Gary Green serves as the Musical Director and Conductor of the Orchid City Brass Band. Prior to this appointment in 2022, he served 22 years as Emeritus Professor of Music and Director of Bands at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, from which he retired in 2015. For 18 of those years he served as Chairman of Instrumental Performance and taught graduate conducting students in wind and percussion.
For the prior 10 years Green held the position of Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. Throughout his tenure at UM and UC, Green led commissioning and recording projects of new pieces for wind ensemble. His contributions to the growth and development of wind band repertoire are tremendous and include large-scale works such as David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 3 (1991/2007) and Michael Colgrass’ Urban Requiem (1995).
Green is an enthusiastic champion of contemporary composers and his efforts have significantly enlarged the wind band repertoire. Green has commissioned over 40 works and taken part in over 50 consortium commissions. Commissions and consortia with which Green has been involved include such composers such as Mason Bates, Steven Bryant, Steve Danyew, Michael Daugherty, Paul Dooley, Kenneth Fuchs, David Gillingham, John Harbison, David Maslanka, William Penn, Joel Puckett, Thomas Sleeper, James Stephenson, James Syler, Christopher Theofanidis, Frank Ticheli, and Eric Whitacre.
In 2002, Green was awarded the Phillip Frost Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship, and in 2007 he he joined the ranks of Frederick Fennell, William Revelli, and John Paynter in the Bands of America Hall of Fame. Green was awarded the Distinguished Service to Music Award for his contributions to the field of conducting by Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity. Green is an active member of numerous professional organizations that serve to further the growth of music education, as well as specifically the wind band world. He holds memberships with the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Director’s National Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Florida Bandmasters Association, and the Florida Music Educators Association.
