DR. ANTHONY PURSELL serves Kansas State University as Assistant Professor of Music and Assistant Director of Bands. In this capacity, he serves as the Assistant Director of the Wildcat Marching Band, the director of the Concert Band, the director and coordinator of the Athletic Pep Bands, the assistant coordinator of the K-State Summer Music Camp and the coordinator of the Leadership & Auxiliary Band Camp. In addition to his ensemble responsibilities, Dr. Pursell teaches various undergraduate and graduate music classes in Marching Band Techniques, Arranging for Bands, Beginning Conducting, and Graduate Conducting.
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Dr. Pursell taught high school marching band, jazz band, concert band and fine arts for six years before moving to Indiana where he served as an assistant in the Department of Bands at Ball State University. Afterwards, he served a one-year appointment on the faculty at Northern Illinois University as the Assistant Director of Athletic Bands before coming to K-State in 2005. Dr. Pursell holds the Doctor of Arts degree from Ball State University (Instrumental Conducting and Music Education), and the Master of Music Education and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Loyola University (New Orleans, LA).
Dr. Pursell has participated in conducting clinics with such notable conductors as Eugene Corporon, H. Robert Reynolds, Jack Stamp, Dennis Fisher and James Ogle and has conducted concerts throughout the South; the Midwest; and the South Pacific. He serves as an adjudicator, conductor, and clinician and is in demand as a halftime show writer, arranger, conductor, and clinician for marching bands, concert bands, and jazz bands throughout the United States. He served as the September 2006 Band Mentor for the National Association of Music Education's (MENC) Mentoring Project and has given clinics and sessions at several state and regional conferences including Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio & Louisiana on a wide variety of topics related to wind band education and will present at the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago this December (2009). Additionally, he has articles published in The Instrumentalist and the Journal of Band Research. Recently his book, Improving Music Sight Reading: An Iconic-Based Approach to Teaching Rhythm, was published by the International Publishing Company VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG (Saarbrucken, Germany).
Dr. Pursell's professional affiliations include: the Kansas Music Educators Association, Music Educator's National Conference, the College Band Director's National Association, the National Band Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
