Marching Roundtable Educates Directors

A new multimedia resource for current and future marching band directors is now available online. Marching Roundtable is a collection of podcasts, videos, academic resources and discussion aimed at “the adults” of the marching world.

“It occurred to me that, though we have so much energy in this activity, we don’t have a lot of academic reinforcement for it,” says Dr. Joe Allison, director of bands and graduate conducting activities at Eastern Kentucky University. “Many schools don’t even have a required marching band component in the music education degree. We want to solidify a curriculum, share knowledge and create a repository of information. We’ve had an amazing response. What I’m the most proud of is that we’re getting questions and comments from college students and young band directors.”

Allison, also a DCI adjudicator, hosts Marching Roundtable with composers/arrangers Tim Hinton and John Bogenschutz as well as color guard adjudicator Mary White.

“One of my big crusades about this is that no one understands much about judging or judges,” Allison says. “There’s so much misinformation or lack of information. It’s one of our goals to help people understand what we do and who we are.”

Visit Marching Roundtable at www.marchingroundtable.com.

About author

Elizabeth Geli

Elizabeth Geli is the assistant editor of Halftime Magazine and a journalist/communications professional in Southern California. Her 11 years at the University of Southern California (USC) Trojan Marching Band included time as a flute player, graduate teaching assistant, and student advocate. She holds a bachelor's degree in Print Journalism and master's degree in Specialized Journalism (The Arts) from USC.

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