Richard Floyd

Richard Floyd is presently in his 44th year of active involvement as a conductor, music educator and administrator. He has enjoyed a distinguished career at virtually every level of wind band performance from beginning band programs through high school and university wind ensembles as well as adult community bands. At present Floyd serves as UIL State Director of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1986 he has held the post of Musical Director and Conductor of the Austin Symphonic Band, which is viewed to be one of the premier adult concert bands in America.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas, Mr. Floyd served on the faculty at the University of South Florida as Professor of Conducting and at Baylor University in Texas where he held the position of Director of Bands for nine years. He began his career as band director at Richardson Junior High School and then become the first director of the award winning J.J. Pearce High School Band in the same city.

His musical achievements include appearances at numerous state and regional music conferences, a distinguished performance for the 1977 College Band Directors National Association, the 1981 Music Educators National Conference, the 1989 and 1997 Grand Finale concerts for the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and the opening concert for the 1993 American Bandmasters Association Convention in New Orleans. The Austin Symphonic Band returned to the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic to again present the Grand Finale Concert in 1997. Most recently the Austin Symphonic Band has performed at the 2004 Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, Washington and the American Bandmasters Association Convention in Richardson, Texas.

Floyd is a recognized authority on conducting, the art of wind band rehearsing, concert band repertoire, and music advocacy. As such, he has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor. He is a frequent featured clinician for the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association and has presented both conducting and rehearsal techniques clinics for the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic.

He has received the praise of numerous composers including Ernst Krenek, Karel Husa, Roger Nixon, Frank Ticheli, Mark Camphouse and Johan de Meij for his insightful interpretation of their music.

In in 2002 he was the single recipient of the prestigious A.A. Harding Award presented by the American School Band Directors Association in recognition of his significant and lasting contributions to the school band movement.

Publications include co-authorship of Best Music For Beginning Band, published by Manhattan Beach Music. and contributing author for The Musician's Walk by James Jordon. His articles and essays have appeared in The Instrumentalist as well as numerous regional and state publications. In 2006 he was one of four conductors featured on the GIA Produced DVD entitled Kindred Spirits from the Conducting From The Inside Out series. Other conductors included H. Robert Reynolds, Craig Kirchhoff and Allan McMurray.

During his professional career Floyd has held positions of leadership on many state and national committees for music education and wind music performance. At present he is a member of the American Bandmasters Association Board of Directors, John Philip Sousa Foundation Board of Directors, Chairman of the American Bandmasters Association Educational Projects Committee, an ex-officio member of the Texas Music Educators' Association Executive Board and serves on the jury for the College Band Directors National Association Young Band Composition Competition. Since 1979 he has held the post of National Secretary for the College Band Directors National Association and has played an active leadership role in the implementation of that organization's many projects and services for nearly three decades.

Paramount in Richard's life is his wife Cheryl Floyd who is the accomplished director of the nationally recognized Hill Country Middle School Band and one of only five female members of the distinguished American Bandmasters Association. He is quite proud of their son Weston, a middle school trombone player and accomplished pianist, and his daughter Chris Northern and her family who reside in Waco, Texas. He has been blessed with mentors too countless to name and inspired by friendships and acquaintances that encircle the globe. His daughter Chris once said that she was so thankful that her dad was a musician because she had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. Dick is indebted to these wonderful people who have molded, inspired and shaped his life. Above all he takes great pride in being a "Texas Band Director."