Composer James Sochinski holds the BM from the University of Missouri-Columbia, the MM in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and the PhD in Music Theory from the University of Miami. Dr. Sochinski teaches primarily in music theory, including courses in analysis, orchestration and arranging, music history and literature, and colloquia in the University Honors College. His published and commissioned works have been performed throughout the world at new music festivals, concerts and conferences. Before coming to Virginia Tech in 1977, Dr. Sochinski was arranger for the United States Army Field Band, Washington DC, and band director at South Carolina State University. He has served as arranger for the Virginia Tech's 330-member Marching Virginians for 26 years and has written for many college and university bands throughout the country. Over fifty of his compositions and arrangements are published by Barnhouse, TRN and Columbia Pictures. For several years Dr. Sochinski has been developing new approaches to music instruction which have included curricular reform and innovative applications of technology. He has lectured on these initiatives at professional meetings for groups including the College Music Society, Society for Composers, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, MidWest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, and World Conference on Educational Hypermedia and Multimedia. His commissioned works have been performed at the Western States Collegiate Wind Band Festival, conferences of the College Music Society, College Band Directors National Association, and Virginia Music Educators Association, and at several MidWest International Band and Orchestra Clinics. In venues from New Orleans' Superdome to the DCI World Championships to New York's Carnegie Hall, his music reaches diverse audiences of many musical tastes. He is an active performer and has served as bass trombonist for the Roanoke Symphony orchestra since 1977. James Sochinski's most recent works for Virginia Tech artists include Triple Concerto for Trumpet, Horn, Trombone and Band, premiered by Tech professors Allen Bachelder, Wallace Easter and Jay Crone with the University of Leeds Symphonic Wind Ensemble in Leeds, United Kingdom; Song of Solomon, performed by the Tech Meistersingers on a concert tour of England and Scotland; and Chugga-Chugga for Bassoon and Band, premiered by Tech professor John Husser and the Dayton (OH) Philharmonic Winds. Source: [url=https://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/sochinski/]https://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/sochinski/[/url]