James O'Dell, Acting Artistic Director & Principal Guest Conductor
James O'Dell has been professionally active in instrumental music and music education for the past twenty-four years. Mr. O'Dell holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Southern Oregon University and a Master of Music in Tuba, Euphonium, and Bass Trombone Performance from the University of Oregon. His graduate work also included residency at Arizona State University in the DMA program. Mr. O'Dell is currently the newly appointed Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at The Boston Conservatory, a post he assumed after a nine-year tenure as Director of the Conservatory's Music Division. Mr. O'Dell's previous full-time faculty appointments include Director of Bands at Boston University (MA), Mansfield University (PA), and Phoenix College (AZ). He has taught in the Oregon public schools as Director of Bands and Elementary Music Teacher, and more recently, as Supervisor of Instrumental Music for the Chelsea Public Schools.
A distinguished and versatile educator, conductor, and musician, his collegiate conducting tenures have included marching, pep, concert, and jazz bands, wind ensemble and brass ensemble. He is founder of the New England Collegiate Jazz Festival, Boston TubaChristmas, and cofounder of the Boston Tuba Quartet and The Brass Consortium. Mr. O'Dell is the newly appointed Music Director of the Middlesex Concert Band.
As a tubist he has toured, recorded, and performed with the Ken Shaphorst Big Band, Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, the Boston Globe Repertory Jazz Orchestra (Gunther Schuller, conductor), and as soloist with the Harvard Summer Band. He has been a member of the faculty brass quintets at the University of Oregon and Mansfield University (PA), and principal tuba with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra.
Within New England, Mr. O'Dell is past President and Vice-President of the New England College Band Association (NECBA), and on the executive board of IAJE/MA unit as the jazz composition contest chairman. He has remained active as guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician for NESBA, MENC, MICA, MMEA, NYSMA, Rhode Island Music Educators Association, Maine Music Educators Association, Performing Arts Consultants, and Music Festivals. His national and state associations include CBDNA, MMEA, MENC, IAJE, and NECBA.
