Thomas V. Fraschillo

Director of Bands
Professor of Music

D.M.A., University of South Carolina
M.M.Ed., The University of Southern Mississippi
B.M.Ed., The University of Southern Mississippi

E-mail: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: 601.266.4990

Thomas V. Fraschillo has served as catalyst and mentor for the the band world for 40 years. His influence on extremely high standards of performance has been felt by virtually every band in the Southeast and his performances serve as models throughout the world whether in the professional or academic arena. Through his recordings, The Music of Luigi Zaninelli and University of Southern Mississippi Wind Ensemble LIVE IN ITALY (recorded in Italy with the USM Wind Ensemble), and his publishing, conducting, and lecturing in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, he is considered an international musician/scholar. His most recent publications, a translation from the original Italian of Alessandro Vessella’s Studi di strumentazione (Instrumentation Studies) published by BMG Ricordi, Milan, and La Tecnica dell’orchestra contemporanea (The Technique of Contemporary Orchestration), by Alessandro Casella and Vittorio Mortari, published by BMG Ricordi have put his name in music libraries of the entire English speaking world. The translation of the Casella/Mortari makes available an English version of probably the most significant music publication on writing for orchestra in Europe after the Second World War. Dr. Fraschillo serves as a frequent conductor and lecturer in Italy as an American scholar. It should be noted that he lectures in Italy in the Italian language. His most recent conducting in Italy has been with La banda dell’esercito/The Italian Army Band from Rome.  One of his most significant engagements with them occurred in the summer of 2002 and signaled a very important milestone for the Italian Army in that Dr. Fraschillo was the first American born conductor to have been invited to appear in a public performance by what is considered Italy’s most prestigious military concert band. The concert with Dr. Fraschillo conducting was the opening concert of the International Festival in Spoleto, “The Festival of Two Worlds, Festival dei due mondi.” His appearance was enormously significant for conductors of bands in that the opening performance featured such international artists as Gian Carlo Menotti, the renowned composer who organized and began the event, the Orchestra and Giuseppe Verdi Chorus of Milan with Ricardo Chailly conducting, and the famous Italian actress, Claudia Cardinale whose work was being displayed in a film retrospective. Finally, in Italy Dr. Fraschillo often serves as a member of the giuria (judging panel) for many of their band festival most notably the Bacchetta d’oro, an international festival for bands from throughout Europe.

The Melbourne, Australia, Summer Youth Music Program has invited Dr. Fraschillo to be their guest conductor for the week long summer session for three years and in 2010 he will return to teach and conduct. In addition the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association continues to invite him to give lectures and to adjudicate at their large ensemble festivals. Dr. Fraschillo’s work in the Pacific Rim has not been limited to Australia, for he has recently served as clinician and guest conductor of the Central Armed Forces Band in Singapore. 

Dr. Fraschillo has devoted a significant amount of his career to the education of young people in the urban and rural environments of Mississippi. For example his ten-year tenure at Meridian High School was highlighted by an invitation to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious music event for wind and string educators. The invitation was only the second to have been given to a band from Mississippi.  Dr. Fraschillo’s Meridian students obtained successes not before reached, for he taught and helped place the first African-American female students, Vanessa Cox and Melanie Thomas, in the Mississippi All-State Band. Not only were they the first minority female members, but they were also the first African-American young women to be in the very highest positions in the group.

Dr. Fraschillo has attained a significant level of international leadership in that he serves as the past president of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association following in this office a long line of distinguished conductors. Other offices have been the presidency of the world’s largest organization for band directors, the National Band Association, and President of the CBDNA Southern Division.

Under his leadership the University of Southern Mississippi’s Wind Ensemble has been featured on frequent public radio broadcasts in Mississippi, on Performance Today, a program of PRI (Public Radio International), and has performed for many regional and national conventions including two of the American Bandmasters Association and three of the College Band Director’s National Association. In 1998, he brought the national convention of the American Bandmasters Association to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for its annual meeting. As a result of all of the above he is constantly in demand as a conductor and lecturer throughout the world and attracts a steady stream of graduate students to USM to study in its doctoral programs.