Mr. Ronald D. Payne received his initial music training in the Kings Mountain School System from Joe Hedden and Donald Deal. He received his M.M.E. and B.M.E. degrees from East Carolina University where he studied euphonium with George Broussard and David Lewis and conducting with Robert Hause. Mr. Payne is currently in his twenty-ninth year of teaching; twenty-two of these have been with the Charlotte/Mecklenberg School System. Mr. Payne is now in his eighth year at Providence High School, serving as the Director of Bands and Fine Arts Department Chair. His Wind Ensemble is a consistent grade VI “Superior” band and was a featured performer at the 2003 North Carolina Music Educators Conference.
Mr. Payne is active as a clinician, adjudicator and performer in the southeast and is a past-president of the North Carolina Bandmasters Association. Recently, his peers honored him by electing him as the new State Chairman for the American School Band Directors Association. In November 2003, he was elected to a two-year term as a Member-at-Large to the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Music Educators Association. Colleagues in NCBA awarded Mr. Payne the prestigious “Award of Excellence” for outstanding achievements and contributions to public school bands in 1993. He was conferred the status of both a Nationally Registered and a Nationally Certified Music Educator by the Music Educators National Conference in September of 1991. Mr. Payne’s students have consistently nominated him to Who’s Who Among Teacher’s since its inception in 1990. By virtue of this, his biography is included in the last three editions of Who’s Who in America. Mr. Payne’s professional memberships include: ASBDA, MENC, NCMEA, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha. He lives with his wife, Gail, in Matthews, North Carolina.