Associate Professor of Music

Ken Narducci was born and raised in Hayward, California, where he attended public schools and graduated valedictorian from Hayward High.  During this time, he studied piano and trumpet, and was part of a remarkable group of student musicians who are professional musicians today.  In 1980, he graduated from Pacific Union College with a BMus in trumpet performance, and was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship in trumpet at the University of Oregon in 1980.  There he played with the faculty brass quintet and wind ensemble, taught undergraduate trumpet majors, brass methods courses, and music theory and lit courses, eventually earning a DMA in music theory in 1989.  Dr. Narducci began his teaching career in 1982 at PUC, where he taught theory and analysis, counterpoint, orchestration, composition, conducting, applied brass, brass and percussion methods courses, and directed the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, chamber wind groups, and the jazz band.   The SWE, which was praised as “one of the best college bands in California,” participated regularly in collegiate wind festival adjudications, placed silver in International Music Festival competition, and was one of ten colleges and universities invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association regional convention in March of 1996.  In 1990, Dr. Narducci received the local and national Zapara Excellence in Teaching Awards in the humanities, the Educator of the Year award in 1995, and was honored as chair of faculty senate in 2005.  He played regularly with the Napa Valley Symphony, and has more recently taken up the horn as a new hobby, which he currently plays with the Rancho Belago Wind Symphony and the LSU Brass Quintet.  In 2006 he joined the LSU music faculty as Director of Wind and Percussion Studies, directs the Big Band and WE, and teaches conducting, counterpoint, orchestration, and composition.  He is happily married to Julie, an elementary music education specialist and fellow Zapara recipient, who was recently hired as LSU’s new Director of Alumni Relations.  The Narduccis cannot be without cats and are currently owned by two—Sukho, a Tonkinese, and Kiji, a Burmese.

The LSU Wind Ensemble is a select group of musicians, performing music from all periods and styles, with emphasis on new music for winds. It is devoted to the development of musicianship, artistic expression, and cultivating new audiences to this wonderful medium. Membership is by audition and includes undergraduate and graduate students who represent the varied majors and programs at LSU, as well as staff and community members. Many of the student members of the ensemble receive significant scholarship awards for their participation.

The Wind Ensemble performs regularly for church services, schools, civic programs and campus events. In the spring of 2004, the WE performed for the national conference of the Christian Instrumental Directors Association in Tennessee.  The ensemble most recently performed at the CSU–Fresno Collegiate Wind Festival in March 2008, where nationally renowned adjudicators praised the ensemble’s expressive musicality and technical prowess.