Christian Folk
Director
Christian Folk is a music educator and conductor currently based in College Park, Maryland. Christian taught for several years in North Carolina and South Carolina private and public schools before beginning their graduate studies in music education. He is currently the music director of the Vienna Community Band and the assistant music director for the Maryland Band Directors Band. A fierce advocate for diversity in wind band programming, he created databases of pieces for wind band written by gender and/or racially minoritized composers which have been featured in presentations at The Midwest Clinic and The College Band Directors National Association conference. His research interests include music education and disability studies, disabled and queer pedagogies, wind band programming, arts education in museums and other cultural institutions, and minimalist music, specifically the works of Philip Glass. They have presented at conferences of The National Association for Music Education, the South Carolina Music Educators Association, DC Area Educators for Social Justice, and the Society for Minimalist Music. His primary conducting and music education mentors include Dr. Lorrie Crochet, Dr. Amanda Schlegel, Dr. Scott Weiss, and Dr. Cormac Cannon. Christian has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Winthrop University, a master’s in music education from The University of South Carolina, and is currently pursuing his PhD in music education from The University of Maryland.