Josh Byrd

Josh Byrd serves as Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of West Georgia. His primary responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble, teaching conducting and music education courses, and supervising student teachers. Prior to his appointment he served as the band director at Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin and assistant band director at Lanier Middle School and Norcross High School in Gwinnett County.

Dr. Byrd received a DMA in Conducting from the University of Georgia where he studied with John Lynch and minored in Music Theory. He received his Master of Music degree in Conducting while studying with Tom Dvorak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Georgia where he studied saxophone with Kenneth Fischer and conducting with Dwight Satterwhite and John Culvahouse.

Dr. Byrd is an active clinician, having presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, CBDNA National Conference, and multiple times at the GMEA annual in-service conference, including 2018 as the conductor of the UWG Wind Ensemble for the group’s first performance there in over twenty years. In 2020, the Wind Ensemble performed at the CBDNA Southern Division Conference for the first time in the program’s history. He is also a published arranger; his most recent works include Beethoven’s “Opus 103b” and Wiggin’s March Timpani (Maestro and Fox Music, 2020) and Chabrier’s España Rhapsody (C. Alan Publications, 2021). He also serves as conductor of the West Georgia Winds, a regional high school honor band.

Dr. Byrd lives in Carrollton with his wife, Katie, and their two children, Tripp and Haley.