Dr. Bruce Moss
Bruce Moss began his versatile and distinguished career at York Community High School in Elmhurst, IL, where for eleven years he led an exemplar program as director of bands and music department chair. Among the many highlights of his public-school teaching career was the honor of a performance with his students and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, both the band and orchestra from York were independently selected to perform at the MENC national conference in 1981. After completing his doctorate in 1989, Moss has continued this reputation at the collegiate level with Director of Bands appointments at St. Cloud State University, Eastern Illinois University, and Bowling Green State University. He has also taught at the College of DuPage and the VanderCook College of Music.
Dr. Moss was selected to conduct a concert with the Wheaton Municipal Band in Illinois in 1979. That single performance led to his selection as the band’s music director and conductor, beginning an unprecedented 45 year tenure with the ensemble. Many of the highlights of Dr. Moss’s leadership with the Wheaton Municipal Band include performances at prestigious music festivals and conferences, as well as appearances by notable guest conductors, soloists, and composers from all over the world. Under his direction, the Wheaton Municipal Band has come to be regarded as one of the finest organizations of its type in the world today. They have performed twice at the prestigious Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, and were featured with the United States Marine Band in the PBS American Experience Series documentary “If You Knew Sousa.”
Dr. Moss serves as conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra Summer Concert Band, and is Music Director of the Ohio Ambassadors of Music – a bi-annual European concert tour for high school honor band, choir, and orchestra students. He has served on the board of directors for the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, and Kappa Kappa Psi, and holds honorary memberships in numerous professional organizations. He is a published author and has been a music reviewer for The Instrumentalist magazine and a contributor to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series.
Dr. Moss holds honorary memberships in numerous professional organizations and remains active as a clinician, conductor, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad. He was honored as the Ohio Music Education Association’s Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2017, and in 2022 was inducted into the Dobyns-Bennet High School Hall of Fame in Kingsport, TN.
Dr. Moss earned his B.S. and M.S. degree from the University of Illinois, his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, and his conducting teachers have included Harry Begian, Craig Kirchhoff, and John P. Paynter
