BAND - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Bands at Mississippi State University
Dr. Clifton Taylor has served as Associate Director of Bands at Mississippi State University since 2005. At MSU, he co-directs the Famous Maroon Band and basketball pep bands, conducts the MSU Symphonic Band and the Jazz Ensembles, and teaches courses in the Department of Music. A native of Mississippi, he holds two music education degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a DMA in wind conducting from the University of South Carolina. A veteran teacher, Dr. Taylor has taught instrumental music at every level, from the elementary school to the community college, and currently directs the band program for the Starkville Homeschool Music Cooperative.
Dr. Taylor is regularly engaged in composing and arranging for concert band, marching band, and other media. He arranges many of the pieces performed by the Famous Maroon Band, and he has served as the wind arranger for the Mississippi Lions All State Band since 2014. His original concert band works are published by Grand Mesa Music Publishers, Tapspace Publications, RWS Music Company, Claude T. Smith Publications, and Maroon Tune Publications. He is also the composer and publisher of Honor Band Sight Reading Etudes, a two-volume set of 130 etudes written for all-district and all-state auditions in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida.
Dr. Taylor performs as a trombonist in symphonic, chamber, and jazz settings, and he has served as the principal trombonist of the Meridian Symphony since 2002. He is affiliated with the College Band Directors National Association; the National Band Association; the Mississippi Bandmasters Association; Phi Beta Mu; Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia; Kappa Kappa Psi; and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In addition to his work at MSU, he is the Director of Music at Grace Presbyterian Church in Starkville and serves as a leader of Trail Life USA Troop MS-0110.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director of Bands
- Professor of Music
Dr. Craig Aarhus is Associate Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Mississippi State University. At MSU, he co-directs the Famous Maroon Band and basketball pep bands, conducts Wind Ensemble "B," the Concert Band, and Campus Band, and teaches Conducting and Brass Techniques in the Department of Music. He also currently serves as the area coordinator for Music Education in the department. As a member of the band faculty, Dr. Aarhus has been part of a team that has helped lead the band program to unprecedented growth, making it currently one of the largest bands in the Southeast.
A native of Alabama, Dr. Aarhus received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Auburn University and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Conducting from The University of Iowa. While at Iowa, he was the recipient of the prestigious Iowa Performance Fellowship and was a conducting student of Dr. Myron Welch. He also served as a graduate conductor for all of the concert bands, arranged music and wrote drill for the Hawkeye Marching Band, and was co-director of the Iowa Pep Band. During this time, he was also the director of the Southeast Iowa Concert Band at Iowa Wesleyan College for one year. Prior to his appointment at MSU, Dr. Aarhus was a successful high school and middle band director in the public schools of Lanett, Tallassee, and Mobile, Alabama.
Dr. Aarhus is a member of several professional organizations including Phi Beta Mu (Past-President, Delta Chapter), the College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha, Tau Beta Sigma and the Mississippi Bandmasters Association. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the National Band Association and recently completed a ten year tenure as a Governor for the Southeast District of Kappa Kappa Psi. Dr. Aarhus has been an adjudicator and clinician throughout the Southeast, Midwest, and in Canada, and is a contributing author to five volumes of the popular Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. He has presented at numerous state and national conferences, including The Midwest Clinic, the CBDNA Summer Athletic Band Symposium, and the Mississippi Bandmasters Association State Band Clinic.
This past summer, Dr. Aarhus served on the staff of the D-Day 80th Anniversary Collegiate Mass Band and helped lead performances in the Normandy region of France to honor the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. The Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Mu selected Dr. Aarhus as the 2022 "Outstanding Bandmaster" in Mississippi, and in 2019, the Southeast District of Kappa Kappa Psi named their "Outstanding Director/Sponsor" Award after him. Other recent honors and awards include the A. Frank Martin Award from Kappa Kappa Psi for excellence in fraternity service (2017), the Clyde Muse Service Award from the MSU College of Education (2015) and selection to the George Duke Humphrey Faculty Leadership Program (2015). In 2010 and 2011, he was a recipient of the "StatePride" Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service. He has been a clinician/instructor at the Smith-Walbridge Drum Major Clinics for over 20 years, and in that capacity has had the opportunity to teach hundreds of high school and college drum majors from across the country. Dr. Aarhus and his family reside in Starkville and are members of First Presbyterian Church, where he has served as Music Director since 2007.
Job Titles:
- Director of Bands at Mississippi State University
- State Chair for the College Band Directors National Association
Elva Kaye Lance is Director of Bands at Mississippi State University. Her current responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble, providing leadership for the Famous Maroon Band, and administering all aspects of the band program. Ms. Lance also teaches methods classes within the Department of Music and assists with student teacher supervision. A veteran music educator of forty years, she previously taught instrumental music in the public schools of Mississippi.
Now in her thirty-third year at Mississippi State, Ms. Lance has guided the band program through the completion of a multimillion-dollar rehearsal facility and construction of a new synthetic turf practice field. Under her leadership, the band program has seen the expansion of the band staff and a student enrollment that now includes five concert bands, jazz band, two basketball pep bands, and a marching band with an enrollment of more than 400 students.
As a conductor, she has led the Wind Ensemble in performances for international concert audiences, including a 2008 tour of the British Isles; a 2011 tour in Austria and Germany; an Italian tour in 2014 which included a performance at the International Music Meeting in Padova, Italy; and a 2019 tour of Austria and the Czech Republic. The Wind Ensemble is preparing for a performance tour of Spain in May of 2025. Ms. Lance maintains an active schedule as a clinician and adjudicator for both concert and marching band events throughout the country. Additionally, she is a frequent contributor to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. In 2011, she received the "State Pride" award from the College of Education for excellence in teaching, research, and service and the Edythe M. McArthur Outstanding Woman Band Director Award for the state of Mississippi. She was named Outstanding Bandmaster for Mississippi in 2015, and in 2017 was named Outstanding Contributor to Bands in Mississippi by the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Mu. She was elected to membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in 2018.
Ms. Lance has served as the state chair for the College Band Directors National Association and the National Band Association. Additionally, she has served as a member of the Athletic Band Committee for the College Band Directors National Association. She is Past President of the International Bandmasters Fraternity Phi Beta Mu and was recently elected as Vice President of the National Band Association. Additional professional memberships include the Mississippi Bandmasters Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Iota, and the National Association for Music Education.
Job Titles:
- Associate Editor of New Literature Reviews for Percussive Notes
- Professor of Music
- Professor of Percussion
Jason Baker serves as Professor of Music and Percussion Area Coordinator at Mississippi State University. He holds degrees from the University of North Texas, New England Conservatory of Music, and University of Connecticut. His current performance interests focus on commissioning solo percussion music by emerging composers from the American South.
Jason has commercially released four solo albums, three etude books, and over 30 arrangements and compositions - many of which are included on solo and ensemble music lists throughout the United States. His works have been performed at the Modern Snare Drum Competition, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Kaohsiung Band Festival in Taiwan, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention.
Jason is timpanist of the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, and Starkville Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Meridian (MS) Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been a clinician and/or performer at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, New York City Day of Percussion, Encontro Percussivo Festival in Brazil, College Music Society National Conference, Texas Music Educators Association Convention, All-West Tennessee Music Educators Convention, Mississippi Bandmasters Association Convention, and universities throughout the United States. Jason has also performed with the Brooklyn Composers' Syndicate and as a faculty member at the Sam Houston Summer Percussion Academy.
Jason is Associate Editor of New Literature Reviews for Percussive Notes and previously served as chair of the College Pedagogy Committee and president of the Mississippi Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. He was a performing member with the Glassmen, Boston Crusaders, and Connecticut Hurricanes Drum and Bugle Corps and later served on the instructional staff of the Boston Crusaders. Jason is proud to be an artist for the Yamaha Corporation of America, Innovative Percussion, Remo, Sabian, and Grover Pro Percussion.
Jason is an avid long-distance runner and lives in Starkville, Mississippi with his wife and two children. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from MSU, where he was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma honor fraternity.
Job Titles:
- Auxiliary Coordinator
- Instructor for the Department of Curriculum
Sarah Salisbury is currently an Instructor for the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at Mississippi State, where she teaches elementary math education courses. She is also a PhD candidate in the department, pursuing a degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Mrs. Salisbury began her math education career in Brandon, MS before teaching at Mississippi State.
Mrs. Salisbury is an alum of both MSU and the Famous Maroon Band, graduating in 2012 and 2014 with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Elementary Education, respectively. She was on the color guard and in the wind ensemble in 2010 and 2011 and served as the Auxiliary Coordinator during graduate school. Since 2007, she has taught and coordinated numerous color guard lines throughout north and central Mississippi and frequently judges auditions as well.