Dwayne S. Milburn composer / arranger

Dwayne S. Milburn (b. 1963) is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He received his B.F.A. in Music from UCLA in 1986, his M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1992, and his Ph.D. in Composition from UCLA in 2009.

During his undergraduate career, Mr. Milburn was an arranger for the UCLA Band and Choral Programs. Additionally, he worked for the Special Projects Division of ABC-TV as an arranger. Upon graduation he became the Director of Cadet Music for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Among his many duties, he served as the conductor for the internationally renowned West Point Glee Club, leading that group in performances at some of the finest concert halls in the country, including Carnegie Hall, Myerson Hall, and the Kennedy Center. During his studies in Cleveland, he contributed several arrangements to the Cleveland Orchestra.

In 1992, Mr. Milburn entered the United States Army Band Program as one of twenty-four commissioned officer conductors. His duty stations included Fort Monroe, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Heidelberg, Germany. He concluded his military career as the Commander and Conductor of the Army Ground Forces Band in Atlanta, Georgia, having reached the rank of Major.

Mr. Milburn is active as a composer, conductor, and adjudicator. His choral and wind ensemble compositions are published by Alfred, Ludwig Masters, and the Neil A. Kjos Music Company. In addition to his duties as Composer- in-Residence for the St. Matthew’s Music Guild, his works have been performed by some of the finest collegiate and professional ensembles in the nation. Two of his works for band, American Hymnsong Suite and Variations on St. Patrick’s Breastplate, are featured in Volume Six of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, edited by Dr. Eugene Corporon. In 2002, Mr. Milburn conducted the Kennedy Center’s Annual Messiah Sing-Along, and he has acted as an adjudicator for the Conductor’s Art Workshop, co-hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin National Guard Band.