Gary Stith

Gary Stith is Professor and Coordinator of Music Education at the Greatbatch School of Music, Houghton College in Houghton, NY. From 2002 – 2010, he also served as Conductor and Music Director of the Houghton College Symphonic Winds. He holds degrees from The Ohio State University and the Eastman School of Music, as well as the Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration from the State University College of New York at Buffalo. His conducting teachers have included Donald McGinnis, Frank L. Battisti, Charles Peltz, Arnald Gabriel and Frederick Fennell and he studied timpani and percussion with Cloyd Duff, John Beck, John Rowland, James L. Moore, William Youhass, and George Ward.

Stith taught instrumental music in the Holland and Williamsville (NY) Central Schools for a total of thirty years, also serving as Instructional Specialist for the Fine and Performing Arts in the Williamsville schools from 1993 – 2002. During his tenure in Williamsville, he founded the Williamsville Concert (Community) Band and established the national Williamsville Commissioning Consortium for the commissioning of new works for wind ensemble. Past President of both the New York State Band Directors Association and the New York State Council of Administrators of Music Education, he was the northeast regional recipient of the 1976 ASBDA-Stanbury Award, the Outstanding Educator Award at the 1993 World of Music Festival in Chicago, the 2003 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/ECCMC Award for Excellence in Music Education, and the 2010-11 Houghton College Excellence in Teaching Award.

He has authored numerous articles and penned chapters for the Conductors Anthology, The Drum and Percussion Cookbook, and served as Consulting Editor for a compilation entitled Classic Beginning Solos for the Complete Percussionist.

He continues to serve on the conducting faculty at the Csehy Summer School of Music and remains active as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.