Board of Directors

Starting piano lessons before the first grade, Don picked up the trumpet in the 4th grade and continues as a performing musician (now on euphonium) in his busy retirement. Don completed his Bachelor of Music Education Degree (1965) and his MME (1968) at Indiana University. He led public school bands in Aurora, IL, from 1966-69, then he returned to Indiana University to earn a doctorate in Instructional Systems Technology (Ed.D., 1971). He became the Director of Instructional Media at Indiana Central University and played in a faculty brass group there. While in the Indianapolis area, he was the PR photographer for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for five years and a bugling Scoutmaster for seven years.

Moving to Jackson, WY, in 1983, Don helped form a brass quintet, and he became the founding conductor of the Jackson Hole Community Band (JHCB) in 1989. He conducted the JHCB for its first seventeen years, usually in excess of twenty performances per year, and he frequently substitutes as the conductor since his retirement. In 1999 Don led the JHCB in performances at the Maastricht Easter Festival in the Netherlands. He conducted two church choirs in Jackson for a total of eleven years, and he taught at the local community college for eleven years. As a park ranger in Grand Teton N.P. (ten years) and at the National Elk refuge (ten years), he used his background in music and his technical editing and mixing skills to produce instructional videos and slide shows for training and public education. He plays his euphonium in ACB convention bands, Music at the Summit, the National Community Band, and the JHCB, exemplifying that the enjoyment of music is a lifetime activity. Don is the Wyoming membership coordinator for ACB and an avid volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

Mr. Paul M. Furlong, a Western New York native, holds BFA and MFA degrees in Music Education from SUNY at Buffalo.

Paul is a retired music educator from Eden Central Schools, having served as department chair and
director of the Junior High Band and High School Wind Ensemble. He maintains an active schedule as a
performer of double reeds, particularly bassoon and contrabassoon, and low clarinets. He is on the
board of several community ensembles. He is the current president of the Buffalo Niagara Concert Band
(BNCB) and the Erie County Wind Ensemble (ECWE), holding tenure with BNCB as winner of the 2019
Scudler Silver Scroll Award. Additionally, he serves as personnel manager for BNCB and the
Cheektowaga and Orchard Park Symphonies.

He has served as guest conductor of the Post 264 American Legion Band, Hamburg Village Band, the Amherst Chamber Ensembles, and as an All-County director in Niagara County. In 2017 he was appointed as Associate Conductor with BNCB. Mr. Furlong is principal bassoonist of the Buffalo Niagara Concert Band (BNCB), Cheektowaga Community Symphony Orchestra, Orchard Park Symphony, and Erie County Wind Ensemble. As a bassoonist, he is a founding member of the Metropolitan Woodwind Quintet, the "Reed My Lips" Double Reed Ensemble, BSNQ (a bassoon quartet/quintet). As a free-lance bassoonist and contrabassoonist he has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Erie Philharmonic (PA) orchestras. He also founded Clarinets Unleashed!, a clarinet ensemble, where he plays contrabass clarinet. He was principal bassoonist with the American Legion Band of the Tonawanda's Post 264 for 41 years.

He has been bassoon soloist with BNCB, the American Legion Band, the Cheektowaga Community Symphony, the Erie County Wind Ensemble, Hamburg Village Band, and Orchard Park Symphony in addition to contrabassoon soloist with the Hamburg Village Band and Buffalo Niagara Band. He has performed professionally on bassoon and contrabassoon with the Erie (PA) Philharmonic and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras. In November 2013, he performed the premiere of his own wind band arrangement of the first movement of Stephen Frost’s Bassoon Concerto with the Buffalo Niagara Concert Band and performed it again at the Association of Concert Bands National Convention in Allentown, PA in March 2014.

Professional affiliations include the National Association for Music Education and New York State School Music Association (NAfME/NYSSMA), the American Federation of Musicians, and the International Double Reed Society. He is also a NYSSMA certified All-State Woodwind Adjudicator.

Pam has been a member of ACB for 20 years and is honored to serve on the ACB board. She resides in her hometown, Quincy, Illinois. She received her B.S. at Quincy University and did her graduate work at the University of Iowa where she was a member of the Univ. of Iowa Symphony Band that experienced a 3 month State Department sponsored concert tour of Europe and Russia (8 countries & 36 concerts). A music educator (grades 4-12 & adjunct college) for 46 years, Pam is retired but continues to be actively involved teaching and performing clarinet and alto sax and plays euphonium in the Salvation Army Brass Band. Pam is Conductor Emeritus of the Quincy Park Band having been it’s Conductor for 20 years and associate conductor for eight years prior. Pam and the Quincy Park Band hosted the ACB Convention in 2005. In 2011 she was named the first recipient of the ACB Outstanding Conductor Award. She also was the Conductor of the NABBA award winning Mississippi River Brass Band, and conducted the Junior Honors Symphonic Bands in the New England Region Sousa National Honor Band, 2009 in Harvard, Massachusetts and 2014 in Gorham, Maine. She holds memberships in the Women Band Directors International, the Illinois Music Educators Association, National Association for Music Education, the National Catholic Band Association in which she has served two terms as President, and the John Philip Sousa Board of Directors. In 2004 she received the Studs Terkel Humanities Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.

Robert Pouliot is celebrating his 25th year as Music Director of the City of Fairfax Band Association and conductor of the Association’s flagship ensemble, the City of Fairfax Band (CFB). During this time, CFB has released four compact discs, secured appearances of world- renowned guest artists, commissioned multiple works by noted American composers and instituted the band’s annual Young Artist Competition, which to date has awarded more than $30,000 in scholarships to young Northern Virginia musicians.
Under his leadership, the City of Fairfax Band was invited to perform for the 1996 national convention of the National Band Association and the 2014 ACB Convention in Allentown, PA and hosted the 2002 Association of Concert Bands Convention in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2004, the City of Fairfax Band was awarded the John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Silver Scroll Award. In a commitment to expanding community music opportunities and recognizing the organization’s relationship to educational activities, his term as Music Director has seen the City of Fairfax Band Association grow to include two adult ensembles, multiple smaller satellite ensembles and a youth winds division.
A Rhode Island native, Pouliot received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he studied conducting with Larry Rachleff, Gene Young, and Jerome Laszloffy. In 1984, he founded Connecticut’s Northeast Chamber Ensemble, a group dedicated to performing works written for chamber winds and small orchestral ensembles. Accepting a commission in the U.S. Air Force in 1986, he served as a band officer and spent the next seven years conducting Air Force concert and jazz bands on community and international relations tours in 15 states and in Central and South America. He served as Deputy Commander of the Military Airlift Command Band, Commander/Conductor of the Air Force Band of the East and Executive Officer of The United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. His time in the Air Force included a nationally televised performance on ABC’s Good Morning America celebrating the Fourth of July, and performances honoring former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. His military decorations include the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.
He is a recipient of the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence and in 2015 was honored with the “John Mason Arts Achievement Award” which recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the development of the arts within the City of Fairfax, Virginia community. In 2018 he was awarded the Association of Concert Bands Outstanding Conductor Award.
Bob and his wife, Louise, split their time between their home in Alexandria, Virginia and their new home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Colonel Thomas Rotondi, Jr. retired from the United States Army in 2011 following a distinguished 34-year military career culminating as the eighth Leader and Commander of The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, DC. Originally from Chicago Heights, Illinois, Colonel Rotondi holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California. While at Millikin University, Colonel Rotondi was active in Phi Mu Alpha and was selected for Pi Kappa Lambda Honorary Music Fraternity.

Colonel Rotondi joined the United States Army as a trumpet player in 1977. He received his commission in 1982 through Officer Candidate School, where he was an honor graduate. Prior to his assignment in Washington, DC, Colonel Rotondi held multiple assignments including staff conductor and administrative intern, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth, Texas (as part of the Army’s “Training with Industry” program); Commander/ Conductor, United States Continental Army Band, Fort Monroe, Virginia; Commander/Conductor, United States Army, Europe, Band and Chorus, Heidelberg, Germany; and Commander/Conductor of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York.

Colonel Rotondi performed at numerous national events including the State Funeral for President Gerald R. Ford and the first inauguration for President Barack Obama. Colonel Rotondi has also conducted throughout Europe as well as Japan and China. He holds the distinction of being the first United States military band officer to conduct the Peoples Liberation Army Band in Beijing, China.

Colonel Rotondi studied conducting with Eiji Oue, Conductor Laureate of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, and with John Giordano, Conductor Emeritus of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He twice attended the Conductor’s Seminar at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) where the faculty included Seiji Ozawa, Maurice Abravanel, and Gustav Meier.

Colonel Rotondi was elected to membership into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in 2004, was awarded the Alumni Merit Award from Millikin University in 2007 and was inducted into the Bloom Township High School Hall of Fame in 2010. Besides serving on the Board of Directors for the Association of Concert Bands, Colonel Rotondi also serves as the Advisor to the Director for the Music At The Summit Adult Band Institute in Breckenridge, Colorado and continues to serve on the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Colonel George S. Howard Award Committee.

Colonel Rotondi and his wife, Karen, retired to Kingsport, Tennessee, where he remains active as a freelance conductor, musical consultant and clinician. 

Tom Seaton 
Roseville, CA
e-mail
2020-2022
*appointed to complete term

Tom Seaton has been the music director of the Rancho Cordova River City Concert Band since 2003. He is a 1990 graduate of California State University Northridge. As a performance major, he studied clarinet with Dr. Charles Bay and performed under the batons of Dr. David Whitwell and Mr. Gary Pratt.

Mr. Seaton earned his Master of Science in Arts and Letters Degree in 1998 through the American Band College at Southern Oregon University. Through ABC, Mr. Seaton has had the opportunity to play under the batons of Dr. Frederick Fennell, Dr. Alfred Reed, Elliot Del Borgo, Frank Erickson, Robert W. Smith, Col. Arnald Gabriel, Dr. Peter Loel Boonshaft, Col John R. Bourgeois (former US Marine Band conductor) and other European composers such as Johan de Meij, Jan van der Roost and Australian Composer Ralph Hultgren. He has also had the opportunity to work with Michael Levine and the Dallas Brass for the Nutcracker Project in 1999. Tom was co-chairman of the committee for the Rancho Cordova River City Concert Band in hosting the 37 th Annual Association of Concert Bands convention held in Rancho Cordova and in May of 2018, Tom was a clinician at the 40th anniversary convention for the Association of Concert Bands teaching on small ensembles. Most recently Tom has been a member of the ACB Convention Committee, helping design, create and launch the ACB Connects! Live Zoom presentations. Mr. Seaton has been a music educator since 1990 and is currently teaching 7-12th grade music at Creative Connections Arts Academy in North Highlands, CA.

Beth Steele began her musical career playing the violin and piano and later switched to trumpet after hearing a Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performance of "Pictures at an Exhibition" with legendary principal trumpet Adolph "Bud" Herseth. Beth earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Trumpet Performance and a Master of Music in Conducting from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

After receiving her commission in 1988, Beth began a stellar conducting career in the US Army. From the White House to Carnegie Hall, Moscow's Red Square, London's Horse Guards Parade Ground, Arlington National Cemetery, New York City's "Ground Zero" and everything in between, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Beth Steele was honored to lead professional Army musicians in performances and witness first-hand, the tremendous power of music to inspire, reassure, exhilarate, influence and unite people. During her last assignment in Europe, Beth developed enduring partnerships with European musicians and was awarded the German government's highest peacetime award of the "Silver Cross of Honor." It was during her time in Europe that Beth was poignantly reminded of the enduring and universal nature of music. She returned to the US committed to ensuring that community music, especially community bands, remain a vital part of our national fabric. To this end, she started Music at the Summit an Adult Band Institute, with professional staff leading sectionals, rehearsals and master classes. The Institute was a rousing success and she intends to improve and expand it to include even more musical opportunities.

Beth recently retired from the Army and she and her husband, Mike, also a retired military musician, live in Breckenridge where she is an advocate for community music. Beth currently conducts the Summit Concert Band, the Summit Community Orchestra, the Alpine Orchestra, teaches trumpet, and enjoys biking and hiking with their dog, Mocha.

The ACB has been a big part of Jan's life for 30 years. She has attended all but two conventions and served three board terms and will begin her fourth at VA Beach Convention. As a Life Member, I believe in the organization and promote it consistently. At several conventions Turnage established and led the Round Table Clinics which were well received. Turnage is a Regional Membership Chair for AZ and UT. For over 36 years she helped organize and manage several community bands including the Plano Concert Band, the San Jose Wind Symphony and am co-founder of the Coastal Communities Concert Band. I have also set up groups for nonprofit status, bylaws, handbooks, and worked with directors and Marketing/Board to prepare new seasons. As Executive Director of the San Jose Wind Symphony, I submitted information for the Sudler Silver Scroll Award, performances at WASBE in Switzerland and San Jose, CA and three performances at ACB conventions. My duties also included planning many seasons of five to six formal concerts per year, and contracting all guest artists. I truly believe in music for life!