Dr. Rick Good

Director of Bands

email: goodrick@auburn.edu
telephone: (334) 844-4166

Rick Good was promoted to Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting in 2007. Prior to that promotion he served from 1995 as Marching Band Director and Associate Professor of Low Brass at Auburn University. Under his direction the Auburn University Marching Band received national acclaim. The marching band?s membership grew from 275 to 375, the largest marching band in the history of Auburn University, during his tenure as director, and in 2004, the AU Marching Band received the Sudler Trophy Award, the nation’s highest and most coveted award for college and university marching bands. In January of 2005, the band was selected by the Presidential Inaugural Committee to attend the Inaugural Parade of George W. Bush. In 2006, the band was selected as one of the top ten marching bands in the country featured at the LSU Hall of Fame Museum entitled “America’s Finest University Marching Bands.”

In addition to success on the marching field, members of Dr. Good’s low brass applied studio have earned numerous awards and competitions, including the Blanca Renard Award, the Tamblyn Scholarship, and competitions with the International Tuba Euphonium Conference and the Music Teachers National Association. His low brass students have also earned faculty and instrumental music directing positions at major universities, including the University of Michigan and Mississippi State University, and teaching assistantships at universities such as Arizona State University, University of Texas-Austin, Notre Dame, University of Iowa, Florida State University, and the University of Alabama.

In addition to overseeing the successful development of all university bands, as Director of Bands, Dr. Good?s current duties include conducting the Auburn University Symphonic band, the university’s top performing instrumental ensemble and the AU Wind Ensemble, a smaller select group that features soloists and sections in unique musical opportunities. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in conducting as well as wind literature.

Before coming to Auburn, Dr. Good was the Acting Associate Director of Bands for one year at Arizona State University, where he earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Euphonium Performance. In addition to serving as a graduate teaching assistant at ASU, he was also a teaching assistant at Louisiana State University, where he earned a Master of Music Degree in Wind Conducting. Dr. Good received his Bachelors degree in Music Education from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, and during his entire academic career, he had the opportunity to study with nationally-renowned names in conducting and low-brass performance, such as Richard Strange, Frank Wickes, Donald Stanley, Sam Pilafian, Dan Perantoni, and Larry Campbell.

Dr. Good taught for seven years in the public schools of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The ensembles, under his direction, have performed at state music conventions and have received numerous superior ratings at state and national band festivals. Dr. Good also served on the summer brass and conducting faculty for five years at the prestigious Blue Lake International Fine Arts Camp in Michigan while teaching at Auburn University.

Dr. Good has received many honors and awards. In 2006, he was named the Co-Director of the Macy’s All-American Marching Band, working collaboratively with Jon Woods from The Ohio State University. In June of 2003, Dr. Good served as the Executive Musical Director of the Alabama Ambassadors of Music, which consisted of highly talented high school and college vocal and instrumental musicians who embarked on a sixteen-day musical tour of seven European countries. He has been honored with the College of Liberal Arts Teaching Effectiveness Award in Fine Arts and named a Faculty Honoree by the Cardinal Key Honor Society at Auburn. Presently, he is a member of the National Band Association’s Board of Directors and serves as Marching Band Executive Chairman. Dr. Good holds various memberships in national and international organizations and is active as a freelance musician and an adjudicator throughout the United States, Mexico, Caribbean, and Europe.