David Bessinger has taught at Southwestern since 1984. He holds degrees from Baylor University and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where his teachers included past Percussive Arts Society Presidents, Larry Vanlandingham and Thomas Siwe. His teaching areas include applied percussion, percussion ensemble, music theory and music of the Twentieth Century. He is a past President of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society and has hosted the State Convention on three occasions. Guest artists for those events included Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout and Nancy Zeltsman of Marimolin. Other guest artists appearing on campus in conjunction with SWOSU’s annual Jazz Festival have included drum set artists Ed Soph and Steve Houghton. The percussion studio at SWOSU centers on the study of keyboard percussion. In addition, students learn all the percussion instruments through study in the studio and participation in orchestra, jazz ensembles, wind ensemble and the university drum line. The percussion ensemble focuses on a variety of styles and genres including keyboard percussion ensemble literature, traditional percussion ensemble works as well as rhythmic improvisation on hand percussion instruments. David Bessinger has attended numerous seminars and conferences including the Leigh Howard Stevens Summer Marimba Seminar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the Berklee Keyboard Percussion Festival in Boston, Massachusetts and the North Texas Summer Drum Set Seminar. He is currently in the later stages of completing the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Oklahoma. His research document will focus on the genre of marimba solo with percussion ensemble accompaniment. Bessinger has performed as concerto soloist with the SWOSU wind ensemble on several occasions. The latest performance featured a SWOSU commission from composer David Gillingham titled Concerto for Marimba and Wind Ensemble. SWOSU’s Dr. James South conducted the performance. David Bessinger is married to elementary music specialist and Weatherford Public School music teacher Marti Bessinger, a past President of the Oklahoma Orff Chapter. They have two children, Nicholas and Alexander.