Dr. Corey Spurlin

Associate Director of Bands

email: cspurlin@auburn.edu
telephone: (334) 844-4166

Corey Spurlin serves as Marching Band Director, Associate Director of Bands, and Professor of Music at Auburn University. In addition to his work with the Sudler-winning Auburn Marching Band, Dr. Spurlin conducts the Concert Band, Campus Band, and is associate conductor of the Auburn Symphonic Winds.  He also teaches courses in conducting, wind band literature, music history, and marching band techniques. Under his direction, the Auburn University Marching Band, with 380 students, has the largest membership in university history and has performed three times at the Southeastern Conference Championship and twice at BCS National Championship Games, as well as the Chick-fil-a Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Outback Bowl, and Birmingham Bowl, and overseas at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland. Under his direction, four performances by the Auburn University Marching Band have been selected for recognition and viewing at national and regional conferences of the College Band Directors National Association. With the Auburn Symphonic Winds, Dr. Spurlin has conducted works at the CBDNA Southern Division Conference, the Alabama Music Education Association Conference, and overseas during the ensemble’s tours of China and Italy.

In addition to his work at Auburn, Dr. Spurlin serves as the Southern Division Chair for the National Band Association, a marching band committee member for CBDNA, and was recently elected to Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity. He is active throughout the U.S. as a conducting and marching band clinician and adjudicator. He has conducted collegiate honor bands at the University of Georgia (JanFest), West Virginia University, and Southern Illinois University, and he served as a marching band adjudicator for the University of Illinois, University of Missouri and for UIL Texas State Finals in the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. He is published in five volumes of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, in the National Band Association Journal, and he is a contributing author for the marching band textbook The System by Gary Smith. In addition, he serves as the head drill design clinician and lecturer at the Smith Walbridge Camps at Eastern Illinois University and has served as head clinician and guest lecturer at the University of Akron Marching Band Workshop in Akron, Ohio.

Prior to his appointment at Auburn, Dr. Spurlin received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in wind conducting from Louisiana State University, where he studied with Frank B. Wickes, and the Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in music education from the University of Alabama. He served as a Graduate Assistant for the Band Department at LSU where he assisted with the Tiger Marching Band and “Bengal Brass” Pep Band.  In addition, he was Graduate Associate Conductor of the LSU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, and Symphonic Band.  Previously, he served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Alabama where, in 2002-2003, he was Acting Assistant Director for the Marching Band and conductor of the Alabama Symphonic Band.  In addition, he served as conductor of the Alabama Men’s Basketball Band for six years. Before pursuing his advanced degrees, Dr. Spurlin was Director of Bands at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama and Tuscaloosa Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.