Dr. Linda R. Moorhouse

Biography

Dr. Linda R. Moorhouse, Suzanne and William Allen Distinguished Professor in Music, recently completed a term as Director of the School of Music (2023–26) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She joined the School of Music in fall 2010 and currently contributes to the campus community through her roles with the University Senates Conference (Vice-Chair), the Athletic Board, and the University of Illinois System-wide Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Council. She served for eight years as the School’s Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies, and prior to that, led the University Bands program within the School of Music. She also served as a Fellow in the University of Illinois President’s Executive Leadership Program (2025–26) and in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program (2020–21).

Moorhouse is active as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator both nationally and internationally, and her service to the band profession is a matter of record. Concert ensembles under her direction at two different Research I universities have been featured at regional and national conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, the North American Saxophone Alliance International Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association. She is a past president and the current Secretary-Treasurer of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, and is a past president, former NBA Journal editor, and former executive secretary of the National Band Association, the largest professional organization for bands. She is also a past president and former Woman Conductor editor of the Women Band Directors International, where she is a recipient of the organization’s Silver Baton and International Golden Rose awards for outstanding leadership and service to the music profession. Honored as a Member Laureate (member of international distinction) of Sigma Alpha Iota, a professional fraternity for women in music, Moorhouse is also a recipient of the Diploma of the Sudler Order of Merit from the John Philip Sousa Foundation in recognition of extraordinary service to the music community. The National Band Association has recognized her contributions to the music profession on numerous occasions with the NBA Citation of Excellence, the Distinguished Service Award, and election to the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (AWAPA), considered the “Oscar” of the band world. She is also a recipient of the Tau Beta Sigma (national band service sorority) Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director Award and is a member of the VIP community within the Division of Education at Conn-Selmer, Inc., and she is recognized in Grove Music Online.

In addition to her conducting and teaching accolades, Moorhouse has several publication credits, including research contributions to multiple volumes of both the Composer’s Insight–Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band (Meredith Music) series and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA) series, along with other Meredith Music publications.

International engagements include serving as a conductor on multiple Western European tours with the United States Collegiate Wind Band, and as an adjudicator on two jury panels for the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, Netherlands. She also appeared as a conducting clinician and conductor with the Wind Ensemble of Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, in Portugal, has adjudicated Singapore’s National Youth Music Festival on multiple occasions, and has worked as a clinician and adjudicator in Western Australia.

Before joining the University of Illinois School of Music in fall 2010, Moorhouse served on the faculty at Louisiana State University for more than 20 years, where she was the recipient of both LSU School of Music and campus-wide awards for teaching excellence. During her time at LSU, she taught conducting and marching band techniques, conducted the Symphonic Winds and Symphonic Band, and served as drill designer, choreographer, co-director, and teacher of record of the LSU Tiger Marching Band, one of a select few award-winning college marching bands in the country. Under her leadership, the LSU Symphonic Winds and Symphonic Band were featured in regional and national venues, and the LSU Tiger Band received the Sudler Trophy (the “Heisman trophy” of college marching bands) and won the 2008 ESPN/Paramount Pictures “Battle of the Bands” contest. She also managed the LSU Summer Music Camps.

Moorhouse earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied with Peter Erös and Timothy Salzman. She holds a Master of Music Education degree from Louisiana State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education with Honors from the University of Florida, where she is a member of the University of Florida Bands Hall of Fame.