Directors and Staff

Steve Barnett
Director of Bands

Steve Barnett is currently the Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Marshall University. He directs the "Marching Thunder” Marching Band, where he also serves as music arranger and drill designer and the Marshall University Wind Symphony.  Mr. Barnett also serves as Coordinator of  Music Education.  He teaches arranging, graduate conducting, and other music education courses at Marshall University.

Mr. Barnett received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Mississippi and a Masters of Music Education degree from Mississippi College. He has held band directing positions in Mississippi at the University of Mississippi, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Madison, Forest, Oxford, Newton and Pearl High Schools, and has served music education in the state for 24 years. He has served as President of the Mississippi Junior and Community College Band Director Association and  as Editor on the Phi Beta Mu International Board. Mr. Barnett is also a member of the College Band Directors National Association and has served as President of the Copiah-Lincoln Education Association. While Director of Bands at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, he received the HEADWAE Award (Higher Education Appreciation Day: Working for Academic Excellence) for most outstanding instructor and was honored by the Mississippi Legislature.

Mr. Barnett is an active adjudicator and clinician throughout the southeast and mid-west and is currently a staff arranger for Jalen Publishing Company of Orlando, FL where he currently has 15 marching band arrangements published.

Dr. Ben Miller
Assistant Band Director

Ben F. Miller is Professor of Music at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, where he serves as Assistant Band Director and Percussion Instructor.  Dr. Miller also conducts the Marshall University Symphonic Band and is a member of the M.U. Jazz Faculty.

A native of Joliet, Illinois, he received his B.M.E. degree from Indiana University and M.A. and D.M.A. degrees from the University of Iowa.  Dr. Miller teaches applied percussion, teaches percussion techniques classes for music education students and conducts the Symphonic Band.  Dr. Miller is the former Timpanist and Principal Percussionist with the Cedar Rapids (IA) and West Virginia Symphonies and serves in a similar capacity with the Huntington Symphony and Pops Orchestras.  He is the founder and leader of the “Flat Baroque (mostly) Marimba Quartet.”  Dr. Miller is the drummer for the Marshall University Faculty Jazz Ensemble “Bluetrane.”  As a freelance performer, Ben is active in the tri-state region of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.  A popular guest artist, conductor, clinician and adjudicator Dr. Miller has presented concerts and clinics throughout the United States.  Many elementary school students know Ben as “Professor Boom Boom” who demonstrates his unique collection of percussion instruments from around the world and addresses the similarities of various cultures through percussion instruments and rhythm.  He is associated with the Pearl Drum, Sabian Cymbal, Mike Balter Mallet, Pro-Mark Drum Stick companies as a clinician and consultant.  He is Past President of the West Virginia Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society (P.A.S.) and is a member of the International P.A.S. Education and University Pedagogy Committees.  He is also the West Virginia Chairperson for the National Band Association and is a member of MENC, IAJE, the American Federation of Musicians and the Central States Judging Association.