Biography

Sheridan Monroe Loyd is a conductor, educator, and clarinetist from Castle Rock, Colorado. Ms. Loyd is currently the Director of Bands at Montrose High School on Colorado’s Western Slope, where she teaches two concert bands, two jazz bands, and the “Pride of Montrose” Marching Band. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Loyd was the Director of Bands for the Estes Park School District in Estes Park, Colorado. She taught the 5th-12th grade bands, jazz band, and marching band. In all four years at Estes Park Schools, the concert bands received superior and excellent ratings at the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) Large Group Festival. In 2017, the EPHS jazz band performed alongside the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra at the famous Dazzle jazz club in Denver. The Estes Park Marching Band won the Colorado Bandmasters Association 1A State Marching Band Competition in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Ms. Loyd was selected by her fellow teachers as the Estes Park School District Teacher of the Year in 2018.

Ms. Loyd received a Master of Music in wind conducting from Colorado State University, serving as a graduate assistant with the CSU Marching Band, Basketball Pep Bands, and the Presidential Pep Band. In addition, she was a guest conductor with the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, and Concert Band, and performed as a clarinetist in the Wind Symphony in 2018-19. She completed a master’s thesis, entitled James M. David: the Composer, his Compositional Style, and a Conductor’s Analysis of Symphony No. 1 - Codex Gigas. Her conducting teachers include Dr. Rebecca L. Phillips, Professor Wes Kenney, and Professor Gary Speck.

A graduate of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), Ms. Loyd received a Bachelor of Music in both music education and clarinet performance. She completed the university’s Honors Program with distinction, graduating summa cum laude, and was named the Presser Scholar, the university’s most prestigious award in music. She was the principal clarinet in the Miami University Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. As drum major for the Miami University Marching Band, Ms. Loyd led the band’s nationally televised performance in the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Parade. She also performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2011.

Ms. Loyd’s conducting career has included several international, national and regional performances. In 2019, she conducted the world premiere of Kevin Poelking’s By the Hands that Reach Us and the American premiere of James M. David’s Zephyrus, both with the Colorado State University Wind Symphony. She also served as a conductor and tour manager for the Prague Multicultural Music Project Wind Ensemble’s tour to Prague the

same year. From 2014 to 2018, Ms. Loyd was a conductor for the Estes Park Village Band and the Estes Park Jazz Big Band. In 2013, she conducted the Miami University Wind Ensemble in Darius Milhaud’s La Creation du Monde. From 2012-13, she was the assistant conductor of the Great Miami Youth Symphony in Hamilton, Ohio. She has conducted at various workshops and symposia, including the Arapahoe Philharmonic Conducting Lab with Scott O’Neil, the Ithaca College Northeast Wind Conducting Symposium with H. Robert Reynolds and Steve Peterson, the University of Michigan Band Conducting and Pedagogy Workshop with Michael Haithcock and Courtney Snyder, the Kansas City Conducting Symposium at UMKC with Craig Kirchhoff and Steve Davis, the University of Colorado Wind Band Symposium with Allan McMurray and Don McKinney, the Michigan State University Conducting Symposium with Kevin Sedatole and Gary Green, and the Virginia Tech Band Directors Institute with Michael Haithcock and Travis Cross.

As a clarinetist, Ms. Loyd has performed internationally in Argentina and at major venues across the United States including Carnegie Hall (New York City) and Boettcher Hall (Denver). She has performed with the Boulder Philharmonic, Colorado Wind Ensemble, and the Aurora Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was selected as a clarinetist with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. As a soloist, she won Miami University’s Concerto Competition in 2013, performing the American premiere of Ondřej Kukal’s Clarinettino with the Miami University Symphony Orchestra. She also performed for events at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona and the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. Her teachers include Professor Michele Gingras, Dr. Wesley Ferreira, and Dr. Ramon Kireilis.

Ms. Loyd is currently the Colorado State Chair for the National Band Association, is on the Colorado Bandmasters Association state board, and served on the CBA State Marching Band Committee for three years. In 2019, she presented at the CBA Summer Convention on Clarinet Tips and Tricks for the Band Director. She is currently a member of the Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA), the Colorado Bandmasters Association (CBA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the National Band Association (NBA), and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA).

Performance  Clarinet recital, 2013

Teaching  Getting the marching band ready for competition

Conducting  Conducting the Colorado State University Symphonic Band
in 2018.