Awards
Al & Gladys Wright Award
The Wright Award is a newly created recognition made possible by the ASBDA through the generous donation and contribution of Gladys Wright in memory of her husband Al.
The Wright Award is meant to recognize a retired band director who has made significant contributions to school bands during a distinguished career and continues to do so during retirement.
To be eligible for the award a recipient must have:
1. been an active ASBDA member and is currently a retired, dues-paying ASBDA member.
2. had a distinguished career prior to retirement which included service to bands and continued involvement by providing leadership, service, and/or other meaningful value to school bands, their directors, and the profession as a whole.
The American School Band Directors Association created the Edwin Franko Goldman Award as a symbol of high esteem and respect and as a measure of appreciation and gratitude for outstanding personal contributions to the school band movement.
The recipient may or may not be a member of ASBDA, but shall be an active or retired director whose teaching career shall have included work in the schools and who has contributed substantially in the fields of Grade, Junior, and Senior High School Band work
.
Edwin Franko Goldman
2024 Recipient
Frances (Fran) Shelton
Fran Shelton conducted the Hendersonville High School band for 28 years. She was inducted into the North Carolina Bandmasters Hall of Fame, becoming the youngest band leader to be honored by that organization and the fourth woman.
A Hendersonville native and 1977 graduate of Hendersonville High School, Shelton was only the fourth band director in the history of the school’s much-decorated band program. She attended Mars Hill College and after graduating with degrees in elementary education and music education, Shelton earned a master’s degree in music education from Appalachian State University. She taught band at Robbinsville High School for five years before returning to Hendersonville to teach at HHS and Hendersonville Middle School.
Under her baton, the school symphonic and marching bands performed at Billy Graham Congressional Medal Ceremony, the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the Gator, Sugar and Orange Bowls, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Chicago Symphony Hall, the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, Disney World and Atlanta Symphony Hall. In September 2011, School Band Orchestra magazine featured HHS "A Small School with a Big Band."
A past president of the North Carolina Bandmasters, Shelton also served as tour director of the North Carolina Band Ambassadors, leading high school musicians on performing trips to Europe. She also has served as the musical director of the Asheville Community Band.
A. Austin Harding Award
2024 Recipient - Robert W. Smith
Noted composer and band director at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, Robert W. Smith left his mark on the entire band world as a composer and arranger, but mostly as a teacher. As an alumnus of Troy University, he assumed the director of bands position in 1997. He also served as the coordinator for the Music Industry Program there and worked with Warner Brothers, Alfred Music, and C.L. Barnhouse Music publishers.
His compositions include over 600 works, including three complete symphonies, in addition to solo works and arrangements for every genre of instrumental ensemble.
Robert’s unanimous vote for this award was made just days before his untimely passing this past fall.
Outstanding Potential Award for Young Directors
Sponsored by the ASBDA Foundation