Introducing two new faculty!
Jason Missal, Director of Bands
"I can't wait to collaborate with the world-class faculty and make music with the outstanding students at Utah! I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to build a tight-knit musical community with the educators, alums, and supporters across the state of Utah and throughout the region."
Jason Missal is Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at The University of Utah. His duties at Utah include conducting the Wind Ensemble, leading the graduate wind conducting program, and overseeing all aspects of the band program.
Before his appointment at Utah, Dr. Missal was the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he conducted the Symphonic Winds, led the Pride of Acadiana Marching Band, and taught undergraduate conducting and courses in music education. While at UL, he led the Louisiana premieres of works by Omar Thomas, Jennifer Jolley, Carlos Simon, Erika Svanoe, Paul Dooley, and Michael Mikulka.
Prior to his work at UL, he taught at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. At ACU, Dr. Missal led the Big Purple Marching Band, conducted the Concert Band, supervised student teachers, and taught music education classes as well as applied horn. While at ACU, he was twice awarded the Citation for Excellence in Teaching and guest conducted the Wind Ensemble at the 2014 CBDNA Southwest Regional Convention in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dr. Missal also collaborated with composers David Maslanka and Carter Pann. A staunch advocate of public school music, he also taught for four years in the public schools of Jenks, Oklahoma.
Dr. Missal has a national presence as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. He has conducted and presented clinics in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Dr. Missal has published articles in The Instrumentalist and School Band & Orchestra magazines. His recording credits include production work on albums by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble and University of Colorado Wind Symphony and an upcoming invitation to produce an album by the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble.
His professional memberships include the College Band Directors National Association, Louisiana Music Educators Association, Texas Music Educators Association, and an honorary membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
Dr. Missal holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Music in Conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education from Oklahoma State University. His primary conducting teachers have been Jerry Junkin, Allan McMurray, Gary Lewis, and Joseph Missal.
Jonathan Dillon, General Music Education Specialist
"I look forward to working alongside the University’s incredible music education team, serving area music educators through professional development, and—most importantly—teaching and supporting our music education students. I am thrilled to be joining the School of Music faculty at The University of Utah!"
Jonathan Edan Dillon is an elementary general music teacher in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, where he has taught for the last eleven years. Dillon’s teaching interests span general music, Kodály-inspired pedagogy, and youth choral music—interests he regularly aims to innovate within and expand beyond, including engagements with songwriting, popular music, and technology. A frequent presenter on topics relating to general music education, Dillon’s recent professional development efforts include presentations at the 2022 National Conference of the Organization of American Kodály Educators and the 2021 Eastern Division Conference of the National Association for Music Education. Dillon also teaches professional development courses, serves as a teacher mentor, and assists with conference planning in his role as General Music Chair for the Alaska Music Educators Association. Additionally, Dillon is an online course facilitator for the Longy School of Music at Bard College.
Dillon’s current research interests involve the professionalization of music educators and the subject-ness of students engaged in general music education. Through this latter line of inquiry, Dillon explores ways in which general music educators, curricula, and methods enable—and/or limit—student perceptions of themselves as subjects in their own lives, as opposed to objects in the lives of others. Essentially, Dillon is interested in critical, possibility-oriented excursions in general music which seek to expand what an education in and through music can be “good for.” Dillon’s scholarship has been accepted for presentation in several research conferences, including the 2023 Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of General Music Methods, the 2023 Research in Music Education (RiME) Conference, and the 2022 Conference of the International Society for Music Education.
Dillon is a doctoral candidate at Boston University, previously studied music education at the University of Montana (MM) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (BM), and earned a Kodály Certificate at Seattle Pacific University. Dillon was a 2017 BP Teacher of Excellence and was awarded a 2016 Alaska Arts Educator Fellowship by the Alaska State Council on the Arts.