The Frost School of Music is overjoyed to announce the appointment of Dr. Michael Hancock as the new Director of Bands. Hancock, who holds both a master’s and a doctorate in Wind Conducting from the Frost School, will expand on the legacy established by his predecessor Dr. Robert Carnochan, whose unexpected passing last September was widely mourned by the Frost School community.
“We are thrilled to welcome back Michael Hancock as Director of Bands at the Frost School of Music,” said Jennifer Grim, flute professor and chair of the Department of Instrumental Performance. “His passion for artistic excellence, education, and collaborative pedagogy aligns perfectly with our mission, making him the ideal leader for the Wind Ensemble. As we continue to mourn the loss of Robert Carnochan and honor his enduring legacy, we are confident that Michael’s vision and dedication will further elevate and strengthen our program. We eagerly anticipate the profound impact he will have on our students and the broader musical community.”
Hancock, who is currently the Director of Bands at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), where he oversees wind, symphonic, and marching bands, as well as being an associate professor and wind ensemble conductor, said he was overjoyed at the prospect of working at an institution that had been transformative for him.
“It is a great honor, and the thrill of my professional life to have the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of the giants that come before me at the Frost School,” said Hancock, who will start in the fall. “I am simultaneously humbled and excited to be given this responsibility.”
At the Frost School, Hancock will conduct the Frost Wind Ensemble, one of the school’s busiest performing groups; teach graduate conducting classes, lessons, and seminars; and oversee undergraduate conducting classes and the athletic band program.
Hancock received a bachelor’s in music education from Arkansas Tech University in 2000, and has studied orchestral conducting and repertoire at the Conservatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands. He has been a band director at public high schools in Arkansas and Texas; led the Heidelberg Arts Ensemble in Germany; has been a clinician and was the Associate Director of Concert Bands and Interim Director of Concert Bands at the University of Oklahoma from 2014 to 2021, when he joined UCA. He takes a collaborative approach to music, working with visual artists and actors, and commissioning and presenting original work from multiple contemporary composers.
He began singing in choir and playing clarinet as a young boy outside Kansas City, Missouri. Like most leaders in the marching and wind band worlds, he became deeply involved in both while in high school, in Springdale, Arkansas, thanks to an aunt who was a dedicated band director and musical mentor. “I learned how amazing and humanistically enriching performative sound could be,” Hancock said. “I loved music and I thrived in that program, which formed the foundation of who I am as a musician and teacher.”
Hancock came to the Frost School in 2004 to get his master’s under Professor Gary Green, a longtime band director, wind ensemble leader, and instrumental performance chair who retired in 2015. Green recruited Hancock to return for his doctorate from 2011 to 2014, when he was one of Green’s last conducting students.
Hancock said his experience here was revelatory.
“The faculty, who had achieved so much and taught with inspiration, challenged me to look inward and outward to find myself as an artist,” Hancock says. “The students who were my colleagues were easily the best musicians I had ever been around. They all came from such different backgrounds, and their ideas of what music meant to them were all so different from my understanding. It was such a paradigm shift.”
“I was encouraged to formulate my own beliefs that would shape the artist and teacher that I am now. Studying at the Frost School showed me the importance of not only mastering your craft, but truly developing your own perspective while also being open to new possibilities. That is what I feel makes the Frost School a special place.”
Hancock says he is honored to carry on the legacy of Green and Carnochan, whom he says was a friend and influence. “He gave his students tremendous love, artistry, and inspiration,” Hancock says. “I cannot replace him. I can only promise to work every day to give my utmost to the students and faculty of the Frost School.”
