Music Director, Austin Symphonic Band
Contact Information
director@austinsymphonicband.org
Richard Floyd is presently in his 52nd year of active involvement as a conductor, music educator and administrator. He has enjoyed a distinguished and highly successful career at virtually every level of wind band performance from beginning band programs through high school and university wind ensembles as well as adult community bands. Floyd recently retired as State Director of Music at the University of Texas at Austin where he coordinated all facets of secondary school music competition for some 3500 performing organizations throughout the state for 29 years. He now holds the title Texas State Director of Music Emeritus. He also serves as Musical Director and Conductor of the Austin Symphonic Band that is viewed to be one of the premier adult concert bands in America.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas, Mr. Floyd served on the faculty at the University of South Florida as Professor of Conducting and at Baylor University in Texas where he held the position of Director of Bands for nine years. He began his career as band director at Richardson Junior High School and then become the first director of the award winning J.J. Pearce High School Band in the same city. He also served as Director of Fine Arts for that district for two years before moving to Baylor University in 1972.
His musical achievements include performances at numerous state and national conventions and conferences including the 1977 College Band Directors National Association, the 1981 Music Educators National Conference and concerts at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in 1989, 1997 and 2007. Other distinguished performances include concerts for the American Bandmasters Association in 1993 and 2006 and the 2004 Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, Washington. Performances by his various ensembles have been heard on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, Australia and Europe.
Mr. Floyd is a recognized authority on conducting, the art of wind band rehearsing, concert band repertoire, and music advocacy. As such, he has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor including appearances in 40 American states and in 9 other countries. He is a frequent featured clinician for the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association and has presented three conducting and rehearsal technique clinics for the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic. In 2002 he was the single recipient of the prestigious A.A. Harding Award presented by the American School Band Directors Association in recognition of his significant and lasting contributions to the school band movement. The Texas Bandmasters Association named him Texas Bandmaster of the Year in 2006 and also recognized him with the TBA Lifetime Administrative Achievement Award in 2008. Most recently he received the Texas Music Educators Association Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and was inducted into the Bands of America Hall of Fame and Texas Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame in 2011. Also in 2011 he was awarded the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic Medal of Honor for distinguished service and contributions to bands, orchestras and music education.
Publications include co-authorship of Best Music For Beginning Band and contributing author for The Musician’s Walk by James Jordon and published by GIA. In addition his articles have appeared in The Instrumentalist and numerous national and international publications. In 2006 he was featured on the GIA Produced DVD entitled Kindred Spirits from the series Conducting From The Inside Out. Other conductors included H. Robert Reynolds, Craig Kirchhoff and Allan McMurray.
During Mr. Floyd’s professional career he has held positions of leadership on many state and national committees for music education and wind music performance. At present he is a member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation Board of Directors, Chairman of the American Bandmasters Association Educational Projects Committee, an ex-officio member of the Texas Music Educator's Association Executive Board and serves as chair of the College Band Directors National Association Music Education Committee. He served as National Secretary of CBDNA from 1979 to 2007 and has played an active leadership role in the implementation of that organization’s many projects and services for over three decades.