Director of Bands

Austin Bralley 

Director of Bands

at Beechwood Since 2017

 

austin.bralley@beechwood.kyschools.us

859-331-1220 ext. 5181

 

Austin Bralley has been the Director of Bands at Beechwood High School since the summer of 2017. During Mr. Bralley's tenure at Beechwood, the middle and high school concert bands have earned distinguished ratings at each KMEA concert assessment event including exemplary awards in 2019, 2023, and 2024. The Marching Tigers have earned placement in KMEA State Finals in each year and were KMEA State Champions in 2019, 2021, and 2023. The Marching Tigers were Bands of America Grand National Semifinalists in 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023. In 2022, the Marching Tigers were awarded the John Philip Sousa Foundation's Sudler Shield. In 2020, Mr. Bralley was named the KMEA District 6 High School Teacher of the Year and in 2023, the Northern Kentucky Educator of the Year by Northern Kentucky University and the Cincinnatus Foundation.

​

Prior to joining the staff of Beechwood Independent Schools, Mr. Bralley was the Assistant Director of Bands at Adair County High School in Columbia, KY from 2014 to 2017. During his time at Adair County, the marching band finished as a state finalist and national semifinalist each year, earned a KMEA class 3A State Championship in 2015, and BOA Class A National Championships in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Also during his tenure at Adair County, the middle school, high school, and jazz bands received distinguished ratings at each KMEA assessment event.

 

As a performer on trombone, Mr. Bralley has been fortunate enough to perform at the Montreux, Beaujolais, and North Sea Jazz Festivals in Europe, Carnegie Hall in New York City, the PGA Tour Ryder Cup, the FEI World Equestrian Games, the NCAA Men's Final Four, the CBDNA National Band Conference, the Jazz Education Network National Conference, and several Kentucky Music Educators Association State Conferences. Mr. Bralley is an alumnus of the Phantom Regiment Drum Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Bralley holds a bachelor's degree in Music Education from the University of Kentucky. Mr. Bralley has been the Marching Band chair for KMEA District 6 since 2018 and a Class 1A representative on the Bands of America Marching Band Advisory Committee since 2019. Mr. Bralley currently resides in Fort Wright, Kentucky with his wife, Kelli.