Longhorn Band Director Cliff Croomes awarded Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship

Butler School of Music Associate Director of Bands and Longhorn Band Director Cliff Croomes has been selected for the 2025 Dads’ Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship. The program acknowledges professional-track faculty members primarily engaged in freshmen instruction and celebrates innovative instructional approaches and impactful student engagement, including mentorship and advising.

“As associate director of University Bands and director of the Longhorn Marching Band, the Symphony Band and the Texas Concert Band, Dr. Croomes is one of the most impactful undergraduate professors at UT Austin and arguably the University’s most visible undergraduate-oriented faculty member,” said Susan Thomas, director of the Butler School of Music.

Croomes is a 2001 graduate of the Butler School of Music and an alumnus of the Longhorn Band. Before returning to UT to lead the Longhorn Band in 2021, he served as the assistant director of bands at Louisiana State University and as the music director and principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Baton Rouge. Prior to his time in Baton Rouge, Croomes served as the director of bands at Georgetown High School in Georgetown, Texas and also taught at Douglas MacArthur High School in San Antonio, Westview Middle School, Pflugerville High School and Bastrop High School.

Under Croomes’ leadership, the band has more than doubled in size, and freshman audition numbers have increased by 200 percent over the past three years. Croomes approaches teaching with a student-centered mindset of meeting students where they are. He has updated the audition process so students can submit audition videos instead of live auditions, and students now use their smartphones to access their music, drill patterns and flag routines to improve learning new marching routines. He’s also incorporated Meditation Mondays into the Longhorn Band rehearsal schedule to help students focus and be ready to give their very best.

“Performing in an ensemble requires musicians to breathe, march and play all at the same time while maintaining our tone and creating sharp images on the field,” Longhorn Band Drum Major Jaiden Walker said. “Dr. Croomes introduced a weekly ‘Meditation Monday’ at the beginning of marching rehearsals, allowing us to disconnect from the busy world and reconnect with our musical selves. This practice led to productive and efficient rehearsals, enabling us to be successful both on the field and in the classroom.”

Croomes also works closely with many students who aspire to be music educators. He teaches a course in conducting aimed primarily at undergraduate music majors, and he structures the band rehearsals to give section leaders valuable leadership experience and practice directing and collaborating with their peers.

“These life skills, beyond the musical skills they learn in rehearsal, will be with members of the Longhorn Band — and other groups Dr. Croomes leads — for their entire lives,” Thomas said.