Candidate Stephen Meyer

Northern Arizona University
Director of Bands

Biographical Statement

Stephen Meyer has been the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at Northern Arizona University since 2018. He is also the music director for the Tempe Winds and on the conducting staff for the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestras. While at NAU, the Wind Symphony has been twice invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association Western Division Conference (2022, 2026), and the Lumberjack Marching Band performed at the 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Meyer has also presented a poster session at the CBDNA National Conference in 2015 and presented a session at the 2024 Western Division Conference in Las Vegas, and the National Conference in Fort Worth in 2025. In 2025, Meyer received the Walter Temme Excellence in Music Education Award and has been named an “Educator of Influence” at Northern Arizona University four times.

Meyer previously served on the faculties of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and the University of South Carolina. During his tenure as Director of Bands at Clear Creek High School, the Clear Creek Wind Ensemble was a featured performer at The Midwest Clinic (2013), a threetime National Winner in the National Wind Band Honors project, and a two-time national finalist for The American Prize in Wind Ensemble Performance. Before Clear Creek, Meyer taught at Harrison High School in Cobb County, Georgia, where he assisted with performances at The Midwest Clinic (2007), the Georgia Music Educators Association conference, and the University of Georgia. With Meyer as co-director of the marching band, the ensemble was a consistent Bands of America Regional and Super Regional Finalist, a BOA Grand National Finalist in 2007, and invited to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2009.

Meyer graduated magna cum laude from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with a bachelor’s degree in music education. He earned a master’s degree in music education and a doctorate in wind band conducting from the University of Michigan, where his primary teacher was Michael Haithcock. Meyer is the author of Rehearsing the High School Band, volumes 1 and 2, Rehearsing the Middle School Band, and Rehearsing the Marching Band, published through GIA Publications.

CBDNA Vision Statement

The College Band Directors National Association has been one of the most formative organizations in my development as a musician, educator, and conductor. My first interactions with CBDNA were as an undergraduate student working within the Indiana University band department where I was fortunate to observe firsthand conversations amongst the faculty about CBDNA’s mission at the time — elevating the wind band to that of the other performing arts as a serious artistic medium, securing commissions from Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, and presenting distinguished performances on the most prestigious stages in the country. Today, our organization carries that legacy forward while confronting challenges much broader than repertoire and performance practice. Seismic shifts in culture, society, technology, and higher education are forcing us to reflect not only what we do, but why we do it — and who we are doing it for. My vision for the future of CBDNA encompasses four areas that I believe will strengthen the artistry, advocacy, and awareness of the directors and ensembles we represent.

Expanding Access: Diversity, Equity, and the “Pipeline to the Podium”

While our membership has grown more diverse in recent years, significant barriers still exist. The path to a collegiate band director position remains steep and those barriers — financial, geographical, and cultural— fall disproportionately on individuals from historically underrepresented backgrounds. I am committed to working with state music education associations and national organizations to identify and dismantle these obstacles: supporting underrepresented students in high school and collegiate band programs, creating pathways for public school educators aspiring to the collegiate level, and securing corporate or foundation partnerships that fund access to conducting workshops, professional memberships, and conference attendance. Our organization has become more inclusive over the last decade because of the increased diversity of our membership, and that work must continue.

Strengthening Community: Connection, Communication, and Conference Access

Every college band director in the Western Division is navigating a complex reality: declining enrollment trends, budget constraints, shifting political attitudes toward higher education, and the ongoing demand to provide meaningful experiences for students with fewer resources. I believe CBDNA’s response should be to become a more active and responsive community. Very often, our only time to connect is at periodic conferences, but what can we do in the interim to discuss challenges and propose viable solutions? I believe simple solutions exist to share programming strategies, budget advocacy, conducting pedagogy, marching band pedagogy, and more across our membership. I feel strongly that increased individual communication from CBDNA leadership to collegiate directors could foster more practical conversations where members feel comfortable asking difficult questions and offering their own ideas for the future of CBDNA.

At the same time, we must address the barriers of conference attendance. In-person participation is ideal, but it is not always financially or logistically possible. I am committed to expanding hybrid and recorded access to concerts and presentations, ensuring that the benefits of our conferences reach every member. I am also interested in investigating whether tiered membership pricing and targeted financial assistance for early-career directors could improve conference attendance, as will continued outreach to understand why some members disengage and what we can do to better serve them.

Looking Outward: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

Each summer, I have the privilege of working alongside professional dancers, actors, and visual artists at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska. I am continuously inspired by these artists ability to illuminate social change, engage with environmental issues, and grapple with the universal human experience through their art. These conversations have reshaped how I approach my own work as a conductor and educator. I believe CBDNA has an exciting opportunity to invite more of those perspectives into our own community. By welcoming leading artists from dance, theatre, and the visual arts as speakers and collaborators at our conferences, we can expand the lens through which we understand our own medium. My own experience has shown that by engaging in cross-disciplinary dialogue, we can strengthen our own artistic potential.

Engaging Technology: Navigating Artificial Intelligence

Technology has always posed both a challenge and an opportunity for the arts. Artificial intelligence is the defining technological shift of our professional lifetimes, and our organization must address it thoughtfully and proactively. I believe CBDNA can provide the advocacy, language, and space for AI’s implications for composition and repertoire, its role in music education, its potential to assist in administrative work, and the ethical questions it raises.

Over the past decade, I have experienced firsthand how energizing a membership in CBDNA can be as a musician, educator, and conductor. If elected, I am committed to maintaining the organization’s vitality through expanded access, a stronger network of directors, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and thoughtful engagement of emerging trends. We must continue to protect the transformative power of collegiate band membership while ensuring the wind band’s cultural and artistic relevance amid the ongoing challenges in higher education. As the Western Division President, it would be an honor to serve in that effort and to support the next generation of college band directors and the ensembles they represent.