Session Proposals

Dr. Eric Shannon is Assistant Professor of Music and Assistant Director of Athletic Bands at The University of Oklahoma. In this role, he serves as Assistant Director of the 'Pride of Oklahoma' Marching Band, Director of the 'Sound of the Sooners' Basketball Bands, conductor of the 'Boomer Campus' Concert Band, and instructor for the Marching Band Techniques course within the Music Education curriculum.

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Shannon served as Director of Athletic Bands and Tenured Associate Professor of Music at Lamar University from 2014 to 2025. During his time at Lamar, he taught Undergraduate Conducting I and II, conducted the Symphonic Concert Band, and led the university's athletic band program.

Before his collegiate career, Dr. Shannon taught middle school and high school band, orchestra, and jazz band for three years in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Dr. Shannon earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma, his Master of Music degree in instrumental conducting from the University of Houston, and his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Oklahoma.

Explore five practical conducting skills every ensemble director can use immediately: training your ensemble to watch you, conducting your rehearsal comments through gesture, maintaining eye contact through starts, eliminating unnecessary conducting motions, and concert stage professionalism. Shannon draws on two decades of experience for band, orchestra, and choir directors at any career stage.

The Five Skills:
1. Training Ensemble Attention – Conductors are always conditioning their ensemble to either watch them or tune them out. This section opens with an honest look at how young conductors inadvertently teach students to ignore their conducting and provides specific strategies to reverse that pattern and establish a culture of visual engagement.

2. Conducting Your Comments – After giving a rehearsal comment, the conductor must demonstrate it in the next repetition through gesture. This section shows how stringing those demonstrations together, consistently and deliberately, transforms a conductor from a timekeeper into a true musical communicator. This skill builds directly on the attention culture established in skill one.

3. Eyes Up Through Starts – Effective downbeats and releases are among the most fundamental and most overlooked conducting skills. This section covers why eye contact through the preparatory beat and into the first measure matters, and how to deploy distinct release gestures for different musical endings and contexts.

4. Eliminating Macro-Motions – Macro-motions are large, habitual conducting gestures that carry no musical information and erode ensemble responsiveness over time. This section defines the term, identifies the most common offenders, and explains why eliminating them sharpens ensemble communication and refines overall conducting presence.

5. Concert Etiquette: Receive Applause like a Pro – A conductor's movement on, off, and around the podium communicates professionalism and confidence before a single note is played. This topic addresses the mechanics of podium approach, receiving applause (how to bow), and why the conductor must strive to clear the ensemble completely before acknowledging them.

• Band - Middle School
• Band - Secondary
• Choral - Middle School
• Choral - Secondary
• Orchestra - Middle School
• Orchestra - Secondary
• Collegiate
• Mentorship/Beginning Teachers