Past Directors

In 1980, Richard Thurston was appointed Director of University Bands, Professor of Music, and Conductor in Residence. He came to the Yale Band from the United States Air Force, from which he retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after a career of more than twenty years. As an Air Force band commander, he presided over the Armed Forces Bicentennial Band and the Air Force Academy.  He was member of the American Bandmasters Association. 

In 1982, Richard Thurston left to become the Dean of the School of Music at the University of Oklahoma. He was succeeded by Thomas C. Duffy in August of 1982.  

Keith Wilson assumed the duties of Associate Dean of the Yale School of Music in 1973 and Keith Brion was appointed Director of University Bands, a position he held until 1980. In addition to his conducting responsibilities, Mr. Brion played flute with the New Haven Symphony, published musical editions of Grainger, Ives and Sousa compositions, and championed the repertoire and body of contemporary music for the wind ensemble. Under Mr. Brion’s direction, the Yale Concert Band presented the famous Sousa and His Band concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall, commissioned over ten pieces of new music from leading composers, toured the United States and Puerto Rico, performed a concert with the United States Coast Guard Band, and presented a concert of Civil War band music, complete with original instruments and replica uniforms. Mr. Brion then had an active career as an orchestra and band conductor, and specialized in the music of John Philip Sousa.  

Keith Wilson, conductor of the Yale University Band from 1946 to 1973 and Professor of Wind Instrument Playing, received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Illinois. Following graduation in 1938 he was appointed to the faculty of his alma mater as an instructor in the playing of woodwind instruments, opera conductor, and assistant conductor of bands. He remained with the University of Illinois–except for a two-and-a-half year leave for military service–until 1946 when he was appointed to the Yale faculty. He is a founding member of the College Band Directors’ National Association and served as chairman of that organization’s Committee for Promoting Original Compositions for Band and as the President of CBDNA from 1962-1964. He was also a member of the American Bandmasters’ Association. Several of his arrangements for band and wind ensembles are published and widely used throughout the country. He appeared as guest conductor of various college and high school bands, and as an adjudicator for music festivals. 

Under his direction, the Yale Concert Band made the first tour of any American university band to Europe in 1959. Since that time, the Concert Band has mounted thirty-one tours: five to Europe under the direction of Keith Wilson; one to Europe and four to other parts of the United States under the direction of Keith Brion; and twenty-one international tours under the direction of Thomas C. Duffy. 

A student of Paul Hindemith, Alvin Etler is noted for his highly rhythmic, harmonically and texturally complex compositional style, taking inspiration from the works of Bartók and Copland as well as the dissonant and accented styles of jazz.

Though he played with the Indianapolis Symphony in 1938, he abandoned his orchestral life shortly thereafter to focus on his increasingly successful compositional career (which earned him two Guggenheim Fellowships during this period). In 1942 he joined the faculty at Yale University as conductor of the university band and instructor of wind instruments, where he began his studies with Hindemith. He also taught at Cornell University and University of Illinois before accepting a position at Smith College, which he held until his death.

Charles F. Smith, Yale Band Advisor (1918 – 1942)