Mr. Barry R. Howard is in his seventeenth year of teaching and his seventh year as the Director of Bands at Mount Tabor High School, where he also serves as the Chairman of the Fine Arts Department. Under his leadership, the Symphonic and Concert Bands at Mount Tabor have earned five superior ratings at the Northwest District Contest Festival in the last four years. Likewise, the Symphonic Band was one of two high school ensembles invited to perform at the 2004 North Carolina Music Educators Association’s annual convention. This group was the first high school band from Forsyth County to ever be invited to perform a this event. Similarly, the marching band at Mount Tabor has enjoyed immediate and continually growing success, earning consistent superior ratings, class placements, and several Grand Championships.
Mr. Howard is an active member of the National Band Association, MENC, FCBDA, and the Northwest Band Directors Association, where he serves as President, the District Representative to the NCBA Marching Band Committee, and as the Chairman for All-District Band Auditions. Mr. Howard has also been a guest adjudicator and clinician for several All-County band clinics in south central North Carolina.
Originally from Elizabethton, Tennessee, Mr. Howard graduated from Forrest Hills High School in Marshville, North Carolina before receiving the Bachelor of Music Education degree, magna cum laude, from Wingate University in 1989, and was named the university’s Outstanding Music Educator the same year. He subsequently earned the Master of Music Education degree from the University of South Carolina in 1994. Mr. Howard spent the first ten years of his career as the Associate Director of Bands at East Union Middle School and Forrest Hills High School in Marshville, North Carolina. The bands at these two schools earned consistent superior ratings in both concert and marching competitions under his direct and indirect leadership. Mr. Howard is also the director of the Central Carolina Camp for drum majors, colorguard, and percussion, which is held in July at Catawba College in Salisbury.
Mr. Howard performs regularly on saxophone with the Piedmont Wind Symphony and Double-Take, a beach, R & B and dance band. He is married to Sabrina Howard, orchestra director at Mount Tabor and past-president of the Orchestra Section of the NCMEA. Mr. And Mrs. Howard reside in Clemmons, with their “children” Boomer and Savannah (the dog and cat).