In his 17^th year as the Emporia Municipal Band’s Conductor, Gary McCarty has a great love for Band music. Having grown up playing in school and college bands, and drum & bugle corps in Illinois, Mr. McCarty attended the University of Kansas and Emporia State University, where he studied Music Education. McCarty taught Band in public schools in Kansas and Missouri for 31 years. He has served on the state board of the Kansas Music Educators’ Association twice, taught at the Midwestern Music Camp in Lawrence, and is an active adjudicator, consultant, and clinician. Having retired from teaching in 2007, Mr. McCarty now works as the Music Education Representative for Flint Hills Music of Emporia.

One of McCarty’s great loves is his involvement in City Bands. He got started playing in the band in his home town of Jacksonville, Illinois, organized and directed the Satanta Band, performed in the Hiawatha City Jazz Band, and currently plays in the Lawrence City Band, of which he has been a member on-and-off for 37 years.

McCarty came to Emporia to teach at the High School in 1991, just in time to hear the last concert of the summer. He began playing in the Emporia Municipal Band the next year, and started conducting it one year later. The EMB has become his greatest love, second only to his wife Diane, and their two sons Patrick and Kelly, all of whom played in the Band at one time.