George N. Parks

George N. Parks spent over 30 years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is director of the Minuteman Marching Band and is a professor of music. For over 30 years Mr. Parks has encouraged band and drum major students to reach for the stars in an effort to obtain their highest goals.

Mr. Parks has been synonymous with the Bands of America Summer Symposium for three decades. His George N. Parks Drum Major Academy at the BOA Summer Symposium has trained tens of thousands of young people as leaders. When Bands of America was invited to assemble a national honor band for the 2005 Tournament of Roses, the clear choice for the director of this once-in-a- lifetime group was “the drum major’s drum major”-George N. Parks.

Mr. Parks made his first appearance on the national scene as Drum Major of the award winning Reading Buccaneers Senior Drum and Bugle Corps. He helped lead the Buccaneers to two DCA World Championships and received numerous individual honors, including eight DCA Championship Drum Major Awards and induction into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame.

At the age of 24, Mr. Parks became the director of the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band, known as The Power and Class of New England. George Parks’ enthusiastic and entertaining approach to the marching band resulted in instant success with the football fans throughout the Northeast. The Band has emerged as one of the nation’s leading college marching bands, winning the prestigious Sudier Trophy in 1998.

Parks is the nation’s foremost authority on the art of drum majoring, and brings over 30 years of experience to the Drum Major Academy, instructing over 3,000 drum major and band leadership students per year. Numerous Drum Major Academy veterans are now high school and college band directors. As a performer, he was known as the master of the mace, or mds signal baton, thrilling audiences with skill and dexterity that had not been previously experienced by east coast band and drum corps audiences. He was a standout drum major for the Christiana Senior High School “Viking Band” before leading the “incomparable Golden Rams” Marching Band of West Chester University and later the Buccaneer Drum and Bugle Corps.

George is featured in instructional videos teaching drum majoring, leadership skills and mace techniques. He is the author of The Dynamic Drum Major” filled with pictures, diagrams, and detailed information based on years of performing and teaching experience.

George Parks attended the University of Delaware, and received Music Education Degree from West Chester University and a Master of Music degree in Tuba Performance from Northwestern University.

He is a recipient of the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Teacher Award and the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service. He was also named an Honorary Alumnus of the University of Massachusetts and has been inducted into the Massachusetts Instrumental Conductor’s Association Hall of Fame. He has served as a guest conductor for district and region bands, and has presented clinics and leadership session throughout the United States.

Each year, Music for All and the National Association for Music Education co-present a deserving educator with the George N. Parks Leadership in Music Education Award. You can learn more about the award here.