School of Music - Central Michigan University

James Batcheller is a member of the conducting faculty and associate director of bands at Central Michigan University. He teaches courses in conducting, music education, and rehearsal methods, is director of the Chippewa Marching Band, and conductor of the Wind Symphony. Dr. Batcheller has also served on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma and was director of bands at Great Falls High School in Great Falls, Montana. Articles and analyses by Dr. Batcheller have appeared in the Journal of Band Research and the Instrumentalist magazine. He is an active, collaborative participant in music teacher training and professional development. Batcheller's appearances as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator have taken him across the United States, including performances and sessions at the North Central and Southwest regional meetings of the College Band Directors National Association. An advocate for new art music for wind band, Dr. Batcheller has conducted premiers of several new works, including Charles Rochester Young's Tempered Steel for the Big 12 Band Directors' Association, and CMU Alumnus Rob Ash's Glory. Most recently, he was among the commissioners and premier conductors of Frank Ticheli's Symphony No. 2. Ensembles under Batcheller's direction have earned high praise from guest conductors and composers, including David Gillingham, Eric Ewazen, Daniel Bukvich, Eric Stokes, Chalon Ragsdale, William Wakefield, Col. Timothy Holtan, David Booth, Robert Spevacek, and Eugene Corporon. Batcheller holds the Bachelor of Science in education degree from Central Michigan University, the master of music in performance degree from the Florida State University School of Music, and the doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Oklahoma. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, the Gamma Beta Phi Society, and Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity. Dr. Batcheller has been a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity since he pledged CMU's Nu Pi chapter as an undergraduate, and now serves as chapter advisor. He has been recognized with three awards for Excellence in Teacher Preparation from the University of Idaho and has been named four times to Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Dr. Batcheller is an active member of MENC - the national association for music education, the College Band Directors National Association, and the College Music Society. He served as faculty advisor to the Oklahoma University student chapters of M.E.N.C. and the American String Teachers Association, and during his tenure in Montana served on the executive board of the Montana Bandmasters Association. In 2004, Dr. Batcheller was made an honorary member of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association.