Brittan Braddock

Dr. Brittan Braddock is assistant professor of music, director of bands, and coordinator of music education at Mercer University. She conducts the Mercer University Wind Ensemble, the University Band, and teaches courses in instrumental music education, wind band literature, chamber music and conducting. She also guides the graduate wind band conducting program. Prior to her appointment at Mercer University, she was the director of bands at the University of West Florida. 

Braddock is in demand as a guest conductor, clinician and presenter. Her research into the wind ensemble repertoire of Ruth Gipps and the Portia Wind Ensemble is gaining momentum in national and international presentations and performances. In September of 2023, she presented on these topics at the Fourth International Conference on Women’s Work in Music at Bangor University in Wales, United Kingdom. 

She is in her fourth season as producer of the livestream projects for the Masterwork Concerts of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra; Maestro Peter Rubardt, Music Director. In this role, she studies the scores and ‘calls the shots’ that are captured by a video team directed by Quinton Williams. The PSO team will be presenting on this process in a presentation titled: Outreach, Impact, Legacy: Connecting with Our Audiences Through Livestream Productions at the 2023 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. She also presents regularly for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s UpTempo Youth Program designed to provide pre-concert integrative experiences to teenage musicians, often attending a professional concert for the first time. 

Braddock completed her doctoral studies at the University of Colorado Boulder where she conducted and assisted in all aspects of the band program.  Her innovative use of technology in the assessment of young conductors has positively impacted the conducting curriculum at CU. In June of 2018, she traveled to London, England as a J.D. Ogilvy Travel Fellow through the British and Irish Studies department to research Ruth Gipps and the Portia Wind Ensemble. Prior to her studies at CU, she was a graduate teaching assistant at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 

Braddock served as the director of bands for Custer County School District in Westcliffe, Colorado from 2011-2014 where she was responsible for 5th-12th grade instrumental music. While in Westcliffe, she founded and conducted the Sangre de Cristo Community Band. She also held teaching positions in Cotopaxi’s Unified School District in Cotopaxi, Colorado, and Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy in Chicago, Illinois. She received the Bachelor of Music Education from Concordia University of Chicago. 

Her primary conducting mentors include, Dr. Donald J. McKinney, Dr. Timothy Paul, Dr. Jack Stamp, Dr. Richard Fischer, and Dr. Maurice Boyer.