KU announces new director for Midwestern Music Camps

LAWRENCE -- The Midwestern Music Camps at the University of Kansas will continue offering important learning opportunities for young musicians under a new director, and the camps' former director will assume new responsibilities, Larry Mallett, chair of the Department of Music and Dance, announced recently.

James Hudson, director of athletic bands and director of the Jayhawk Marching Band, will become director of the Midwestern Music Camps. David Bushouse, professor of music and former director of the Midwestern Music Camps, will become associate chair of music and dance. Internal searches were conducted for both positions.

Hudson is in his first year at KU. Previously he was director of bands at Southwest Texas State University. Hudson has 11 years of administrative experience with the Southwest Texas Band Camp series.

With departmental enrollment of approximately 550 majors and 60 faculty, Bushouse's primary responsibilities will be coordinating the undergraduate programs and the department's facilities in Murphy Hall and Robinson Education Center.

Russell L. Wiley began the Midwestern Music Camps in 1936. The camp established a national reputation by the time he retired in 1974. Today it is the second-oldest music camp in the country.

Bushouse was director of the camps for 24 years. During that time the Midwestern Music Camps added piano classes; the Piano Academy; the Organ Academy; classes in MIDI computers; conducting; jazz improvisation; brass and woodwind quintets; string and saxophone quartets; and the percussion ensemble. The camps attract 900 students from 30 states in junior high and senior high sessions, with two orchestras in both sessions, as well as several bands, jazz ensembles and choirs. The KU Jazz Workshop and the KU Marching Band Camps also are a part of the Midwestern Music Camps.