Dr. James South

James South is a Professor of Music and the Director of Bands at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma, where he has taught since 1995. His duties include conducting the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and Community Band, directing the Marching Bulldogs and the Wild Dawgs Basketball Pep Band, teaching Conducting and Instrumental Methods courses, teaching Applied Trumpet, and supervising student teachers and first-year teacher residency programs.  He is currently the Immediate Past President of the Oklahoma Music Educators Association (OMEA) and is Past President of the SWOSU Faculty Senate.

He holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northwestern University and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of North Texas. His conducting teachers have included Fred Ockwell, John Paynter, and Anshel Brusilow. He has studied trumpet with Vincent Cichowicz, Leonard Candelaria, John Haynie, and Richard Giangiulio.  As a professional trumpeter, he has performed extensively with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Dallas Ballet and Opera Orchestras, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Sinfonia da Camera of Illinois. As a conductor, he has worked with all-region and honor bands in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma and is a respected clinician and adjudicator for high school and middle school bands.

His teaching experience includes three years as a band director in the Irving (TX) school district, two years as a Visiting Lecturer in Trumpet at the University of Illinois, and five years as an Assistant Professor at Emporia State University in Kansas, where he served for three years as Director of Jazz Studies and two years as conductor of the bands and orchestras and Director of Instrumental Activities. He has an active interest in Music Technology and founded the Hendricks Music Computer Laboratory at Emporia State. He is a frequent presenter of computer workshops, ranging from music sequencing and notation to marching drill charting programs for music educators.  At Southwestern, he planned and manages the 12-station Music Computer Lab which opened in spring 2000. 

Dr. South is married to Janis, a fine pianist and horn player, who is an Instructor at SWOSU (Horn, Brass Ensemble, Introduction to Music and Introduction to World Music). His son, Charles, a graduate of Southern Methodist University and Cornell University, is a math teacher in Irving, TX. His other interests include driving and rebuilding his old Datsun (a 1972 PL510), riding a 1998 Suzuki GS500E motorcycle, walking Bandit (the family border collie), camping, and hiking.