Conductor

The Columbia Community Concert Band is pleased to welcome our new conductor, Roger Simpson, to the podium as we begin our 45^th season of music making in the midlands!

Mr. Simpson currently serves as Education Associate for the Visual and Performing Arts with the South Carolina Department of Education where his primary responsibilities include supporting over 790,000 students and nearly 3,500 arts educators through oversight of the South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Visual and Performing Arts Proficiency Standards, coordinating professional learning opportunities, and managing the Arts Curricular Innovation Grants Program and the Archibald Rutledge Scholarship Program.

Immediately prior to his work at the South Carolina Department of Education, Mr. Simpson served as the Director of Bands at Irmo High School, preceded by tenures as Director of Band at Hartsville High School and Barnwell High School, where his ensembles consistently earned top marks from adjudicators at performance assessments and competitions in concert, jazz, and marching. In addition, Mr. Simpson has held various leadership roles including district lead teacher, gifted and talented program director, arts clinician and consultant, arts organization board member, and professional development presenter and facilitator.

In his younger years, while growing up in Berkeley County, Mr. Simpson was identified in elementary school as musically gifted and was able to nurture that gifting through the school district’s Special Talent Enrichment Program. Later, having been coerced into learning and playing euphonium for an entire school year, Mr. Simpson moved on to his true passion…playing the tuba, which was something that came quite naturally to him. After earning chairs in all state and honor bands throughout the southeast, playing the tuba also helped earn Mr. Simpson a full scholarship to college where he developed another passion, teaching and conducting! He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Charleston Southern University and Master of Arts in Conducting from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University.

Mr. Simpson has been honored by the National Band Association, South Carolina Music Educators Association, South Carolina Art Education Association, School Band and Orchestra Magazine, and twice by his school colleagues as teacher of the year. Additionally, he is a member of Phi Beta Mu—International Bandmasters Fraternity.

Mr. Simpson resides in Gilbert with his wife Jeanette, a bassoonist. In their free time, they enjoy antiquing and visiting new places. If you hear a small plane flying overhead, it might be them in their Cessna 172!