THOMAS E. VERRIER is the Senior Band Conductor and Director of Wind Ensembles at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is the conductor of the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, previously served as Artistic Director of the Vanderbilt Music Academy (a project with musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic), and was the Founding Director of the Conductors Lab in Aix-en-Provence, France. His teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate-level courses in conducting, pedagogy, and education.
Dr. Verrier is co-author of the book The Ensemble Musician (GIA Publications). This practical guide empowers concert band and orchestra musicians to share ownership of the rehearsal process by taking responsibility for unifying aspects of the music through direct communication with one another. Recognized for his collaborative approach to conducting, Dr. Verrier has also authored chapters in Rehearsing the Band v. 4 (Meredith Music), as well as the Spanish-language El Ensayo de la Band - Claves para el desarrollo de un buen ensayo (Proventis - Libraos y Partituras). He has presented sessions on the topic of large ensemble musicianship and the role of the conductor at the Midwest Clinic, the College Music Society National Conference, the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA) National Conference, the Ohio Music Education Association State Professional Development Conference, and the Tennessee Bandmasters Directors Clinic.
Dr. Verrier’s student ensembles have been selected to perform for the International Society for Music Education and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) National In-Service Conference. Under his direction, the Vanderbilt University Wind Symphony has performed at the Southern Division Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the CBDNA National Conference (in 2015 and 2023), and the National Convention of the American Bandmasters Association. In 2018, the Wind Symphony received an Educational and Cultural Grant from the US State Department for a concert tour of Colombia. In 2019, the group was selected as the “Showcase Ensemble” at the Chicago International Music Festival in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Dr. Verrier has recorded four commercial CDs with the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, and the album Spanish Eyes won the American Prize—First Place Award for Musical and Audio Engineering Excellence.
Dr. Verrier has accepted invitations to conduct throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. For more than a decade, he served as the Artistic Advisor of the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble. Today, Dr. Verrier devotes much of his time to teaching band pedagogy and training band conductors in Central and South America. He has presented sessions in Spanish at more than 20 music conferences and conducted more than 50 concerts in Latin America.
Since 2005, Dr. Verrier has served on the Executive Board of the College Band Directors National Association as the organization’s National Executive Secretary.
