Welcome to the electronic window of the College Band Directors National Association. CBDNA is a dynamic organization of professionals known for artistic initiative, innovative teaching, and dedicated service. Members represent a broad constituency of collegiate faculty specialists from comprehensive research universities, state and private universities, and music conservatories to two-year institutions for higher learning. Members also include military band conductors as well as associate members from the publishing, manufacturing, and retail music industries.

The diverse membership unites in its stated purpose.

"The members of the College Band Directors National Association are devoted to the teaching, performance, study and cultivation of music, with particular focus on the wind band medium. CBDNA is an inclusive organization whose members are engaged in continuous dialogue encompassing myriad philosophies and professional practices. CBDNA is committed to serving as a dynamic hub connecting individuals to communities, ideas and resources."

Recognizing the need for developing repertoire, members are enterprising pacesetters in commissioning new music through collaborative efforts between composers and bands. New music fulfills the human need for not only expressing fresh points of view but also for reframing our existing knowledge with each listening experience. Our members actively develop relationships with composers and enthusiastically pursue individual and consortium commissioning projects while passionately devoting our daily energies to sensitive performances and recordings of current and new wind band music.

Members actively seek new teaching strategies through participating in conducting workshops, conferences, and collaborating with colleagues in and out of the academic enterprise. We play a vital role in developing performers, aspiring conductor teachers, and researchers. We are committed to strengthening our effectiveness in music education. Recent studies on teaching have allowed us to expand focus on what and how we teach to how and why students learn. Research on learning is an exciting area to further explore with the assistance of our researcher and practitioner colleagues in music education.

CBDNA members not only focus on the development of music for the concert hall, but also devote their energies creatively to serving the vast arena of collegiate audiences that associate spirit songs with institutional distinction in the pursuit of excellence. Our primary connecting point to the broad constituency of most communities is through athletic bands. CBDNA supports venues for meaningful communication between our members on how to more effectively entertain and nurture the relationship between student educational experiences and the service roles in our institutions.

Finally, CBDNA embraces the rich and diverse history of college bands as a foundation from which the present generation can look to meet future challenges. We hope that members will increasingly use the website as a hub for communication and a reliable resource for knowledge while seeking individual and collective growth as musicians, educators, conductors, and administrators.

William K. Wakefield
President