#6: The Importance of Relationships with Mentors, Colleagues, and Students | With Bill Harden

Beyond the Measure: A Podcast for Music Educators

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Mr. Bill Harden, director of bands at Hardin-Simmons University, tells us about the many different people that made an impact on his career and made it possible for him to be where he is today. We discuss the importance of maintaining relationships with the people around us and how we can use those relationships as an opportunity to learn and grow.
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Mr. Bill Harden graduated from Hardin-Simmons in 1986 with a Bachelors in Music Education and continued his education at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music earning the Master of Music in Bassoon Performance degree in 1988.

Prior to coming to HSU, he taught for 30 years in Odessa, Texas including two years as an Assistant Band Director at Odessa High School and eight years as the Band Director at Bowie Junior High School. The final twenty years, he was the Director of Bands at Odessa High School where his bands earned consistent sweepstakes awards in UIL Marching Contest and Concert and Sight Reading Evaluations. He also led the band on trips to New York City, Washington D.C., Orlando, Chicago, St Louis, and Hawaii, and in 2004, marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. He also served for one year as the Orchestra Director at OHS and received the sweepstakes award at Concert and Sight Reading Evaluation, the first for the students in the program.

In addition to his duties at OHS, Mr. Harden also served as adjunct faculty at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin where he taught conducting and Secondary Music Education methods. He has also played Assistant Principal Bassoon in the Midland-Odessa Symphony for 29 years and served as Principal in the 1996-97 season. In 1997, he presented a clinic entitled “Teaching the Intermediate Bassoon Player” at the TBA Summer conference.

In 2013, Mr. Harden received the Marcia McEntyre Zoffutto Hero Award for his dedication to the students in the Permian Basin. Named for the daughter of JR McEntyre, herself an award-winning Music Educator, the award is given to music educators in the Permian Basin who have devoted extensive time and energy into helping a music education program in west Texas.

Mr. Harden holds membership in the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, the Texas Music Adjudicators Association and Phi Beta Mu, International Band Fraternity. He helped found YES West Texas and Big Country Y.E.S. (Young Educators Symposium), a series of professional development opportunities for young music educators and for the young at heart!
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