Mark
Collins, Director
Mark
Collins, Director
Mark Collins is currently serving in his seventeenth year as Director of Bands at John S. Battle High School in Bristol, Virginia. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Tennessee Tech University in 1986 and his Master of Education degree in Education with a minor in music from Milligan College in May of 2007. While at Tennessee Tech, Mr. Collins studied percussion with the late Joseph Rasmussen and composition with Robert Jager. In addition, he studied composition privately with Aaron Copland.
Following graduation, he served as band director at Hillwood High School, Hume-Fogg Magnet High School and McGavock High School of the Metro-Nashville school system in Nashville, Tennessee. While in Nashville, Mr. Collins’ ensembles consistently received superior ratings in sight-reading and on stage performance at state concert festivals. On the marching field, his students achieved national recognition winning the Grand Championships at the Bands of America Southern Regional Competition and placing 10th at the BOA National Competition. While at McGavock, the marching band was named Tennessee State Champions and Reserve Grand Champion at the prestigious Contest of Champions at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and appeared in the 1990 National Toyota Television Campaign.
At John Battle High School, Mr. Collins's concert bands have received superior ratings 15 of 17 years in sight-reading and on stage performance at state concert festivals. This achievement has qualified them as a Virginia Honor Band on multiple occasions. On the marching field, the Battle band has won ten Grand Championships and 56 First and Second Place Caption Awards during the past 17 years.
The John S. Battle High School Band has established a national reputation of musical achievement and accomplishment. During the band's history they have performed two concert tours of Hawaii that included performances at the Arizona Memorial and USS Bowfin Memorial. In addition, the band has performed in the United Nations Building Grand Hall in New York City, the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Martin Luther King Memorial Park, Chicago Concert Band Invitational, and the Star Spangled Banner at a Baltimore Orioles baseball game and numerous national concert festivals where they received superior ratings. His concert groups have performed with U.S. Navy Band (ret.) principal saxophonist Dale Underwood and the Battle Percussion Ensemble has performed with legendary jazz drummer Joe Morrello.
Mr. Collins is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Music Educators' National Conference, Virginia Music Educators Association, National Band Association, Percussive Arts Society, National Education Association, Virginia Education Association, and Washington County Education Association. He has been nominated by students and recognized two times in the WHO'S WHO AMONG AMERICA'S TEACHERS and once as a WHO’S WHO WORLDWIDE REGISTRY of BUSINESS LEADERS. He has served as a clinician and adjudicator in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. He is happily married and has two sons.