Administration
Keith Jackson serves as the Dean of the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University. From 2008-17 he served as the Director of the School of Music at West Virginia University. Previously he had served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Music. His teaching responsibilities are in the area of Applied Music with specialties in Low Brass and Jazz. Former students are active professionally as teachers, performers and conductors across the globe.
Dr. Jackson is active in both classical and jazz styles as a performer and clinician. In addition to being an in-demand recitalist, he has recently been a member of the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra. During his career he has appeared on several recordings and on public television in jazz, classical, and commercial settings. In recent years he has given performances and clinics in Europe, South America, and Asia.
Before coming to West Virginia University in 1995, Dr. Jackson was an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. He has also taught at St Augustine's College and at the Governor's School of North Carolina.
In addition to his work at WVU, Dr. Jackson serves the community as member of the Board of the West Virginia Wine and Jazz Festival, the West Virginia Public Theatre, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Friends Board for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and as President of the West Virginia Music Educators Association.
John Hendricks, III is presently serving as Assistant Dean of Recruiting and Retention for the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University, in addition to serving as Director of Bands for the School of Music. Prior to these appointments, Professor Hendricks served as WVU’s Associate Director of Bands for twelve years. His present teaching duties include conducting the University’s Wind Symphony and instructing graduate conducting courses. His past duties at WVU include directing the WVU Marching Band, Symphonic Band, and Pep Band, as well as instructing several music education courses including undergraduate conducting and public school arranging. He has also served as Assistant Chair for the School of Music, coordinator of music undergraduate academic advising, coordinator of the WVU summer Mountaineer Music Camp, and conductor of the Studio Orchestra. Prior to his appointments at WVU, Professor Hendricks was the Assistant Director of Bands at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Professor Hendricks received his Masters Degree in Conducting and his Bachelors Degree in Music Education from West Virginia University. While working toward his Masters, he was actively involved with the West Virginia University Bands as a graduate assistant. He also served for five years as the band director at Spencer High School in Spencer, WV.
Besides his current administrative and teaching duties, Professor Hendricks is active as a guest conductor for various honor groups on the county, district, regional, and all-state levels. He also serves frequently as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the eastern United States. He has had several chapters published in the popular Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series by GIA Publications. His current research is focused upon the use of hymns in wind band music.
Professor Hendricks is a member of several professional music affiliations including the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, and Phi Beta Mu. Professor Hendricks is presently the state chair for the National Band Association, co-advisor for the Omicron Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, and past-president of the Big East Band Directors Association. He has also held state positions for the College Band Directors National Association and the West Virginia Music Educators Association. He is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the Golden Key National Honor Society, and the WVU Mountain Honorary. Professor Hendricks is a past recipient of the “West Virginia Band Director of the Year” award presented by the Tau Chapter of Phi Beta Mu. Professor Hendricks has been an arranger for university and high school bands, as well as a coordinator for various events and conferences.
Dr. Mikylah Myers is Associate Dean of Artistic and Scholarly Achievement in the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University. She works to support, promote, and engage College of Creative Arts students in vigorous artistic and cultural endeavors at the national and international levels and provides support for faculty creative and scholarly pursuits. Dr. Myers created the College’s Creative Consultant professional mentorship program, which matches outstanding creative arts students with WVU’s extraordinary alumni working professionally across all artistic disciplines.
A nationally recognized violinist, Dr. Myers has a particular zest for new music: her recording “REACT: Music for Flute, Violin and Interactive Computer” was released on the PARMA Records label and her performances have been called “energetic and virtuosic” by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and “captivating” by Boulder, Colorado’s Daily Camera. She has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain. She was a 19-year member of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon and also performed as a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Before joining the WVU music faculty as violin professor in 2007, Dr. Myers was concertmaster of the San Juan Symphony and the violin and viola professor at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She was also the founder, artistic director, and conductor of the Durango Youth Symphony. Her former violin students hold college and K-12 teaching positions across the nation, and can be heard in chamber music and symphonic performances around the world.
Dr. Myers received her doctoral and master’s degrees in violin performance from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where she studied with Fredell Lack, and earned her bachelor of music degree in violin performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied violin with Roland and Almita Vamos. She was also a four-year-member and co-captain of the Oberlin College women’s soccer team.
