Robert Grogan is presently the Director of Bands at Barber Middle School in Cobb County, Georgia. During his tenure at Barber, the band program has grown from initially 280 students to nearly 400. Bands under his direction have consistently received superior ratings at GMEA and festival events. In 2015, the Barber Middle School Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the Music for All Regional Concert Band Festival and in 2016 at the University of Alabama Middle School Honor Band Clinic.
Prior to his current position, he was the Director of Bands at Willowcreek Middle School and the Assistant Director of the Lehi High School Marching Band in Lehi, Utah. While at Willowcreek, the Wind Symphony was consistently invited to perform at the Utah Junior High State Band Festival, which selects only the highest achieving junior high and middle school concert bands from around the state.
Mr. Grogan has been very active with community bands. He was the conductor of the Lehi Symphonic Band as well as a performer with the Salt Lake Symphonic Winds and the Wasatch Winds. Currently, he performs with the Tara Winds which was invited to perform at the 2015 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Mr. Grogan is an active clinician and adjudicator. He has presented sessions to music education majors at Reinhardt University, Columbus State University, and the University of Georgia. As a drill designer and music arranger, he has designed shows for bands throughout the Southeast, the Metropolitan D.C. area, and the Mountain West.
He is a recipient of the National Band Association’s “Citation of Excellence” as well as being a 2016 National Quarter-Finalist in the Grammy Foundation’s Music Educator of the Year Award. In the April 2017 edition of The Journal of Research in Music Education, he will be published with his co-authored paper, “The Development and Validation of a Rubric to Assess Secondary-Level Solo Music Performance Using Hermeneutic and Psychometric Rating Protocols.”
Mr. Grogan received his Master of Music Education from the University of Georgia and his Bachelor of Music from the Schwob School of Music, where he performed with the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and the CSU Saxophone Quartet. Before teaching and college, Mr. Grogan spent four years serving active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, performing with the Albany Marine Band. He currently lives in Acworth, GA with his wife, Jennifer, their son, Jude, and daughter, Emma.
Mr. Bradley Rikard is currently serving in his first year as the Associate Director of Bands at Barber Middle School in Kennesaw, GA. Before working at Barber, Mr. Rikard was the Assistant Director of Bands at Lindley Middle School in Cobb County from 2009-2015. While at Lindley, the Band Program experienced tremendous growth in quantity and quality, with the program almost tripling in size and receiving consistent high ratings at LGPE.
In addition to his middle school responsibilities, Mr. Rikard assists with several outstanding marching bands including Hillgrove High School and North Cobb High School. In 2015, he served as a visual and music technician for the inaugural year of the Kennesaw State University Marching Owls.
Mr. Rikard completed his Master’s of Music Education from Florida State University in 2015. In 2007, Mr. Rikard completed his Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Saxophone Performance from Georgia Southern University.
Mr. Rikard is an active performer as Principal Saxophone with the Tara Winds adult community band, which was recently selected to perform at the 2015 Midwest Clinic in Chicago. As a performer in both classical and jazz idioms, Mr. Rikard has shared the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Eugene Rousseau, Otis Murphy, The Zagreb Quartet, The New Century Quartet, Tom “Bones” Malone, Mark Camphouse, Steve Bryant, Harry Watters, Sam Hazo, Jamey Aebersold, and Colonel John Bourgeois.
Mr. Rikard’s professional affiliations include: National Association for Music Education, Georgia Music Educators Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
He currently resides in Kennesaw with his fiancée, Megan and golden retriever, Grainger.
Mark Burroughs – Assistant Director of Bands
Mark Burroughs began teaching in Cobb County in August of 2010 when he began teaching the Orchestra program at Barber Middle school. In addition to his middle school duties he also serves on the Marching Band staff at Harrison High School, as a Brass and Marching technician. In the Fall of 2011, Mark also joined the local symphonic Ensemble, Tara Winds, under the direction of Andrea Strauss.
Previous to teaching in Cobb County, Mark completed an Artist Diploma from at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in May of 2010. There he served as the tuba graduate assistant to Craig Knox, as well as assisting Dr. Paul Doerksen with the brass methods course. While working on this performance certificate, Mark also taught private music lessons, works with the Kiski Area High School marching band and taught elementary/middle school band in several Catholic Schools around Pittsburgh. He has earned both a Bachelors of Music Education and a Masters in Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. He has studied privately with Dan Perantoni, Tony Kniffen, Richard White, Brian Kiser and Gil Long.
Mark has most recently served as tubist with the Dallas Brass for several performances and educational clinics across North America. He has also performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, Terra Haute Symphony Orchestra, and Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra in Indiana. While completing his Masters Degree, Mark performed two tours with the Mr. Jack Daniels Original Silver Cornet Band, as well completing multiple recording sessions for Hal Leonard Publishing at the Airborne Studios of Indianapolis, Indiana. He has been a finalist in several auditions, including the Chicago Civic Orchestra and The United States Military Academy Band at West Point. He toured with the original U.S. and Broadway cast of BLAST! in 2000-2001. Mark currently lives in Acworth with his wife, Nicole, their two cats Girds and Pie and his Siberian Huskies, Juno and Maggie.
Bert Groover – Director of Percussion
Bert Groover is presently an active freelance percussionist throughout the Atlanta area. He is teaching at Barber as well as Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone, Rising Starr Middle School in Peachtree City, and Starr’s Mill High School in Peachtree City.
Prior to moving to the Atlanta area, he was in the Columbus, GA area where he completed his Undergraduate degree in Music Education as well as his Master’s degree in Percussion Performance at Columbus State University. While at Columbus State, Bert studied with Dr. Paul Vaillancourt. He has played in ensembles under the Direction of Dr. Robert Rumbelow, Mr. Paul Hostetter, and Dr. Jamie Nix. As a member in these ensembles, Bert was privileged to play at the National Conference of the Collegiate Band Directors Association in Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota as well as several performances at the Georgia Music Educators Association conferences held in Savannah GA. Other performances include the International Saxophone Competition and Symposium held in Columbus, GA as a member of the percussion section, numerous world premiere performances with the percussion ensemble and wind ensembles at Columbus State, and the Collegiate Band Directors Association Southern Division Conference held in Kennesaw GA.
While in Columbus, Bert also performed regularly throughout the community at the Springer Opera House, local churches, and in LaGrange as a member of the Symphony Orchestra. He was also a member of Ritmo Blu world percussion ensemble.
Between his Undergraduate and Masters programs, Bert taught in the public schools around Columbus for five years at the high school and middle school levels. He is currently living in Newnan with his wife, Casie, son, Mayson, and daughter, Marian.
We have awesome teachers at Barber Middle School! Band rocks!
I LOVE BEING IN PERCUSSION!!!
BAND IS AWSOME THE DIRECTORS R AWSOME……………………MY FIRST YEAR IN BAND IS GOING GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Being in the Barber Band is really fun.
I more than appreciate being in the Barber band and Mr. Grogan and Mr.Cahol are wonderful teachers who have inspired me to express my personality through my instrument.
Band is awesome!! *\( ‘o ‘)/*
I enjoy band! 😀
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I love being in band!! 😀 We’re gonna rock 7th grade LGPE
Being a band student at barber has been a really awesome experience for me! It’s amazing how we have come so far in band playing a bunch of music that is fun to perform!
Band is super fun and educational for you mind while keeping you amateur and breath you learn how to conserve air but give it off fast so basically band can teach you alot and five alot to you and you may not want to go in but once you do you see exactly how much fun it is you won’t want to leave and because you won’t want to leave and you stay till 8th grade you get to go to Disney and there’s so much music that you wouldn’t think that you can play with an instrument and you can’t judge an instrument without trying I know I did and I kind of regretted it but now I’m glad I play my instrument and hanging out with all the students there you’ll have fun but you can’t talk as much because your still in class but barber band is defiantly the right place to be if you want to have fun and express yourself and when you get a instrument that something else that you finally know how to play that you’ve achieved and it will always be apart of you so that’s why band rocks. BAND ROCKS!!!!!!!!
i love band but sometimes i wish i was a percussionist.., but whatever
I am a trumpet player and I love because of my band instuckters . They have shone me every thing I needed to know and I am one of the best in my class . I have had a really fun time with them and I cant wait intil next yaer
I like band
And i love playing my trumpet
IM FINALY AN ADVACED BAND MEMBER
I was taught by Mr. Grogan his first year at Barber and he has really opened my eyes to the percussion world. I now thrive in the marching band at North Cobb High School.