Keith

Dodson

Assistant Professor of Music
Director of Instrumental Studies

Keith Dodson is the Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Studies at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. He is also the Music Director and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley, a professional orchestra based in Lindsborg. Dr. Dodson completed the Ph.D. in Music Education with an emphasis in Orchestral Conducting at the Florida State University College of Music, where he concurrently completed the Specialized Study in Music Theory Pedagogy program.
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Dodson earned a selection as a conducting fellow at the Conductor's Institute in South Carolina, directed by Dr. Donald Portnoy. He was a conducting participant in the College Orchestra Directors Association's Conducting Masterclass with Bruce Hangen in Boston, Massachusetts. Since the summer of 2021, Dodson has served on the orchestral conducting faculty at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan. He was a finalist for the American Prize in Collegiate Orchestral Conducting for the 2021 to 2022 academic year and is a finalist for the American Prize in Professional Orchestral Conducting for the 2023 to 2024 academic year. In the fall of 2022, Dodson was a guest conductor for the University Symphony Orchestra at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. His conducting teachers include Alexander Jiménez, Michael J. Garasi, and Joseph Kreines. As a proponent of new music, Dodson has conducted works by Michael Gordon, Victoria Bond, James Primosch, Richard Maltz, Avner Dorman, Ash Stemke, Aaron Houston, Brian Junttila, and Eunseon Yu. Before his higher education career, he held secondary instrumental positions at Space Coast Junior/Senior High School and Matanzas High School in Central Florida.
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At Bethany College, Prof. Dodson serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Bethany College/Lindsborg Symphonic Orchestra. This ensemble blends Bethany students, all-district-level local high school students, and community members who perform in local regional orchestras. He is the founding music director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley (COSV). Members of the COSV include faculty members from Kansas State University, the University of Oregon, Oklahoma City University, the University of Kansas, and personnel from the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony. Dodson is a coordinator for the adjunct instrumental faculty and instructor of conducting and secondary instrumental methods and materials for middle and high school bands and orchestras. As an active clinician, Dodson has conducted the Southwestern/Northwestern Kansas Music Educator's Association (KMEA) Orchestra, the East Central KMEA Blue Orchestra, the South Central KMEA Orchestra, the Kansas City Metro District #3 String Orchestra, the Wichita All City Orchestra, and numerous middle school and high school bands and orchestras throughout the state of Kansas.
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Dodson earned Bachelor's degrees in Music Performance and Music Education from the University of Central Florida, Orlando. He completed a Master's in Music Education from the Florida State University, Tallahassee. Dodson is an active member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), KMEA, the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), and Pi Kappa Lambda.