Patrick R. Carney

September 11, 2023

About Mr. Carney

DR. PATRICK K. CARNEY has served as a Professor of Music Education at the collegiate level for over twenty years. Currently, Dr. Carney serves as a Professor of Music Education at Georgia Southern University. His responsibilities include Music Education courses, directing the GSU Wind Symphony, and supervising all Instrumental Student Teachers.

Before his GSU appointment, he has served as a Professor of Music Education and Director of Bands at the following universities: Montana State, Clayton State, Claflin, and Limestone, and prior as Assistant Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the Universities of Oregon and Charleston Southern. 

Since 2019, Dr. Carney has served as the Chair of the Small Band Program Committee for the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). In this capacity, the committee strengthened the SBP Intercollegiate Band’s format and assisted in the formalization of an incredible document for future members of CBDNA who function as SBP directors. Further, this committee solidified two annual sessions recognizing Small Band Programs, their directors, and their many successes.

At the 2023 CBDNA National Convention in February hosted by the University of Georgia, Dr. Carney presided over the Small Band Program Audio Performance session and presented, along with Dr. Cliff Towner and Dr. James Adams, the session Literature Selection for Small Band Programs: Empowering Ourselves.

Dr. Carney’s research topics currently fall under two categories: selection of band literature for adjudication and advocating for K–5 music education to be an everyday course. Most recently, he presented his longitudinal research examining and comparing the selection of literature for concert band adjudication in Florida and South Carolina at the 2022 CBDNA Southern Division / National Band Association (NBA) Conference hosted by the University of South Carolina in February.

In 2022, he presented at the Georgia Music Educators Association on my other line of research: everyday K–5 music education. The advocation for R.E.A.L. (Recess, Empathy, Arts- Integration, and Longevity) K–5 music education became focused in 2019 with the exploration of recess’s decline in schools. This led to a vast and differentiating review of literature on how a specialized, everyday K–5 music education curriculum could “absorb” the responsibility of recess while also enhancing children physically, mentally, emotionally, academically, and culturally.

His research is published in Research Perspectives in Music Education, Florida Music Director, The Instrumentalist, South Carolina Musician, and the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education. Dr. Carney has presented research at conferences for CBDNA, the National Band Association, the National Association of Music Educators (NAfME), and the Music Educators Association conferences for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Carney earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Theory from Florida State University, a Master of Music Education from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in Music Education from Florida State University. He is a native of Winter Haven, Florida, and loves his beautiful wife, Jennifer, and wonderful daughter, Emma.