2025 OBDC Honor Band
Guest Conductor
Terry Austin
Terry Austin is the Director of Bands-Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University where he served as the Director of Bands and Professor of Music from 1986-2022. Upon his retirement he was designated as a VCU Distinguished Career Professor. Under his leadership, the Virginia Commonwealth University Symphonic Wind Ensemble earned a reputation for musical excellence and was invited to perform at many professional conferences including the American Bandmasters Association, MENC, the College Band Directors National Association, and the Virginia Music Educators Association.
He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, is published in numerous journals, and is the general editor of The Journal of Band Research, A Repertoire Anthology (1964-1989) published by GIA. Dr. Austin is a regular guest conductor of the Musashino Academia Musicae Wind Ensemble and is a Guest Professor of the Center of General Education of Guangdong University of Technology in Guangzhou, China. He was the Chair of the Department of Music at VCU from 2018-2022.
Austin was the 78th President of the American Bandmasters Association. He served as the chairman of the National Band Association/William D. Revelli Band Composition Contest from 1995-2018, is chairman of the Bandworld/John Philip Sousa Foundation Legion of Honor, a member of the Board of Directors of the John Philip Sousa Foundation, and a past board member of the American Bandmasters Association, the National Band Association, the Southern Division of NAfME: The National Association for Music Education and past-president of the Virginia Music Educators Association. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Beta Mu, and an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi.
Dr. Austin is included in Who’s Who In America, Who's Who in Fine Arts Higher Education, and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. He is a multiple recipient of the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence and in 2005 he received the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts Distinguished Achievement Award of Excellence. In 2022 he was cited for Lifetime Achievement in Music Education by the Virginia Commonwealth University Music Education Department, and in 2023 he received the Virginia Music Educators Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
He founded and conducted the Greater Richmond Youth Wind Ensemble, an ensemble of the finest high school musicians in the Richmond metropolitan area. He also founded and conducts the Commonwealth Winds, an ensemble comprised of Richmond area teachers and professional performers and is the co-conductor of the Virginia Wind Symphony in Norfolk, Virginia.
Austin earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Indiana University, a Master of Arts in Music Education from the University of Hawaii, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Tracia.