Honor Band Festival

Our Guest Conductor: Mark Collins

Mark Collins currently serves as director of bands at John S. Battle High School in Bristol, Virginia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Tennessee Tech University, a Master of Education from Milligan University, and an Education Specialist degree in administration from Lincoln Memorial University.
In percussion, his teachers and mentors have included Joseph Rasmussen, Joe Morello, and Arnie Lang. In composition, he studied under Robert Jager and Aaron Copland.

In addition to teaching in public schools, Collins has served as an adjunct faculty member for Vanderbilt University Bands and as coordinator of percussion studies at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Prior to his tenure at John S. Battle High School, he was band director at Hillwood High School, Hume-Fogg Magnet High School, and McGavock High School in the Metro-Nashville school system in Nashville, Tennessee.

He is a Sabian and Innovative Percussion educator artist and serves on the Virginia/D.C. Percussive Arts State Board.
The John S. Battle High School Band has established a reputation for excellence, consistently receiving superior ratings in both marching and concert assessments. The Battle Band has been named a Virginia Honor Band on multiple occasions and consistently places more than 40 students in the Virginia Band Association District Honor Band, as well as students in the Virginia All-State Band.

Throughout its history, the band has performed at the Virginia Music Educators Conference, the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition, and both the National Middle School and Virginia Middle School conferences. Collins’s students have earned coveted spots in the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band and the Macy’s Great American Honor Marching Band. His ensembles have performed with U.S. Navy Band (ret.) principal saxophonist Dale Underwood, jazz trombonist Rick Simmerly, and the Battle Percussion Ensemble has collaborated with renowned jazz drummer Joe Morello and marimba soloist She-e Wu.

Collins remains active as a performer, having played in the percussion section of the Symphony of the Mountains and the Milligan Orchestra. He is co-founder and co-conductor of the State Line Wind Symphony community band and is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician.
He is a member of NAfME, VMEA, NBA, NEA, Phi Beta Mu, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He has been nominated by students and recognized twice in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, selected as Virginia’s representative at the Harvard National Educational Symposium, named a quarter-finalist for the Grammy Teacher Award, and honored as a Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Fellow.

He and his wife, Melinda, reside in Kingsport, Tennessee, and are parents to two sons.