Dr. Andrew Putnam
Dr. Andrew J. Putnam is the Director of Concert Bands at Eastern Kentucky University, where he teaches
courses in ensemble music, conducting, orchestration, and administrates all aspects
of the concert bands program. Prior to his appointment he was Associate Director of
Bands and Assistant Professor of Music Education at EKU, as well as the Professor
of Conducting and Conductor of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble at Virginia Tech. He also
taught for five years at Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin, where he served
as Director of Bands and as a cooperating teacher-mentor.
An advocate of large ensemble music in education and as an artistic medium, Putnam has been involved as a clinician, adjudicator, and educator with programs across the country. He has presented at the Kentucky Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, and Georgia Music Educators Association conferences, in addition to residencies and presentations shared in Vienna Austria, Ettenheim Germany, and Manaus Brazil. His scholarship has focused on performing in pageantry arts ensembles, the role of the large-ensemble contest in influencing classroom practice, and the history of sight-reading as part of large-ensemble contests. As an artist Putnam has shared in performances with the Amazonas Filarmônica, Boston Symphony Orchestra at their summer residence, “Tanglewood,” the Boston Pops, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, as well as the regional and national conferences for the College Band Director’s National Association. Additional collaboration includes work with artistic leaders including composers John Corigliano, Robert Beaser, James Mobberley, and Paul Rudy, the contemporary music ensemble Eighth Blackbird, renowned wind conductor H. Robert Reynolds, and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner in music, Zhou Long. His work with Robert Beaser towards the completion of the wind ensemble setting of the composer’s Manhattan Roll, originally commissioned for 150th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic, led to the setting’s premiere at the 2011 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. His recent research has centered on the personas of folk singers influencing the work of Percy Grainger, and the wind ensemble music of Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber.
A long-time participant in the marching band and pageantry arts activities, Putnam has been involved as a clinician, adjudicator, and teacher with programs across the country. 2017 marked his twenty-fifth season of involvement in these activities. He has been involved on the educational, design and instructional faculties as an ensemble music coordinator, mentor, arranger, and brass specialist in varying capacities with the Madison Scouts, Boston Crusaders, Spirit of Atlanta, The Glassmen, Blue Stars, and Capital Sound. He currently is an arranger for the Michigan Marching Band, the University of Kentucky Wildcat Marching Band, and his arrangements have been played by collegiate and high school marching bands and wind ensembles across the country.
Putnam holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting degree from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, a Master of Music Education from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His teachers and mentors include Steven D. Davis, Colleen Conway, Michael Haithcock, Gerald B. Olson, William Richardson, Mark Waymire, and Joe Parisi. Professional affiliations include the College Band Director’s National Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan Music Educators Associations, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Tau Beta Sigma.