about dr. bernard short
The Beat Goes On
Dr. Bernard Short (b. 1979, Harlem, NYC) was raised in Far Rockaway Queens, NY; he earned a BA in Music with a focus in Composition at Morehouse College in 2007, and a Masters in Music Education at the University of Georgia in 2012. He graduated with his PhD in Music Composition from the University of Iowa in 2018. During his time at the University of Iowa, he was awarded a Full Dean’s Fellowship and worked as a Research Assistant for the Center for New Music; where he studied with Dr. Lawrence Fritts and Dr. David Gompper.
From 2008-2014 he was the Director of Bands and Orchestra at Cross Keys High School in Atlanta, GA.
While serving in his role as Musical Director, he assumed the responsibility of rebirthing multiple programs that are still thriving today. Furthermore, while serving in this capacity he reignited the vitality of the program, which resulted in the department obtaining several notable grants from a wide range of organizations including the Grammy Organization. Furthermore, this success served as a launching pad in which Dr. Short was able to bloom into a thought-provoking composer with profound impacts.
In 2015, he received a commission from The Julien Chamber Winds Ensemble at The University of Dubuque. In 2017, he was commissioned to compose a piece to have its world premiere in Mykonos, Greece at the Delian Academy for New Music’s International Summer Academy for Composers and Sound Artists.
In 2019, 2020, and 2021 he was commissioned to compose works, which had their world premiere in Alba, Italy at the Alba Music Festival. In 2022, he was commissioned by The William Thomas McKinley Foundation for American Music to compose a piece to have its world premiere in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
Dr. Short Has been a music educator in the Griffin-Spalding School District since 2019. He started at Carver Road Middle School building a 50-member award-winning fully functioning Marching Band on the middle school level; which is something that has only been done once before in the state of Georgia. He stayed in that role at Carver Road Middle School until 2022 when he became the Director of Bands at Spalding High School. Here at Spalding High School he took a 12-member program and built it into an 80-member award-winning instrumental program. Dr. Short believes music is the expression of a person’s soul that is best used as a way to communicate with someone without allowing words to obliterate the message. Go Jags!
