Everything Band: Episode 98 - Jason Nam

Jason Nam is the Associate Director of Bands at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. In this episode Everything Band went "on the road" to Bloomington and had a chance to chat with Jason in the IU band offices.

Topics:

• The importance of doing your best in every stop and how opportunity can come from those around seeing you value and not wanting to let you get away.
• Thoughts about building relationships and connections and how awareness of these relationships can help guide your interactions with fellow professionals as well as your band parents.
• Advice for creating a multi-year plan for your band program, including a conversation about band music and the perception that music for education is of lesser value than more advanced works.
• Jason’s background growing up in Southern California, attending the University of Redlands, his subsequent teaching and his move to the University of Indiana where he is an Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Director of Bands in the Jacobs School of Music.
• Collaboration and commissions in the band community and particularly at Indiana University.

Links:

• Jason Nam
• Indiana University
• University of Redlands
• SCSBOA
• Indiana University Summer Music Clinic
• Dahl: Sinfonietta

Biography:
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Jason H. Nam is assistant professor of music and associate director of bands at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he directs the Concert Band and teaches undergraduate courses in instrumental conducting and administration of school bands.

Nam earned a Doctor of Music in Wind Conducting degree from the Jacobs School, where he studied with Stephen W. Pratt. He also earned an M.M. in Conducting and a B.M. in Music Education from the University of Redlands, where he studied with Eddie R. Smith. Prior to his graduate degree work, he served as a lecturer in the Department of Music at California State University San Bernardino and as director of bands at La Colina Junior High School and San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara, California. More recently, he has served as a faculty member, ensemble conductor, and assistant director of the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic. In addition, Nam currently serves as resident music director of the Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble.

Nam keeps a very busy schedule as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician across the United States and North America. As a trumpet player, he has freelanced and performed with numerous orchestras, chamber ensembles, and jazz ensembles in the southern and central coast regions of California, including with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor, he was honored to be named a national finalist for The American Prize in Conducting (Band/Wind Ensemble division) in 2017.
He has been published in the Journal of the National Band Association and the American Bandmasters Association’s Journal of Band Research. His research interests include the music of William Bolcom, the wind chamber music of Igor Stravinsky, the historical development of the wind band repertoire in the twentieth century, as well as effective rehearsal methodologies for conductors. He completed a new band transcription of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom’s Inventing Flight: A Suite for Orchestra of Thumbnail Portraits. The transcription was completed with the permission of Bolcom and his publisher, Edward B. Marks Music Company. In March 2016, the band version of Inventing Flight was officially published by E. B. Marks Music Company and made available as a rental to bands worldwide.

Nam holds professional memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Conductor's Guild, Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, Indiana Music Education Association, and Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society, and is a proud member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity of America.
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He currently lives in Bloomington, Ind., with his wife, Melissa and son, Davis.