Session Proposals

Mr. Cullen Smith is a music educator with teaching and performance experience in elementary music, orchestra and band in the Oklahoma metro area. Originally, when Mr. Smith began playing his main instrument which is the String Bass he had to teach himself the instrument after discovering all nearby private bass teachers were booked and attended a school without adequate resources to provide formal instruction for Orchestra pedagogy.

Mr. Smith’s band director requested he switch to String Bass so their band program could have complete instrumentation. As a result of this, Mr. Smith has built a life around playing and teaching music.

Mr. Cullen Smith currently holds two degrees in the musical arts and music education from the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City Community College. Mr. Smith has studied with 3 Bass teachers including Professor Michael Boyle, Dr. Michael Geib and Professor Tyler Shepherd. Mr. Smith is beginning work on his master’s degree in Bass performance at Oklahoma City University starting in August 2025 after winning a major instrumental music performance scholarship to attend.

Mr. Smith currently serves as the Associate Principal Double Bassist with the Oklahoma Chamber Symphony, Principal Double Bassist in the OKC Winds, Section Double Bass with the Oklahoma Community Orchestra and Section Double Bass with the newly established Oklahoma Metropolitan Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Zachary Daniels. Mr. Smith is also a freelance Double Bassist and Private Bass instructor. Mr. Smith is the former director of music education at Greenvale Elementary School in the Western Heights Public Schools District.

As an originally self taught concert band bass player in a school without adequate orchestra resources, Mr. Smith has successfully come up with several pro tips of teaching yourself the string bass over the years. In early 2025 Mr. Smith wrote an article about teaching yourself the String Bass that was published on the popular double bass pedagogy website “Double Bass HQ.”

Many band programs in the state of Oklahoma are always wanting to include a Double Bass player in their program for concert band, jazz band and pep band events. However, not all band programs in Oklahoma have an adjacent orchestra program and this was the case when Mr. Smith began to play the Bass. Mr. Smith believes every band program that has a desire to include a String Bass player should have the accessibility to do so even if there’s not an adjacent orchestra program in the district. This session is more focused on Band but Orchestra people will probably get a lot of good out of it as well.

• Band - Middle School
• Band - Secondary
• Orchestra - Middle School
• Orchestra - Secondary