Biography
Dr. Alan W. Mills is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Colorado State University-Pueblo. His duties include conducting the Wind Ensemble and University Band, directing the ThunderWolves Marching Band, overseeing the development of the concert band and athletic band programs, supervising student teachers, and teaching music education courses. Prior to joining the CSU-Pueblo faculty, he served as the Associate Director of Bands at Texas A&M University-Commerce, where his responsibilities included conducting the Symphonic Band, serving as director of the Pride Marching Band, and teaching courses in conducting, music education, music technology, and jazz history.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Mills has presented research lectures at state music education association conferences in Colorado and Wyoming, and additional scholarly writings can be found in the Journal of Band Research and in several editions of the popular textbook series Teaching Music Through Performance In Band. In 2013, he presented his dissertation on the life and career of James E. Croft, Director of Bands, Emeritus at The Florida State University, at the College Band Directors National Association National Convention at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has served as a clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator throughout Colorado and several other states, including a residency at the International Music Camp in North Dakota and Canada. He has performed as a guest conductor with the United States Air Force Academy Band and has conducted several world premiere performances by composers such as Andrew Boysen, Jr., Johan de Meij, Edward Knight, Anthony O'Toole, Adam Gorb, and Benjamin Yeo.
Outside the United States, Dr. Mills has made regular visits to Asia for more than a dozen years. During the 2016-17 Academic year, he served a one-year residency in the Culture and Art Education Center of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, located in Chengdu. As a Visiting Adjunct Professor, his responsibilities including conducting the University Symphony Orchestra and teaching classes in Classical Western Music and Jazz History. He has also made regular visits to Singapore, which have included residencies in 2014, 2015, and 2017 where he has served as an adjudicator, clinician, and conductor, most notably with the Singapore Philharmonic Winds. While in residence in Singapore, he has completed tours to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a guest conductor and clinician. In January 2017, he completed a residency in Taiwan as a clinician for several public school and college wind ensembles. In May 2017, he was invited to visit Bangkok, Thailand, were he did numerous rehearsal clinics with public school bands and also with the notable Kasetsart University Wind Symphony. His work in China includes an excess of 100 rehearsal clinics and conducting master classes in the schools of Chengdu, Nanchang, Luoyang, Ruzhou, and Shenzhen, but most often in Beijing. He has conducted concerts at the Grand Theater in Bau Tou, and both the Beijing Concert Hall and The Forbidden City Concert Hall and has appeared as a guest conductor with the Beijing Wind Orchestra twice. His past university residencies in China include Ningxia University in Yinchuan and Sichuan College Conservatory of Music in Chengdu.
Founder of both the Colorado State University-Pueblo Festival of Winds and the Rocky Mountain Commissioning Project, Dr. Mills is a member of the College Band Directors National Association where he serves as the Colorado State Chair, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the National Association for Music Education, the National Band Association, and the Colorado Bandmasters Association. He is also an elected member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Kappa Phi, and Phi Beta Mu, and has been granted honorary membership in Kappa Kappa Psi & Tau Beta Sigma. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris in instrumental music education with applied performance majors in piano and trumpet, the Master of Music Education degree from The University of Colorado, the Master of Music degree in wind conducting from the University of Arizona, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education with an emphasis in wind conducting from The Florida State University.