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Corey LaMon Graves (Forney, Texas) is in seventeenth year in music education and is the inaugural Director of Bands at Themer Middle School. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Graves served as the Director of Bands at Jackson Middle School (Forney ISD), and Roma Middle School (Roma ISD). He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree as a summa cum laude graduate from Stephen F. Austin State University, and earned a Master of Music in Euphonium Performance from The Ohio State University as a graduate fellow.
Mr. Graves is a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholar. His bands have consistently received superior sweepstakes ratings at UIL Concert and Sight reading Contest, and have earned high levels of recognition at both the state and national stage, being recognized as a National and Commended Winner in The Foundation for Music Education National Wind Band contest from 2013-2023. His bands have been consistent state finalists in the Texas Music Educators Association Honor Band Competition, being honored as the 2020 TMEA CC Honor Band. His ensembles have also been invited to perform at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. His Roma Middle School band program is a 2019 recipient of the John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Silver Cup Award and named a Rio Grande Valley Program of Distinction. Mr. Graves was chosen as Roma ISD’s 2013 Secondary Teacher of the Year, Forney ISD’s Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2023, and named the Phi Beta Mu Texas Young Bandmaster of the Year in 2017. He was also named as Yamaha “40 Under 40” Music Teacher of Excellence and a Country Music Awards Music Teacher of Excellence in both 2023 and 2024. He is an active clinician, adjudicator, sits on the Board of Directors for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and is an educational clinician for Conn-Selmer, and maintains professional affiliations with Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, and Texas Music Adjudicators Association.