Dr. Heather McWilliams is originally from Australia and has been resident in the U.S. since the fall of 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Arts - Tuba performance (1992) at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music ( Australia), and a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (1993) from the Queensland University of Technology. Upon graduation she taught general and instrumental music in Western Australia and Queensland for six years where she directed highly successful band programs in both rural and urban settings. In April of 1999, her high school ensembles toured to Fiji. While in Australia she was active in several community ensembles, both as a player and conductor. Dr. McWilliams was also active professionally as the treasurer for the Queensland Band and Orchestra Director’s Association.
As a tuba player, Dr. McWilliams won the Queensland Brass Band Eb Tuba Championship in 1993 and that same year toured to the United States as Principal Tuba of the Australian Wind Orchestra performing at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Upon moving to the U.S. in 1999, Dr. McWilliams undertook graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, earning a Master of Music Education degree (2000) and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction - Music Education (2003). Her dissertation, “Gender Equity Issues in the Depiction of Females in The Instrumentalist Magazine (August 2000 – July 2002),” examined the ways in which female wind and percussion players and female band directors/band experts were portrayed in both images and text in the publication. She has presented the findings of this research at conferences of the Wisconsin Music Educators Association, and the Australian Society of Music Education.
Dr. McWilliams directed the Marian College Wind Ensemble in 2001-2002 and is currently an adjunct professor in the music departments at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh and Lawrence University. She continues to remain active as a tuba player and freelance musician.
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Contact by e-mail: heather.mcwilliams@lawrence.edu