Chapter four

The Presidents

NABBA has been led by 12 presidents since Perry Watson convened the founding committee in the winter of 1982. The first seven are told in Diana Herak's 2007 history, written “through the eyes of each of its presidents”; the rest are assembled from the Bridge, the board's minutes and the association's own web pages. The current president is Tony Granados.

13: presidencies
12: people
2: women
1983–: since

J. Perry Watson
1st presidency
J. Perry Watson
1983–1987 · Raleigh, NC
J. Perry Watson, Director of Music at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, founded the NCSU British Brass Band in 1965. Its yearly concerts of British music, often with a pipe-and-drum band, became popular across the South, and from 1977 he hosted annual brass band festivals at NC State. One of them, "A British Brass Band Showcase" on March 14, 1981, brought Denzil Stephens and Peter Wilson from the United Kingdom as lecturers and conductors; Yamaha provided the instruments, and several new bands formed at its close, among them the Smoky Mountain British Brass Band. An ad-hoc committee formed at Raleigh and over the next two years planned a continent-wide organisation. A two-week trip to England in 1978 had already lit the fuse. Watson, Ron Phillips, Doug Smith and John Kincaid played seven or eight hours a day at an informal band camp under Roy Newsome and Edward Gregson and sat in on rehearsals of local bands. After a Black Dyke Mills rehearsal Watson wrote: "I was not prepared to absorb such unbelievably beautiful brass sounds… I was determined that we in the USA should have the benefit of this type of highly skilled, amateur music making in every state." During the winter of 1982–83 the Founding Committee — Bill Bennett, Harvey Bosell, Richard Trevarthen, Perry Watson, Bert Wiley and Peter Wilson — created the North American Brass Band Association, and Watson became its first President, serving until 1987. He wrote the booklets "Starting a British Brass Band" (Yamaha) and "The Care and Feeding of a Community British Brass Band" (Boosey & Hawkes) and gave them to every new band; produced the tape-slide show "Strike Up the British Brass Band"; and from 1986 to 1989 ran eighteen Yamaha-sponsored American Brass Band Workshops around the country, from which the Triangle, Madison, Salt River and Sheldon Theatre bands, among others, still survive. With his wife Frances Purdy Watson he ran Purdy's Brass Connection, the first major importer of British brass band music and recordings, at a time when UK publishers would not take credit cards and orders took months. He founded The Brass Band Bridge in 1980 and edited it for five years: "Because of vast distances within this country to and from the British Isles, one of the first tasks I saw was communications… In essence, we needed to build bridges to one another." He organised and hosted the first Championships in Raleigh on April 23, 1983, recruited Paul Droste to succeed him, and conducted the NCSU band at the Championships until 1989.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Paul Droste
2nd presidency
Paul E. Droste
1987–1991 · Brass Band of Columbus, OH
Dr. Paul Droste, former director of The Ohio State University Marching Band, became NABBA's second President in 1987 and served until 1991. He first met NABBA at Championship II in West Chester in 1984, where, about to judge the New Zealand national contest, he asked to sit with adjudicators Roy Newsome, William Himes and Charles Baker. In August 1984 he founded the Brass Band of Columbus, which competed for the first time in 1986 and won the Championship Section — the first of its many titles — and hosted the Championships at Dublin Coffman High School in 1987, 1992 and 1996. Other Columbus bands followed: the Varsity and Junior Varsity All-Star Brass Bands, youth bands founded by Dr. Eric Aho, BBC's solo euphonium player, with rehearsal space and instruments from the OSU Marching Band and music from Purdy's Brass Connection; a Youth Section was added to the Championships in 1986 and the All-Stars made their debut in 1987. The Ohio Collegiate Brass, organised in 1990 by Droste with Joel Pugh, David Eaton and Gary Tirey, became the only band in NABBA history to win all three adult sections before splitting in 1995 into University Brass and the Central Ohio Brass Band. Droste took over the Yamaha/NABBA Summer Brass Band Workshops when Watson retired and held forty-five of them between 1990 and 2005. Bands that began at those workshops and are still playing include the Brass Band of Battle Creek, Ohio Valley British Brass Band, Cincinnati Brass Band, Southwestern Michigan College Brass Band, Golden State British Brass Band, Brass Band of Minot, Ozark Mountains British Brass Band and the Brass Band of Huntsville. He summed up his four years simply: "NABBA continued on the path blazed by Perry Watson." The Championships grew in size and standard, and the new bands from the workshops were brought into the fold.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Don and KD Kneeburg
3rd presidency
Don W. Kneeburg
1992–1993 · Sunshine Brass, Tampa, FL
Hooked by recordings of the International Staff Band and the New York Staff Band, Don Kneeburg and his wife Karen (KD) decided in 1983 to start their own brass band in Tampa, Florida. Through Don's connections at the University of South Florida and KD's with The Salvation Army in St. Petersburg they began Sunshine Brass — once they had found instruments, borrowed from St. Leo College, where a complete set sat unused. On April 23, 1983 the Kneeburgs were at the first Championships in Raleigh, and the next day they were part of the discussion that established the North American Brass Band Association. Sunshine Brass became the first band in NABBA history to complete a hat-trick, winning the Honors Section in 1984, 1985 and 1986, KD conducting and Don on principal trombone. KD served on the Board and edited The Brass Band Bridge for four years from September 1985, with Don as associate editor. Don was elected President in 1992. Under his tenure the Reading Band was added to the Championships, with music from Bert Wiley's Bernel Music (successor to Purdy's Brass Connection) and Ron Holz conducting; and he asked Holz to become the new editor of the Bridge. The Kneeburgs later retired to Wyoming, where they researched and lectured on the state's brass band history: "we are still brass band fans to the end."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Thomas A. Myers
4th presidency
Tom Myers
1994–1995 · Akron, OH · Bridge editor 1988–92
Tom Myers' introduction to the all-brass band was an LP of The Ohio State University Marching Band — "from that moment I was going to Ohio State to play in the band." He played trombone and baritone there, took an MBA, served as an Army officer in Germany and spent eighteen years leading investor relations at TRW in Cleveland. Around forty, wanting to play and conduct again, he was pointed to Paul Droste, who introduced him to Perry Watson. Asked onto the NABBA Board, he took over the Treasurer's job from Mike Swaffar and then, at Droste's request, the editorship of The Brass Band Bridge, which he ran for four years: correspondents recruited from each band, a wider range of subjects, a livelier three-column layout with more graphics. Ron Holz succeeded him as editor in 1992 and Sara North later as Treasurer. Not a member of a competing band, he served for many years as the contest's stage director (Controller), then as Vice President and President, succeeding Don Kneeburg. His presidency reinvigorated the Canadian bands: the Weston Silver Band hosted the 1995 Championships in Toronto, and the "Instant Band" idea — a pick-up band for members who could not field a full band, rehearsing over two twelve-hour sessions at the contest — took shape with the Maple Leaf Brass Band of Ottawa under David Druce. The screening of judges was debated in his time; he preferred none, "since I also believe that the visual is an important part of a performance," and saw the Championships as "an annual gathering of brass band colleagues and friends, a festival that also includes a little friendly competition."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Ronald W. Holz
5th presidency
Ronald W. Holz
1996–1999 · Asbury College, Wilmore, KY
Ron Holz first came to NABBA in 1987 at Paul Droste's invitation, having just set up the God & Country concert series between the Brass Band of Columbus and The Salvation Army. He learned the Controller's job behind the scenes and by NABBA VI in Hammonton (1988) was running the contest — a post he held for many years, mentoring Tim Holtan, Beth Steele, John de Salme and Tom Scheibner, and leaving behind better adjudicator panels, a cleaner scoring process and written guidelines for judges. He felt the weekend lacked something for those who came but did not compete. The Reading Band, first held in Dublin in 1992, gave them a place to play, and he ran it every year but Toronto 1995. When he hosted the Championships in Lexington in 1998 he launched the Solo Contest; the Ensemble Contest followed in 1999. He edited The Brass Band Bridge from 1992 to 1996, increasing its issues and content, and passed it to Colin Holman on becoming President. As President (two terms) he began strategic planning with Vice President Thomas Palmatier, set up year-round committees, had a Hosting Manual written, and sent Board Bulletins to the member bands from 1996 — eight or more a year, in the days before email — including Bulletin #13 of November 1998 with the first Adjudicators' Guidelines shared with bands. The 1998 Band Survey asked whether the Championships should stay annual and where it should live, and led to the President's discretionary funding of regional festivals, which had begun with a $250 grant to the 1995 Lexington Brass Band Festival. From 1993 he managed the relationship with the Great American Brass Band Festival, first through a taped selection and later by Championships placing. Lexington 1998 was a high-water mark for entries. "Those who have taken up leadership have done so in a selfless way, and have not used the organization for their own or their band's gain."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Thomas H. Palmatier
6th presidency
Tom Palmatier
2000–2001 · Director, The U.S. Army Brass Band
Thomas Palmatier joined the NABBA Board in 1990, soon after his appointment as Director of The U.S. Army Brass Band, and served two terms as Vice President under Ron Holz, supervising advertising in the Bridge and much of NABBA's fiscal management. His election as President in 2000 was a vote for continuing in the same direction. As Director of the Army Brass Band he produced live recordings from the Championships — "Firestorm", featuring Stephen Bulla's commissioned work of that name, and later "Sunburst" with soloists Phil McCann and Robert and Nicholas Childs — and in 1996 led the Dominion Brass Band to first place in the Honors Section. As President he applied his training in management sciences and strategic planning. An idea for a "super conference" every four years with the National Band Association and other band associations did not find consensus, but it made the Board think about NABBA's larger role in North American music. Board goals were adopted: expansion beyond the traditional hub of the East Coast and Ohio, with effort spent on bands in the West; and the commissioning of original works, which bore fruit in Bruce Broughton's "Masters of Space and Time", the Championship Section test piece of 2001. His most lasting initiative was moving The Brass Band Bridge to an electronic format, as printing and mailing were consuming a growing share of the budget; the Bridge began to be offered online, with a reduced membership rate for members who chose it. He went on to command the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus and the U.S. Army School of Music, was promoted to Colonel, and returned to NABBA as an adjudicator in 2007.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Anita Cocker Hunt
7th presidency
Anita Cocker Hunt
2002–2007 · Cincinnati Brass Band
Anita Cocker Hunt was the first president in NABBA's history to complete three terms. In her six years the association took some bold steps. NABBA no longer needed to recruit a host band each year: it now ran the Championships itself, taking full financial responsibility, and a long-term commitment began with Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana. She brought faster communication to the Board, with much more business discussed and voted by email; started the Silver Bells campaign to raise funds; and in 2007 secured a major grant from Buffet Crampon USA for the Championships and other projects. Her own music began in Cleveland with The Salvation Army — offered cornet or percussion, she "chose wisely." She earned degrees in music education and trumpet from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, taught in the Cleveland area, played in the Cleveland Women's Symphony Orchestra, and with her Salvation Army band appeared briefly in the 1983 film "A Christmas Story." She returned to Cincinnati as Divisional Music Director for The Salvation Army and took a master's degree in wind conducting from CCM. In 1993 she became a founding member and conductor of the Cincinnati Brass Band, Challenge Section champions in 1996 and 1997, which hosted the Championships in 2002 and that year played an Olympic Pops concert with the Cincinnati Pops under Erich Kunzel. She also organises and conducts the Athena Brass Band, an all-female band drawn largely from NABBA bands. The paper's verdict: "She is always pleasant and positive, ready to act or react, a step ahead with new ideas, and is the glue that has held the organization together in so many ways."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
RM
8th presidency
Russell "Rusty" Morris
2007–2011 · Natural State Brass Band, Little Rock, AR
Elected September 2007; still President on the March 2011 board page (nabba.org via the Wayback Machine); Steve Allen had taken over by February 2012 (Bridge issues 106–118; archived board pages).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
SA
9th presidency
Steve Allen
2011–2015 · New Jersey
President on the archived nabba.org board pages of February 2012 and October 2014 (terms listed to June 2015); Development Committee chair before that.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
RB
10th presidency
Randi Bulla
2015–2019 · Maryland
Vice-President 2012–2015, President from mid-2015 (archived board pages Jan 2016 and Dec 2016; April 2018 board minutes) until Tony Granados took office in 2019.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
TG
11th presidency · first time
Tony Granados
2019–2023 · Triangle Brass Band, NC
Two terms, 2019–2023 (re-elected April 2021, board minutes; Bridge issue 124).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
PH
12th presidency
Patrick Herak
2023–2025 · Ohio
Dr. Patrick Herak, 2023–2025 (Bridge issues 127–129).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
TG
13th presidency · second time
Tony Granados
2025–present · second time
Returned as President July 2025; current term runs to June 2027.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.

J. Perry Watson
1st presidency
J. Perry Watson
1983–1987 · Raleigh, NC
J. Perry Watson, Director of Music at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, founded the NCSU British Brass Band in 1965. Its yearly concerts of British music, often with a pipe-and-drum band, became popular across the South, and from 1977 he hosted annual brass band festivals at NC State. One of them, "A British Brass Band Showcase" on March 14, 1981, brought Denzil Stephens and Peter Wilson from the United Kingdom as lecturers and conductors; Yamaha provided the instruments, and several new bands formed at its close, among them the Smoky Mountain British Brass Band. An ad-hoc committee formed at Raleigh and over the next two years planned a continent-wide organisation. A two-week trip to England in 1978 had already lit the fuse. Watson, Ron Phillips, Doug Smith and John Kincaid played seven or eight hours a day at an informal band camp under Roy Newsome and Edward Gregson and sat in on rehearsals of local bands. After a Black Dyke Mills rehearsal Watson wrote: "I was not prepared to absorb such unbelievably beautiful brass sounds… I was determined that we in the USA should have the benefit of this type of highly skilled, amateur music making in every state." During the winter of 1982–83 the Founding Committee — Bill Bennett, Harvey Bosell, Richard Trevarthen, Perry Watson, Bert Wiley and Peter Wilson — created the North American Brass Band Association, and Watson became its first President, serving until 1987. He wrote the booklets "Starting a British Brass Band" (Yamaha) and "The Care and Feeding of a Community British Brass Band" (Boosey & Hawkes) and gave them to every new band; produced the tape-slide show "Strike Up the British Brass Band"; and from 1986 to 1989 ran eighteen Yamaha-sponsored American Brass Band Workshops around the country, from which the Triangle, Madison, Salt River and Sheldon Theatre bands, among others, still survive. With his wife Frances Purdy Watson he ran Purdy's Brass Connection, the first major importer of British brass band music and recordings, at a time when UK publishers would not take credit cards and orders took months. He founded The Brass Band Bridge in 1980 and edited it for five years: "Because of vast distances within this country to and from the British Isles, one of the first tasks I saw was communications… In essence, we needed to build bridges to one another." He organised and hosted the first Championships in Raleigh on April 23, 1983, recruited Paul Droste to succeed him, and conducted the NCSU band at the Championships until 1989.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Paul Droste
2nd presidency
Paul E. Droste
1987–1991 · Brass Band of Columbus, OH
Dr. Paul Droste, former director of The Ohio State University Marching Band, became NABBA's second President in 1987 and served until 1991. He first met NABBA at Championship II in West Chester in 1984, where, about to judge the New Zealand national contest, he asked to sit with adjudicators Roy Newsome, William Himes and Charles Baker. In August 1984 he founded the Brass Band of Columbus, which competed for the first time in 1986 and won the Championship Section — the first of its many titles — and hosted the Championships at Dublin Coffman High School in 1987, 1992 and 1996. Other Columbus bands followed: the Varsity and Junior Varsity All-Star Brass Bands, youth bands founded by Dr. Eric Aho, BBC's solo euphonium player, with rehearsal space and instruments from the OSU Marching Band and music from Purdy's Brass Connection; a Youth Section was added to the Championships in 1986 and the All-Stars made their debut in 1987. The Ohio Collegiate Brass, organised in 1990 by Droste with Joel Pugh, David Eaton and Gary Tirey, became the only band in NABBA history to win all three adult sections before splitting in 1995 into University Brass and the Central Ohio Brass Band. Droste took over the Yamaha/NABBA Summer Brass Band Workshops when Watson retired and held forty-five of them between 1990 and 2005. Bands that began at those workshops and are still playing include the Brass Band of Battle Creek, Ohio Valley British Brass Band, Cincinnati Brass Band, Southwestern Michigan College Brass Band, Golden State British Brass Band, Brass Band of Minot, Ozark Mountains British Brass Band and the Brass Band of Huntsville. He summed up his four years simply: "NABBA continued on the path blazed by Perry Watson." The Championships grew in size and standard, and the new bands from the workshops were brought into the fold.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Don and KD Kneeburg
3rd presidency
Don W. Kneeburg
1992–1993 · Sunshine Brass, Tampa, FL
Hooked by recordings of the International Staff Band and the New York Staff Band, Don Kneeburg and his wife Karen (KD) decided in 1983 to start their own brass band in Tampa, Florida. Through Don's connections at the University of South Florida and KD's with The Salvation Army in St. Petersburg they began Sunshine Brass — once they had found instruments, borrowed from St. Leo College, where a complete set sat unused. On April 23, 1983 the Kneeburgs were at the first Championships in Raleigh, and the next day they were part of the discussion that established the North American Brass Band Association. Sunshine Brass became the first band in NABBA history to complete a hat-trick, winning the Honors Section in 1984, 1985 and 1986, KD conducting and Don on principal trombone. KD served on the Board and edited The Brass Band Bridge for four years from September 1985, with Don as associate editor. Don was elected President in 1992. Under his tenure the Reading Band was added to the Championships, with music from Bert Wiley's Bernel Music (successor to Purdy's Brass Connection) and Ron Holz conducting; and he asked Holz to become the new editor of the Bridge. The Kneeburgs later retired to Wyoming, where they researched and lectured on the state's brass band history: "we are still brass band fans to the end."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Thomas A. Myers
4th presidency
Tom Myers
1994–1995 · Akron, OH · Bridge editor 1988–92
Tom Myers' introduction to the all-brass band was an LP of The Ohio State University Marching Band — "from that moment I was going to Ohio State to play in the band." He played trombone and baritone there, took an MBA, served as an Army officer in Germany and spent eighteen years leading investor relations at TRW in Cleveland. Around forty, wanting to play and conduct again, he was pointed to Paul Droste, who introduced him to Perry Watson. Asked onto the NABBA Board, he took over the Treasurer's job from Mike Swaffar and then, at Droste's request, the editorship of The Brass Band Bridge, which he ran for four years: correspondents recruited from each band, a wider range of subjects, a livelier three-column layout with more graphics. Ron Holz succeeded him as editor in 1992 and Sara North later as Treasurer. Not a member of a competing band, he served for many years as the contest's stage director (Controller), then as Vice President and President, succeeding Don Kneeburg. His presidency reinvigorated the Canadian bands: the Weston Silver Band hosted the 1995 Championships in Toronto, and the "Instant Band" idea — a pick-up band for members who could not field a full band, rehearsing over two twelve-hour sessions at the contest — took shape with the Maple Leaf Brass Band of Ottawa under David Druce. The screening of judges was debated in his time; he preferred none, "since I also believe that the visual is an important part of a performance," and saw the Championships as "an annual gathering of brass band colleagues and friends, a festival that also includes a little friendly competition."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Ronald W. Holz
5th presidency
Ronald W. Holz
1996–1999 · Asbury College, Wilmore, KY
Ron Holz first came to NABBA in 1987 at Paul Droste's invitation, having just set up the God & Country concert series between the Brass Band of Columbus and The Salvation Army. He learned the Controller's job behind the scenes and by NABBA VI in Hammonton (1988) was running the contest — a post he held for many years, mentoring Tim Holtan, Beth Steele, John de Salme and Tom Scheibner, and leaving behind better adjudicator panels, a cleaner scoring process and written guidelines for judges. He felt the weekend lacked something for those who came but did not compete. The Reading Band, first held in Dublin in 1992, gave them a place to play, and he ran it every year but Toronto 1995. When he hosted the Championships in Lexington in 1998 he launched the Solo Contest; the Ensemble Contest followed in 1999. He edited The Brass Band Bridge from 1992 to 1996, increasing its issues and content, and passed it to Colin Holman on becoming President. As President (two terms) he began strategic planning with Vice President Thomas Palmatier, set up year-round committees, had a Hosting Manual written, and sent Board Bulletins to the member bands from 1996 — eight or more a year, in the days before email — including Bulletin #13 of November 1998 with the first Adjudicators' Guidelines shared with bands. The 1998 Band Survey asked whether the Championships should stay annual and where it should live, and led to the President's discretionary funding of regional festivals, which had begun with a $250 grant to the 1995 Lexington Brass Band Festival. From 1993 he managed the relationship with the Great American Brass Band Festival, first through a taped selection and later by Championships placing. Lexington 1998 was a high-water mark for entries. "Those who have taken up leadership have done so in a selfless way, and have not used the organization for their own or their band's gain."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Thomas H. Palmatier
6th presidency
Tom Palmatier
2000–2001 · Director, The U.S. Army Brass Band
Thomas Palmatier joined the NABBA Board in 1990, soon after his appointment as Director of The U.S. Army Brass Band, and served two terms as Vice President under Ron Holz, supervising advertising in the Bridge and much of NABBA's fiscal management. His election as President in 2000 was a vote for continuing in the same direction. As Director of the Army Brass Band he produced live recordings from the Championships — "Firestorm", featuring Stephen Bulla's commissioned work of that name, and later "Sunburst" with soloists Phil McCann and Robert and Nicholas Childs — and in 1996 led the Dominion Brass Band to first place in the Honors Section. As President he applied his training in management sciences and strategic planning. An idea for a "super conference" every four years with the National Band Association and other band associations did not find consensus, but it made the Board think about NABBA's larger role in North American music. Board goals were adopted: expansion beyond the traditional hub of the East Coast and Ohio, with effort spent on bands in the West; and the commissioning of original works, which bore fruit in Bruce Broughton's "Masters of Space and Time", the Championship Section test piece of 2001. His most lasting initiative was moving The Brass Band Bridge to an electronic format, as printing and mailing were consuming a growing share of the budget; the Bridge began to be offered online, with a reduced membership rate for members who chose it. He went on to command the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus and the U.S. Army School of Music, was promoted to Colonel, and returned to NABBA as an adjudicator in 2007.
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
Anita Cocker Hunt
7th presidency
Anita Cocker Hunt
2002–2007 · Cincinnati Brass Band
Anita Cocker Hunt was the first president in NABBA's history to complete three terms. In her six years the association took some bold steps. NABBA no longer needed to recruit a host band each year: it now ran the Championships itself, taking full financial responsibility, and a long-term commitment began with Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana. She brought faster communication to the Board, with much more business discussed and voted by email; started the Silver Bells campaign to raise funds; and in 2007 secured a major grant from Buffet Crampon USA for the Championships and other projects. Her own music began in Cleveland with The Salvation Army — offered cornet or percussion, she "chose wisely." She earned degrees in music education and trumpet from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, taught in the Cleveland area, played in the Cleveland Women's Symphony Orchestra, and with her Salvation Army band appeared briefly in the 1983 film "A Christmas Story." She returned to Cincinnati as Divisional Music Director for The Salvation Army and took a master's degree in wind conducting from CCM. In 1993 she became a founding member and conductor of the Cincinnati Brass Band, Challenge Section champions in 1996 and 1997, which hosted the Championships in 2002 and that year played an Olympic Pops concert with the Cincinnati Pops under Erich Kunzel. She also organises and conducts the Athena Brass Band, an all-female band drawn largely from NABBA bands. The paper's verdict: "She is always pleasant and positive, ready to act or react, a step ahead with new ideas, and is the glue that has held the organization together in so many ways."
Source: Diana Herak, The History of the North American Brass Band Association (2007)
RM
8th presidency
Russell "Rusty" Morris
2007–2011 · Natural State Brass Band, Little Rock, AR
Elected September 2007; still President on the March 2011 board page (nabba.org via the Wayback Machine); Steve Allen had taken over by February 2012 (Bridge issues 106–118; archived board pages).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
SA
9th presidency
Steve Allen
2011–2015 · New Jersey
President on the archived nabba.org board pages of February 2012 and October 2014 (terms listed to June 2015); Development Committee chair before that.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
RB
10th presidency
Randi Bulla
2015–2019 · Maryland
Vice-President 2012–2015, President from mid-2015 (archived board pages Jan 2016 and Dec 2016; April 2018 board minutes) until Tony Granados took office in 2019.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
TG
11th presidency · first time
Tony Granados
2019–2023 · Triangle Brass Band, NC
Two terms, 2019–2023 (re-elected April 2021, board minutes; Bridge issue 124).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
PH
12th presidency
Patrick Herak
2023–2025 · Ohio
Dr. Patrick Herak, 2023–2025 (Bridge issues 127–129).
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.
TG
13th presidency · second time
Tony Granados
2025–present · second time
Returned as President July 2025; current term runs to June 2027.
A fuller account of this presidency is still being written. Memories and photographs to history@nabba.org.

J. Perry Watson

Paul E. Droste

Don W. Kneeburg

Tom Myers

Ronald W. Holz

Tom Palmatier

Anita Cocker Hunt

Russell "Rusty" Morris

Steve Allen

Randi Bulla

Tony Granados

Patrick Herak

Tony Granados

J. Perry Watson

Paul E. Droste

Don W. Kneeburg

Tom Myers

Ronald W. Holz

Tom Palmatier

Anita Cocker Hunt

Russell "Rusty" Morris

Steve Allen

Randi Bulla

Tony Granados

Patrick Herak

Tony Granados