University of Minnesota School of Music

Mary K. Schneider

Assistant Director of Bands

140 Ferguson Hall
612/626-0430
E-mail: mschneid@umn.edu

Mary K. Schneider joined the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota as Assistant Director of Bands and Associate Director of the Marching Band in the fall of 2005. Her responsibilities have included conducting the Symphonic Band, the University and Campus Bands, teaching conducting, supervising music education students, and directing athletic bands.

Prior to this appointment, Schneider completed her doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied conducting with Jerry Junkin. During her residency she directed the Texas Concert Band and served as an instructor for the conducting program, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Band, Chamber Winds and Longhorn Band. Schneider has also earned degrees in both horn performance and music education from the University of Connecticut and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with Distinction in Performance honors.

An active clinician and guest conductor, Schneider is a strong advocate for new wind music and maintains an active interest in that area of research. In addition to published articles in the series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, she has engaged in extensive research and writings surrounding Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano and his Symphony No. 3 for large wind ensemble, “Circus Maximus.”

Schneider brings a diverse background to the podium and to her students in the classroom. Her experience as a music educator includes numerous years of public school teaching in New Jersey, her native state, where she also remained active as a hornist. She maintains professional affiliations in the College Band Directors National Association, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Music Educators National Conference, Minnesota Band Directors Association, Texas and Minnesota Music Educators Associations, Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.