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Mark Nichols
Brass Instructor

Mark Nichols is entering his fourth season on the brass staff with the Bluecoats. He is currently the director of bands at Blue Valley West High School. Before coming to Blue Valley West, he was the Associate Director of Bands at Blue Valley High School where he was the first director ever to earn straight first division ratings at large group festival with the Concert Band. Before he came to the Blue Valley school district, he was a graduate assistant at Baylor University where worked towards a maters in Instrumental Conducting. He also taught for five years in the Richardson School District in the Dallas area where he was the head director at Parkhill Junior High School and the assistant director at Pearce High School. At Pearce his marching bands twice finished as an alternate to the prestigious Texas state marching contest. His jazz bands won the Collin County Community College Contest all three years they entered and won the TCU jazz festival in their only year of attendance. His jazz band also finished sixteenth nationally in the Essentially Ellington Contest. His Concert and Symphonic Bands earned consistent first division ratings and he earned straight ones with a symphonic band that had gone five years without the top ratings. At Parkill his concert band finished in a tie for first with the BBB Hone Band at the UNT peak Music Festival. He doubled the size of the program in just two years and when he left to pursue a graduate degree, the program had over 300 members in a 750 person school. His beginner band program produced six current Texas All-State Band members and several of his musicians and gone on to study music and music education. His concert bands, jazz bands, and marching bands all received numerous awards including regional, state, and national recognition. He has a Bachelors and Masters in Music Education from the University of North Texas. He is happily married to his wife, Lee Ann.