Josh Byrd

Josh Byrd serves as Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of West Georgia. His primary responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble, teaching music education courses, supervising student teachers, and administrating all aspects of the UWG band program. Prior to his appointment he served as Director of Bands at Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin and Assistant Director of Bands at Lanier Middle School and Norcross High School in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Dr. Byrd received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Georgia where he studied with John Lynch and minored in Music Theory. He received his Master of Music degree in Conducting while studying with Tom Dvorak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Georgia where he studied saxophone with Kenneth Fischer and conducting with Dwight Satterwhite and John Culvahouse.

Dr. Byrd is an active clinician, most recently having presented at the 2017 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, 2018 CBDNA National Conference, and the 2018 GMEA annual In-Service conference both as a clinician and as conductor of the UWG Wind Ensemble. In 2020, the UWG Wind Ensemble performed at the CBDNA Southern Division Conference for the first time in the program’s history. Dr. Byrd is a strong advocate of new music, having been part of numerous commissioning consortiums during his tenure at the University of West Georgia, including Joseph Schwantner’s Luminosity, David Maslanka’s Symphony No. 10, Viet Cuong’s Bull’s-Eye, and John Mackey’s Places we can no longer go. Dr. Byrd lives in Carrollton with his wife, Katie, and their two children, Tripp and Haley.

Josh Byrd

Judges