LESLIE GILREATH
is in his 23rd year as the Director of Bands at Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina where he conducts all the program’s Wind Ensembles. He is a native of Anderson, South Carolina and a graduate of Furman University where he majored in music theory and studied conducting and orchestration with Jay Bocook. He studied composition and orchestration with composers, Michael Hennagin and Carolyn Bremer at the University of Oklahoma. He has been the recipient of Citations of Excellence and Citations of Merit for Marching Excellence from the National Band Association. He is a National Board Certified Teacher, the 2011 Summerville High School Teacher of the Year and a Dorchester District Honor Teacher of the Year, currently serving as the Performing Arts Department Chair at Summerville High School. Summerville Concert Ensembles receive consistent superior ratings and have been featured at SCMEA and MENC Southern Division Conferences. The Summerville Marching Band has been a medalist in SCBDA 5A Championships twelve times since 2004 and hold six State Championships in the band’s history. The Summerville Competitive Performance Ensemble has been a Bands of America Regional and Super Regional Finalist.
Marching Bands across the US have performed his arrangements, and his works for concert band have been played world-wide and are available from C. Alan Publications. He is the President of the South Carolina Band Directors Association, a Sousa Foundation/Bandworld Magazine "Legion of Honor" laureate, a member of Phi Beta Mu, and holds professional affiliations with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA), the SCBDA, the National Band Association, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He performs with the Charleston Wind Symphony and the Poinsett Wind Symphony, and is the Brass Arranger for the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps of Denver, Colorado. Mr. Gilreath lives in Summerville with his two dogs, Kate and Eli.