Bill Brent

William E. (Bill) Brent is Director Emeritus of the Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts at Northwestern State University of Louisiana and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Music Adjudicators Association.

He retired after 27 years of serving as the director of the school in 2015, and during and prior to that period, he also served as Director of Bands for 30 years.

During his tenure, the band program grew from 48 members to more than 300. With his leadership, the School of CAPA was endowed with more than $2.5 million in private scholarship funds and $5 million in grants. In addition, all academic programs in the School of CAPA were accredited by their national accrediting agencies and the Board of Supervisors for the University of  Louisiana System designated the Dear School of CAPA as an “Area of Excellence”.

Prior to his arrival at NSU, Mr. Brent was the Director of Bands at McCallum High School in Austin, Texas where the marching band was twice named in the top five in the University Interscholastic League “State Marching Contest” and the symphonic band was named in the top ten in the Texas Music Educators Association “Honor Band” competition.

Mr. Brent holds the Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music degrees from the University of Texas, Austin. Among his professional memberships are the Louisiana Music Educators Association and Phi Beta Mu and in 2012 he was elected to membership in the prestigious “American Bandmasters Association”. 

The National Council of Kappa Kappa Psi honored Mr. Brent with the A. Frank Martin Award in 1997 and in 2002, Mr. Brent received the highest honor bestowed by Northwestern State University to faculty members when he was presented with the Northwestern “Distinguished Service Award.” In 2007, Mr. Brent was inducted into the Louisiana Music Educators “Hall of Fame and in 2011, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music “Hall of Fame”.