Dr. Stephen P. Bolstad has served as the Director of Bands and Professor of Wind Conducting at James Madison University since Fall 2007. In addition to overseeing the University’s comprehensive band program, his specific duties include conducting the JMU Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, teaching courses in wind literature/conducting, and leading the Masters and Doctoral program in Wind Conducting. Under Dr. Bolstad’s direction the JMU band program has hosted a number of guest composer residencies and received accolades from composers David Maslanka, John Mackey, Don Freund, Michael Daugherty, Joel Puckett, Daniel McCarthy and Brian Balmages. Recently Dr. Bolstad has lead consortium premieres of Maslanka’s Symphony No. 8, Puckett’s The Shadows of Sirius, and Anthony Plog’s Concerto 2010.

From 1994-2007, Dr. Bolstad was the Director of Bands at The University of Montana.  Under his direction the Symphonic Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the College Band Directors National Association’s Northwest/Western Divisional Conference in 1996 and 2006, and the MENC Northwest Conference in 2001 (Spokane, WA) and 2005 (Bellevue, WA). In 2004 Dr. Bolstad was named the University of Montana School of Fine Arts Distinguished Faculty Awardee. Prior to Montana, Dr. Bolstad held similar positions in Alabama at both The University of Montevallo Livingston University, and he was the Director of Bands at St. Marys Area High School in St. Marys, Pennsylvania.

Steve Bolstad holds the Doctor of Music Arts degree in Conducting from The University of Texas at Austin, the Master of Music degree from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. He has studied conducting with Jerry Junkin (Texas), Rodney Winther (Ithaca), and Stanley Michalski (Clarion).

Dr. Bolstad is very active as a guest conductor having conducted district, regional and all-state festivals throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, he has conducted bands at summer events such as MusiCamp Alberta and Red Lodge Music Festival. He also maintains a very active schedule as an adjudicator and clinician. Dr. Bolstad is a Past-President of the Montana Bandmasters Association and is currently the state president of the Virginia Chapter of the College Band Directors National Association.  Dr. Bolstad is a member of VMEA, MENC, CBDNA and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.