Dr. Thomas McCauley is currently the Director of University Bands in the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University in New Jersey where he conducts the Montclair State University Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band. He has held similar positions in the states of Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois in addition to teaching high school instrumental music in Nevada for nine years. While the Director of Instrumental Music Activities at the University of Indianapolis, Dr. McCauley founded the University of Indianapolis Chamber (later Symphony) Orchestra. During his time in Indiana, Dr. McCauley hosted and taught the University of Indianapolis Instrumental Conducting Workshop with such notable guest clinicians as Eugene Corporon, Jerry Junkin, Craig Kirchhoff, Felix Hauswirth, and Mallory Thompson. He founded a similar symposium at Montclair State University called the Weekend Wind Conducting Symposium held each November with special guest clinicians from around the world.
Composers including Karel Husa, David Gillingham, Joseph Turrin, Alvin Curran, Robert Aldridge, and O’Neal Douglas have praised his work. In December of 2010, Dr. McCauley appeared as a clinician in Chicago at the 64th annual Midwest Clinic. He is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout North America.
Thomas McCauley earned a Doctor of Music degree in conducting from Northwestern University where his primary teacher was Mallory Thompson, and holds a Master and Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been mentored by such notable conductors as Larry Rachleff and Stanley DeRusha.
Ensembles under McCauley’s direction have appeared at national and regional conventions and conferences. In 1998, he appeared as guest conductor with the renowned Northshore Concert Band on their summer concert series and later appeared as Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Brass Choir at the 15th International Congress of the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Band Music in Lana, Italy in the summer of 2002. From August 2002 to December 2003, Dr. McCauley was also the creator and host of Music Education Matters, a 30-minute radio talk show heard weekly on WICR in Indianapolis.
Dr. McCauley has been published in The Instrumentalist magazine and most recently in the second edition of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, Vol I published by G.I.A. publications. In 1995, the Nevada Music Educator’s Association named Dr. McCauley Music Educator of the Year and in 2006, the Indiana Music Educators Association honored Dr. McCauley with an Outstanding University Music Educator Award.