The People Behind MetWinds
James O'Dell
Acting Artistic Director
James (Jim) O'Dell has been professionally active in instrumental music and music education for the past forty years. Mr. O'Dell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Southern Oregon University and a Master of Music degree in Tuba, Euphonium, and Bass Trombone Performance from the University of Oregon. His graduate work also included residency in the DMA program at Arizona State University.
Mr. O’Dell is a distinguished and versatile educator, conductor, and musician. He recently retired as Associate Dean from Boston Conservatory at Berklee after serving 26 years, including twice as Dean and Chief Academic Officer ad interim, and Director of the Conservatory's Music Division. Mr. O'Dell was the Associate Conductor of MetWinds from 2002–2022, past Music Director of the Middlesex Concert Band, and Southeastern Massachusetts Community Concert Band. Mr. O'Dell has served as Director of Bands at Boston University and Mansfield University (PA). He is founder of the New England Collegiate Jazz Festival, Boston Tuba Christmas, and cofounder of the Boston Tuba Quartet and The Brass Consortium.
Given his extended history working with MetWinds, we are grateful to have his leadership during our search process for a permanent music director.
Mark Olson
Assistant Conductor
Mark Olson, Director of Harvard Band and Wind Ensemble, conducts the Harvard Wind Ensemble, serves as an advisor to the Harvard University Band and administers all aspects of the band program at Harvard. Under his direction, the Harvard Wind Ensemble has commissioned and premiered works by Libby Larsen, Tania León, and David Amram. Olson also is the Director of the Middlesex Concert Band and the New England Brass Band. Olson received degrees from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and the University of Minnesota. An active trumpet performer and soloist, he plays trumpet in the MetWinds, The Tarnished Brass and has been a member of the New Sousa Band as well as the symphony orchestras in Austin and Rochester, Minnesota.
Our advisory board helps to guide the group's direction/outlook and provides feedback during key decisions. We are pleased to announce our new slate of advisors who will help us continue to grow in our mission.
Lewis J. Buckley
Conductor Laureate
Lewis J. Buckley was born in Columbus, Ohio, but considers himself a native of Florida, the state in which he grew up. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music and his Master's degree from Connecticut College. While at Eastman, he earned the Performer's Certificate for outstanding performance on the trumpet, and he studied conducting and composition.
He enlisted into the U. S. Coast Guard Band in 1969, where he served as Principal Trumpet and Trumpet Soloist for six years. Then, in 1975, he became the Coast Guard Band's fifth Director at age 27, a post he held for over 29 years, becoming the longest-tenured conductor of a senior military band in American history.
Under his baton, the Coast Guard Band became a noted touring organization; released some 20 recordings; aired more taped and live concert broadcasts on National Public Radio than any other wind band, military or civilian, in the United States; and earned a reputation as one of the most accomplished wind bands in the world.
From 2004-2011, Buckley was the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Manchester (CT) Symphony Orchestra. For fifteen years, he conducted the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in its annual Symphony on Ice/Toys for Tots program, and he has also conducted the Eastern Connecticut Symphony during its summer series.
He continues to compose, arrange, and publish prolifically, and his music is widely performed, including a number of performances by the Metropolitan Wind Symphony. He also remains an active trumpet soloist, frequently combining solo appearances with conducting, often in premiere performances of his own commissioned works.
As our Music Director, Buckley brought to the MetWinds podium more than 30 years' professional experience in an unusually wide range of music-making. He is equally at home conducting, writing, or performing, with bands, orchestras, and choruses, in all styles of music from classical to commercial to jazz. The guest artists whom he has conducted reflect his range of experience; they include Walter Cronkite, opera giant Placido Domingo, Lorrie Morgan and Lone Star of country fame, the Motown sound of Martha Reeves, and many others.
David J. Martins
Music Director Emeritus
With a dual career as a clarinet performer and conductor, David J. Martins balances orchestral and chamber venues with an active teaching and conducting schedule. He is a Master Lecturer in the School of Music at Boston University where he is Music Director of the Wind Ensemble and teaches Applied Clarinet, Chamber Music and Graduate Conducting.
In the Spring of 2019 the Wind Ensemble released on Summit Records its third recording of four works by Boston University composers for wind ensemble of which three were written for the ensemble. In 2015 the ensemble released its second recording of Trumpet Concerti with Boston University Professor Terry Everson. In 2013, the ensemble released its first recording of Ketty Nez’s Piano Concerto entitled Thresholds on Ravello Records and in 2014, premiered the wind ensemble transcription of John Williams’ Tuba Concerto with Mike Roylance, principal tuba of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble also performed at the 2014 CBDNA East Conference.
He is Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Department of Music, where he was the Wind Ensemble Director and clarinet faculty for 35 years. He was a Berkshire Music Festival Tanglewood Fellow and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Lowell, College of Music.
Professor Martins is the founding music director of both the Rivers Conservatory Youth Wind Ensemble 2014-2017 and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensembles where he was conductor of the senior division from 2002-2012 and conducted the ensemble at Carnegie Hall. During his ten-year tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony (of which he is now Director Emeritus), the ensemble performed at the National Conference of the Association of Concert Bands and commissioned numerous new compositions. Since the summer of 1999, Mr. Martins has served on the faculty of Boston University Tanglewood Institute as Director of Wind Activities for the Young Artist Orchestra and, since the summer of 2005, conducts the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Wind Ensemble.
Professor Martins is a member of the clarinet section of the Boston Ballet Orchestra and Bach, Beethoven and Brahms Society Orchestra. He performs as a substitute player with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony. He has done tours throughout the United States with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. For 25 years, he performed as second clarinet with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Symphony New Hampshire, Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Classical Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alea III, Musica Viva, and Monadnock Music Festival. In past years he toured with the Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra of Germany on their U.S. tours, the Puccini Festival Orchestra throughout Italy, and performed six tours throughout Greece and Russia as soloist and member of the contemporary chamber ensemble Alea III. He can be heard on orchestral and chamber recordings on the BSO, CRI, Koch, Titanic, Gasparo and Albany labels.