Eric M Smedley

Eric M. Smedley is associate professor of music in bands at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is also director of IU athletic bands and co-director of the Marching Hundred. Additionally, he directs the Symphonic Band and teaches undergraduate and graduate instrumental conducting courses. 

Smedley earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington and Master of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from the Jacobs School of Music. He previously served on the music faculties of Boise State University and Western Kentucky University, and as a public-school music educator in Cocoa Beach FL, Santa Monica CA, and Kenosha WI. 

He has conducted throughout North America and in Vietnam, Poland, Russia, and Japan. He maintains an active schedule as a clinician, guest conductor, adjudicator, and trumpet performer. His Symphonic Band was selected to perform at the 2018 College Band Directors National Association North Central Conference. Smedley was a finalist at the 2023 Warsaw Wind Band Conducting Competition in Warsaw, Poland. 

Smedley’s research interests are varied and include projects in the areas of contemporary wind band literature, wind band orchestration, and conducting pedagogy. 

His book chapters on composers Joseph Turrin, John Mackey, and David Dzubay are published in A Composer’s Insight: Thoughts, Analysis, and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band, and he has additional research published in the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series. 

He is also an empirical researcher, most recently publishing “Conductor Gestures Influence Evaluations of Ensemble Performance” in the refereed journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Smedley is a member of the Gamma chapter of the international band fraternity Phi Beta Mu and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association and the National Association for Music Education. 

He lives in Bloomington IN with his wife, Jessica, their daughter, Ella, and their Bedlington Terriers, Piper and Finn.