David Willson is a “band director’s band director.” His teaching at all levels has been the catalyst for his mission to serve others through directing bands and bettering his profession. He served 23 years as Director of Bands at the University of Mississippi where he was named Teacher of the Year in 2007 and awarded the First Award “for his service to students” in 2005.
In 2010, Willson was honored by Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity with the Outstanding Contribution to Bands Award. Under his direction, the University Wind Ensemble has performed at Mississippi Bandmasters Convention and CBDNA Southern Convention, live for Mississippi Public Radio, featured on national public radio, received the NBA Citation of Excellence multiple times, and has toured throughout extensively throughout the mid-south. The Pride of South Marching Band, while under his direction, has more than doubled in size, performed in nine bowl games, and made the “Grove Routine” part of the Ole Miss Tradition.
Prior to coming to Ole Miss, Willson served sixteen years as a public school band director in Mississippi. His bands were award-winning in every category consistently in local and national competitions, including receiving the prestigious Sudler Award in 1990. He placed many students in the Mississippi All-State Band and served as conductor/director five times including trips to Brisbane, Australia, and the world championship trip to Seoul, Korea. Willson received the ASBDA-Stanbury young band director of the year in 1985 and was named Mississippi’s Outstanding Band Master in 1989. In 1982 NIFMA honored him with the Southeastern Music Educator of the Year award.
Willson is past president of Phi Beta Mu International, the Mississippi Bandmasters Association, and the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, state chairman for CBDNA, NBA, and served for four years on the National Federation of High Schools Music committee. He is active in many professional organizations. Publications by Willson include Starting Beginner Band Students, Band Calisthenics, and Mr. Willson’s Warm Up, which are used extensively throughout the midsouth. His articles have frequently appeared in The Instrumentalist, BandWorld, Phi Beta Mu Journal, and most recently in the August 2011 issue of SBO Magazine. He is active as a clinician and speaker throughout the United States.
Professor Willson has always put a strong emphasis on training students fundamentally and has been equally concerned in developing students as well-rounded citizens through his philosophy of being all superior “Every Day in Every Way.” He is most proud of his former students who are successful band directors.
As the son of distinguished Mississippi Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame recipients John T. and Edythe McArthur, John Erwin (Jay) McArthur spent his life immersed in instrumental music education. When the family moved to Starkville from Waynesboro, McArthur was introduced and inducted into the rich history of the “Band of the Blue and the Gray” first through dinner conversations and then membership in the band program beginning in the sixth grade as a drummer. Through his school years, McArthur became a successful percussionist attending the Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi summer band camps, multiple district and state band clinics, and four years of membership in the Mississippi Lions All-State Band, three of which were as the principal percussionist. Additionally, he was a charter member of the Memphis Blues Brass Band Drum and Bugle Corps where he played in the snare line of the record-setting first-year organization.
Upon graduation from Starkville High School, McArthur took the unusual path of a Starkville graduate by enrolling at the University of Mississippi. By the time of his Cum Laude graduation in 1985, he had been a member of the Pride of the South marching band in the drum line and as Drum Major, the University of Mississippi Wind Ensemble, the Mississippians Jazz Band, and the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra. In addition, McArthur was twice a member of the Mississippi Lions Band staff as percussion arranger and instructor and taught a myriad of band camps across the South. He also wrote arrangements for the Ole Miss marching band percussion, wind ensemble percussion, and the trombone choir while also writing drill for the marching band.
Graduation from Ole Miss led McArthur to Kosciusko where he was the junior high band director under the outstanding leadership of Phi Beta Mu Hall of Famer Mickey Grove. During his four years in Kosciusko, his junior high school bands earned consistently Superior ratings in Concert, Sight Reading, and Jazz Band. While under McArthur’s direction, his students consistently represented the band program well at area band clinics. During this time, Mr. Grove also introduced McArthur to the world of indoor color guard judging, an important event in McArthur’s professional development that later led to his inclusion on the national judges’ panel for Winter Guard International’s percussion division.
In 1989, McArthur moved to Quitman, where he was to spend thirteen years. There he met and married Amy Lewis and was blessed by the birth of two children, John Thomas, III, and Cadden Moore. With the assistance of, first, Andy Wolverton, and, later, Jay’s brother, Chris, the Quitman band grew from 65 members to around 150 at its height and was known for quality and entertainment value. In 2002, the McArthur Family moved to Ridgeland for the opening of the new Ridgeland High School. The first band at Ridgeland was made up of 83 members, 60 of whom were Freshmen. Despite their youth, the band experienced tremendous success that first year including Superior ratings for every event entered, and winning their class at the first marching contest they ever entered. With the assistance of associate directors Keith Moffat and Marvin Milner the band grew both in size and quality. Over the next 11 years, the Ridgeland Band presented entertaining and creative marching shows, demonstrated excellence in literacy, and performed challenging concert programs to exceptional reviews and ratings. As in Quitman, the Ridgeland band students represented their school with distinction at district and state band clinics and routinely earned positions in the Lions All-State Band.
McArthur was honored first to serve on the board for the East Central Mississippi Band Directors Association and was later elected to the Mississippi Bandmasters Association Executive Board where he served as President in 1999. In 2008, McArthur was honored to be returned to the Bandmaster Board where he served as president in 2011. Among other accomplishments during his tenure, he helped redesign the adjudication sheets for the state and as well as improved the process of acquiring higher quality adjudicators for state events.
Over his career McArthur was the recipient of state, regional, and national awards, while serving the Mississippi Lions All-State Band as Percussion Instructor, Assistant Marching Director, and Marching Director. He has continued to be in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and designer for bands and events both nationally and internationally, and is a multi-time presenter and band clinician at the State Band Clinic, as well as for associations and bands around the country. In retirement, McArthur has worked to mentor younger directors and their students and hopes to keep meaningful contact with the profession that has given him so much.