlin
Adam Corey Spurlin was a Graduate Assistant with the LSU Band Department from the fall of 2004 until the spring of 2007. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting degree in May 2007. During his time at LSU, Dr. Spurlin assisted with the LSU Tiger Marching Band and the Bengal Brass Basketball Band. In addition, he was a Graduate Associate Conductor of the LSU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, and Symphonic Band. He is now serving as Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at Auburn University in Alabama.

Dr. Spurlin was previously a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Alabama where, in 2002-2003, he served in the capacity of Assistant Director for the "Million Dollar Marching Band" and as conductor of the Alabama Symphonic Band. In addition, he served as conductor of the Alabama Men's Basketball Band for six years. Before pursuing his advanced degrees, Dr. Spurlin was Director of Bands at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama; and Tuscaloosa Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His Tuscaloosa County High bands consistently received all superior ratings at marching competitions throughout the state of Alabama, received Superior ratings at the Alabama State Concert Band Festival, and were winners of the Festival of Champions Concert Band Competition in Tampa, Florida.

Dr. Spurlin received a Master of Arts in Music Education degree and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Alabama. His conducting teachers have included Frank B. Wickes, Dr. Gerald Welker, Kathryn Scott, and Dr. Ken Ozzello. He held the prestigious position of Drum Major of the "Million Dollar Band" for three years and served as principal trumpet in the Alabama Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble.

Dr. Spurlin has been included in Who's Who Among America's Teachers and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Alpha Epsilon Lambda, National Band Association, College Band Directors National Association, and Music Educators National Conference.

Dr. James Spinazzola
James Spinazzola graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting in May 2006. He served as a Band Graduate Assistant with the LSU Bands from the fall of 2003 until the spring of 2006. Dr. Spinazzola is the Director of Bands and Instrumental Activities at the University of Indianapolis, where his duties include the direction of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Campus Band and Pep Band, and the instruction of courses in conducting and woodwind pedagogy. His degrees are from Duquesne University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Louisiana State University; principal conducting teachers were Frank Wickes, Allan McMurray, Dr. Robert Cameron, and Dr. Brady Allred.

Dr. Spinazzola was previously on the faculty of Tennessee Tech University (1999-2003), where his responsibilities included the direction of the concert and marching bands and the instruction of twelve saxophonists and two saxophone quartets. Since 1999, he has also served on the faculty of the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts. He began his career as the Director of Music at Frankfort High School in Ridgeley, West Virginia, where he also served as Music Curriculum Chairperson for Mineral County Schools. He has appeared as a guest conductor and adjudicator in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Dr. Spinazzola's publications include articles published in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA Publications). His transcriptions and arrangements for wind ensemble, jazz band, and marching band have been performed by ensembles in the United States, Canada, and Japan, at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference. His wind band transcription of John Adams's Lollapalooza is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Referred to by Saxophone Journal as a "saxophonist of the first order," Dr. Spinazzola's playing has also earned praise in Downbeat and Bandworld magazines. He has recorded a compact disc for the Mark Custom label.

Dr. Monty Musgrave
Monty R. Musgrave served as a Band Graduate Assistant from the fall of 2002 until the spring of 2005, and graduated in August 2005 with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting. He now serves as Music Supervisor of Florida's Volusia County School System. Before his tenure at LSU, Dr. Musgrave taught for many years in the Florida public school system, serving most recently as Director of Bands at Gifford Middle School in Vero Beach, Florida.

Dr. Musgrave is a product of the public school system of Florida. After graduating from Ft. Pierce Central High School in 1978, he earned the Associate of Arts degree from Indian River Community College (1980). In 1982 he was awarded the Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Florida. In 1994 he earned the Master of Music in Instrumental Conducting from Florida State University, where he was a conducting assistant to Dr. James Croft. In addition to his graduate studies he was conductor of the Undergraduate Chamber Winds.

Dr. Musgrave earned a reputation in Florida for excellence in teaching. Bands under his direction consistently earned superior ratings at district and state concert, marching, and jazz festivals. He has maintained an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician in Florida and Louisiana. Dr. Musgrave has also served as conductor of music camps at Florida State University, Indian River Community College, and at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland. In January 1999 he conducted the Florida All-State Middle School Symphonic Band as part of the Florida Music Educator's Clinic-convention in Tampa.

Dr. Musgrave's professional affiliations include the Florida Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, the National Band Association, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and the Florida Bandmaster's Association. He has served in several capacities for the FBA, including district chairman, clinician, and adjudicator. He also served as chairman of the FBA Concert Music Committee. Dr. Musgrave's honors include Gifford Middle School "Teacher of the Year 1999-2000", and was chosen as "Educator of Excellence" by the US Sugar Corporation and WPEC-TV. He has also published articles in the Florida Music Director and School Bands and Orchestras magazines.