John Climer, DMA
John Climer is director of university bands and professor of music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. At UW-Milwaukee, John oversees all aspects of the band program, guides the graduate wind conducting area, and serves as conductor of the Wind Ensemble, the University’s premiere wind band. Before his appointment in Milwaukee, he served for 14 years as director of bands at Ohio University.
As a guest conductor and clinician, Dr. Climer has led performances at numerous festivals, universities and concert venues including the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Eastman School of Music, the Rocky Mountain Music Festival (Banff, Alberta) and the Conservatorio di Musica in Salerno, Italy. Ensembles under his direction have performed for four conferences of the College Band Directors National Association including the 2013 National Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, the North Dakota Music Educators Association, five conferences of the Ohio Music Educators Association, the Wisconsin State Music Conference, and the Society of Composers Inc. In July of 2015, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wind Ensemble performed at the 16th International Conference of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in San Jose, CA. John is the recipient of three university teaching awards from Ohio University and the University of Akron, and he was recently elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.
