KU appoints new director of athletic bands

LAWRENCE - Kansas University has appointed James G. Hudson as the university's new director of KU Marching Band and Athletic Bands.

Hudson, who leaves 11 years with Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, is excited about embracing KU traditions. "We're going to ride on the traditions of the program, and we're going to try to build and improve on those traditions," he told the Lawrence Journal-World in a recent interview.

Hudson also has his eye on boosting enrollment with the KU marching band. At Southwest Texas State, Hudson increased the Bobcat Marching Band's enrollment from 128 in 1992 to 340 in 1998.

"Jim Hudson has that rare quality of being able to ignite a marching band to the highest level of performance," John Lynch, KU director of bands and chairman of the committee that hired Hudson, told the Journal-World. "He brings with him a wealth of experience and the ability to draw talented musicians into the program. He's a recruiting machine."

Hudson, a native of Bloomfield, Iowa, earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Northeast Missouri State University in 1980 and a master's in music education with an emphasis in conducting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1992.

In addition to Southwest Texas State, Hudson also worked as a graduate assistant in the band program at UNL, where with the help of his direction, the "Marching Red" appeared in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., and the Orange Bowl in Miami.

For more information on Hudson's appointment, the public may contact the KU Office of Music & Dance at (785) 864-3436.