Glenn Hawkins

1966 -

Glenn Hawkins, conductor and trumpet player, has taught for over twenty years at four academies in the Seventh-day Adventist school system, teaching students in both instrumental and vocal ensembles. An active performer, he has also played in community and church groups wherever he has taught.

Glenn grew up in a family that valued participation in music activities. Accordingly, his parents insisted he start piano in first grade, and in the fifth grade he began studying trumpet with William Cemer. He continued trumpet throughout his grade school years and while attending Collegedale Academy, studying with Bruce Wilson, Robert Cangelosi, and Robert Bolton.

Following graduation from CA in 1985, Glenn enrolled as a music major at Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists, now Southern Adventist University, where he studied with Pat Silver and worked as her assistant for the next five years. He regards her as a primary mentor in his training and growth as a musician and an important role model in his learning how to run a music program.

He also studied trumpet under Larry Black from the Atlanta Symphony and conducting with Marvin Robertson and Orlo Gilbert while at SAU and later with James Jordan at Westminster Choir College. As an undergraduate student he was extensively involved in both university and community music groups.

Following completion of a B.Mus.Ed. at SAU in 1990, Hawkins started teaching at Gem State Academy in Idaho. He then taught at Highland Academy in Tennessee for fourteen years. During that time, he toured extensively with his groups, produced six Broadway musicals at the school with complete orchestration and staging, and hosted the annual Kentucky-Tennessee Conference Music Festival.

While at HA Hawkins also pursued graduate study at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Virginia, where he completed a master's degree in music in 2002. While there he studied under Deen Entsminger of Belmont University and Col. L. Bryan Shelburne, Jr., (Ret.) of the U.S. Army (Pershing’s Own) Band.

Following his tenure at Highland Academy he spent four years teaching band and elementary music at Spring Valley Academy in Ohio. While at SVA he continued touring with his groups and recorded two CDs. In 2012 he accepted a position at Bass Memorial Academy in Mississippi, where is teaching music and computers.

Hawkins recently observed,

I count as my most treasured teaching reward the many students that have come to enjoy their musical experience and love for using music to worship our Creator God. I look forward to the day when all my family, friends and students can join in musical praise before the throne of God in heaven.

ds/2013

Sources: Information provided by Glenn Hawkins, 2007; 9 July 2012; 26 April 2013.