Title
- Associate Director of Bands
Dr. Craig Aarhus is Associate Director of Bands and Professor of Music at Mississippi State University. At MSU, he co-directs the Famous Maroon Band and basketball pep bands, conducts Wind Ensemble B, Concert Band, and Campus Band, and teaches Conducting and Brass Techniques in the Department of Music. He also serves as area coordinator for Music Education. As a member of the band faculty, Dr. Aarhus has been part of a leadership team that has guided the band program through a period of unprecedented growth, making it one of the largest collegiate band programs in the Southeast.
A native of Alabama, Dr. Aarhus earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Auburn University and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Conducting from The University of Iowa. While at Iowa, he was a recipient of the prestigious Iowa Performance Fellowship and studied conducting with Dr. Myron Welch. His graduate responsibilities included serving as conductor of the university concert bands, arranging music and writing drill for the Hawkeye Marching Band, and co-directing the Iowa Pep Band. During this time, he also served for one year as director of the Southeast Iowa Concert Band at Iowa Wesleyan College. Prior to his appointment at Mississippi State, Dr. Aarhus was a successful middle school and high school band director in Lanett, Tallassee, and Mobile, Alabama.
Dr. Aarhus is an active member of several professional organizations, including the College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Tau Beta Sigma, and the Mississippi Bandmasters Association. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Band Association and on the International Board of Phi Beta Mu Bandmasters Fraternity. He previously served for ten years as Governor of the Southeast District of Kappa Kappa Psi. Dr. Aarhus has worked extensively as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the Southeast, the Midwest, and Canada, and is a contributing author to five volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. He has presented at numerous state and national conferences, including The Midwest Clinic, the CBDNA Summer Athletic Band Symposium, and the Mississippi Bandmasters Association State Band Clinic.
In the summer of 2024, Dr. Aarhus served on the staff of the D-Day 80th Anniversary Collegiate Mass Band, helping lead commemorative performances in the Normandy region of France. He will return to a similar role in 2026, assisting with performances in Hawaii for the 85th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He has also been named music director of the 2026 Rural All-Star Band, which will perform in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Dr. Aarhus was selected as the 2022 “Outstanding Bandmaster” in Mississippi by the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, and in 2019 the Southeast District of Kappa Kappa Psi named its Outstanding Director/Sponsor Award in his honor. Additional recognitions include the A. Frank Martin Award for excellence in fraternity service (2017), the Clyde Muse Service Award from the MSU College of Education (2015), selection to the George Duke Humphrey Faculty Leadership Program (2015), and the Mississippi “StatePride” Award in 2010 and 2011 for excellence in teaching, research, and service. He has served as a clinician and instructor at the Smith-Walbridge Drum Major Clinics for more than 20 years, working with hundreds of high school and collegiate drum majors from across the country.
Dr. Aarhus and his family reside in Starkville and are members of First Presbyterian Church, where he has served as Music Director since 2007.