Michael Mapp
Director of Bands/Associate Professor
- Music Building - Room 112
- mikemapp@nmsu.edu
- (575) 646-3319
Dr. Michael W. Mapp is the Director of Bands and coordinator of the Graduate Instrumental Conducting program at New Mexico State University. Dr. Mapp joined the music faculty at NMSU in 2017. Prior to working at NMSU, Dr. Mapp taught at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, as Director of Bands and served as associate conductor of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. He also enjoyed a successful tenure as a public-school teacher. At NMSU, Dr. Mapp’s responsibilities include serving as the conductor of the Wind Symphony, Chamber Winds, Campus Band, administering the graduate program in wind conducting, teaching courses in music education, conducting, literature, and overseeing all facets of the university band program. Additionally, he serves as the music director of the Mesilla Valley Concert Band, the Las Cruces Youth Orchestra Collective, and the conductor of the Symphonic Band, Orchestra, and Faculty Concerto Orchestra at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts.
Dr. Mapp maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and producer, performing throughout the United States and abroad. Bands under his direction have performed at numerous state, regional, and national conferences, including multiple Kansas Music Educators Association state conventions and multiple College Band Directors National Association regional conventions. Most recently, the NMSU Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the 2022 World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference in Prague, Czechia, and the 2024 Southwest Regional College Band Directors Association Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. He has been an invited presenter and lecturer at multiple universities, as well as at state, national, and international music conferences, including the CBDNA regional and national conferences. He has served as the College Faculty Representative for the Kansas Bandmasters Association and the Kansas State Chair for the National Band Association. He has also served on the Board for the New Mexico Music Educators Association and is the New Mexico representative for the Southwest Region of CBDNA.
As an advocate of new music, Dr. Mapp annually commissions and premieres new works for wind ensemble. He is the founder of the Young Composer Initiative, a composition competition that solicits new works for wind ensemble internationally. In 2024, he guided a panel discussion on new music for winds with living composers at the 2024 WASBE Conference in Gwang-Ju, South Korea. Recent commissions, consortiums, and premieres include works by Catherine Likhuta, Peter Meechan, Tom Davoren, Isabella Morril, Kevin Walczyk, Joni Greene, Chin Ting Chan, Kevin McKee, Viet Cuong, Aaron Perrine, and Joel Puckett.
Michael holds degrees from New Mexico State University, Wichita State University, and The University of Kansas. He is a member of the New Mexico Music Educators Association, Texas Music Educators Association, the National Association for Music Education, College Band Directors National Association, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and Phi Beta Mu International Band Masters Fraternity. He enjoys life in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife, Dr. Hyerim Mapp, and their dachshund, Karma.
Instrument
Bands/Conducting