Mitchell joins the School of Music as assistant director of bands / assistant director of athletic bands beginning July 1, 2017.

Tonya Mitchell, as interim director of athletic bands and assistant professor of music at Valdosta State University, directed the Blazin’ Brigade marching band, the basketball pep band, and the concert band. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music education with a minor in wind conducting from Indiana University where she had the honor of performing as a drum major with the Marching Hundred. She holds a master’s degree in music education from the University of Georgia and is currently pursuing her doctorate of musical arts in wind conducting at the University of Kansas with Dr. Paul W. Popiel.

As a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas, Mitchell conducted the wind ensemble, symphonic band, university band, percussion group, and the Helianthus new music ensemble. She also assisted with the Marching Jayhawks and directed the women’s basketball band. She was the organizer of, and guest conductor in, the Prairie Winds Honor Band Festival hosted at KU. From 2011 to 2015, she taught at Chamblee Charter High School and was a frequent adjudicator and clinician in the Atlanta area. A clarinetist, she played in the Cobb Wind Symphony, Georgia’s premiere adult wind ensemble. In 2014, she performed as a guest clarinetist and conductor with the Dekalb Youth Symphony on their tour of the Baltics through Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

Mitchell was recently selected to present at the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Wind Band at the 2016 conference in Oberwolz, Austria, on her research of Joan Tower’s Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman.