Dr. Kirk D. Moss is Associate Professor of Music at Minnesota State University Moorhead where he leads orchestral activities and string education. Under his baton, the University Symphony Orchestra has tripled in size and it performed for the 2007 North Dakota MEA Conference. He has appeared as a guest conductor, clinician, or adjudicator in over twenty states, including presenting sessions for The Midwest Clinic: An International Band and Orchestra Conference, MENC: The National Association for Music Education National Conference, and ASTA: American String Teachers Association National Conference.

The American String Teachers Association, comprised of nearly 11,500 members, recently voted him President-Elect; he will serve as national President from 2010-12. Kirk is the recipient of three ASTA National Citations for Leadership & Merit. His past service to ASTA includes an elected term as Secretary of the national Board of Directors, chair of the National Orchestra Festival®, president of the Georgia chapter, and member of the Minnesota board.

Kirk has twelve years experience teaching elementary, middle, and high school orchestras. One of his former schools honors him by annually awarding a college string scholarship in his name. School orchestras under his direction performed for The Midwest Clinic, Jubilee 2000 (Italy), earned the Gold Award at The San Francisco International Music Festival, the Grand Champion Award at The Orlando Festival of Music, and played three times for the Georgia MEA Conference (including a performance/clinic by the school’s thirty-member viola choir). Following his public school teaching career, he worked as Area Chair in Music Education at Valdosta State University, GA, where he led the South Georgia String Project.

He has written for Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra––Volumes 2 and 3, Journal of String Research, American String Teacher, Music Educators Journal, and The Instrumentalist. He completed a four-year term on the Music Educators Journal Editorial Committee for MENC.

Kirk holds a PhD in Music Education, conducting emphasis, from the University of Florida (Gainesville); a Master of Music, with a cognate in string pedagogy, from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he was a graduate teaching assistant for former ASTA president Gerald Doan; and a Bachelor of Music, with high distinction, from the University of Michigan guided by former ASTA president Robert Culver.

Kirk and his wife, Deb, recently celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary. They have three children: Bethany, Luke, and Lydia.