Our three guest conductors are candidates for the Conductor and Artistic Director position. The Savannah Wind Symphony members and the Board of Directors wish each candidate good luck during this process.
John Madden
Conductor, trumpet player, and music arranger has been a music educator since 1985. He is an Emeritus Professor of Music in the College of Music at Michigan State University where he served on the faculty for 28 years. He maintains an active performance schedule as clinician and guest conductor with both educational and professional bands. Invitations to guest conduct have taken him across the United States, Central Europe, and to Shanghai, China. In addition to his work as a conductor, John is in demand as an adjudicator, music arranger, drill designer and trumpet player. Most recently he served as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Meridian Community Band in Okemos, Michigan.
During his 28 years at MSU (1989-2017), he served as Professor of Music, Associate Director of Bands, Director of the Spartan Marching Band, and Conductor of the MSU Symphony Band. Additionally, he taught advanced instrumental conducting at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He had previously taught courses on marching band techniques. His former music students hold successful band conducting positions at middle schools, high schools, and colleges and universities across the United States. Madden received the Dortha J. and John D. Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching, as awarded by his faculty peers, from the MSU College of Music in 2014.
Prior to his tenure at MSU, Madden served from 1987 to 1989 as Associate Director of Bands at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He received his Master of Music Education and Master of Wind Conducting degrees from Wichita State University in 1987 and is a 1985 graduate of the Michigan State University College of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music Education degree.
Madden was inducted into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in March of 2008. He has presented scholarly workshops and clinics for the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Drum Corps International (DCI), and numerous state music education association conferences. For 15 summers, he served as the resident conductor of the Symphony Band at the New England Music Camp (NEMC) in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine.
John and his wife Shelly moved to Savannah in May of 2022. He has been performing with the Savannah Wind Symphony as a member of the trumpet section since January of 2023.
David Carbone
David Carbone has over 30 years of experience in music education, including a 25-year career as a band director at the high school and collegiate levels in Florida, Ohio, Texas, and South Carolina. Carbone holds a Master’s degree in Wind Band Conducting from The University of South Florida, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Miami.
Throughout his career, ensembles under Carbone’s leaderships have excelled and consistently received the highest ratings on the concert stage and in sight-reading at performance evaluations in multiple states. His marching ensembles have been consistently named finalists at Bands of America (BOA) Regional and Super Regional Championships in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Texas. Carbone served as the Associate Director of Bands (2007-2011) and Director of Bands (2011-2015) at James Martin High School in Texas, where his concert ensembles earned the University Interscholastic League (UIL) “Sweepstakes” Award eight years consecutively. In addition, the Martin High School Wind Ensemble received an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in 2015, and the Symphony Orchestra was recognized as the Texas UIL Honor Orchestra “Runner-Up” in 2014. Before his tenure at Martin, Carbone served as visiting professor and interim band director at the University of Texas at Arlington (2006-2007). At Belbrook High School in Ohio (2001-2006), Carbone led the Marching Eagles to two BOA Grand National Class Championships (A/AA), five consecutive Semi-Finals top-20 appearances and the Bronze Medal at the Winter Guard International Percussion World Championships in the Scholastic Open division.
Recently “retired” from public education, Carbone enjoys an active schedule as a band clinician, program consultant, composer and arranger while serving as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lowcountry Community Concert Band, an affiliate of the University of South Carolina at Beaufort. He is an active adjudicator of Bands of America and Drum Corps International where he has served on numerous national and world championships judging panels since 2002. He resides in the beautiful Lowcountry/Hilton Head Island area of South Carolina in the city of Bluffton with his wife, Carrie, son Beckett, daughter Jordan, and dogs Owen and Leo.
David Elliott
David Elliott has been active in the Savannah music community for the past twenty-two years. While his main gig remains Jazz Band Director at Savannah Country Day School, he has played regularly in various local ensembles including The Savannah Jazz Orchestra. He has also been called upon to make many performances happen by helping to coordinate venues, sound, and available instruments. His professional music career began while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. There he studied conducting with John Paynter, Frederick Fennell, Karel Husa, and Fischer Tull. He was the only undergraduate to ever win the Honors Conducting Competition. His teaching career began in 1982 in Wheaton, Illinois, and he later took his talents to the warmer climates of Kentucky and South Carolina. Over the years, his concert and marching bands have won state and national honors. Many of his former students have pursued music professionally as performers and directors. Mr. Elliott has played in the trombone section for many years with the Savannah Wind Symphony.