Band Conductors

Paul Scanling, Conductor and Music Director

Paul Scanling holds a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Florida State University where he studied Flute with Suzanne Lord and Melinda Lintern, played tenor saxophone in the award winning FSU Jazz Ensemble, and euphonium in Chiefly Brass, the FSU Basketball Band. While there he studied conducting with Dr. Patrick Dunnigan and took courses from Dr. Bentley Shellahamer and Dr. Cliff Madsen. Paul also holds a Master of Music Degree from Georgia State University where he worked under Dr. Robert Ambrose with the Wind Ensemble and founded the Panther Basketball Band. He has attended conducting classes of Donald Hunsberger, James Jordan and Robert Rumbelow at the Columbus State University Conducting Symposium, Dr. Manuel Alvarez, Dr. Donald Portnoy, Dr. Peter Jaffe, and Paul Vermel at the South Carolina Conductors Institute, and has studied privately with Alexander Micklethwaite, then assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Dr. Julian Shew, Orchestra Director at Georgia State University.

Paul spent seven years participating in the Drum and Bugle Corps activity. He marched for three summers with The Spirit of Atlanta Drum & Bugle Corps and aged out in 1994 with The Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps playing baritone. He then spent three summers as an instructor of both marching fundamentals and brass with The Spirit of Atlanta, most recently in 2001.

Paul has taught in the public schools of Florida and Georgia and was most recently the Middle School Band Director at The Lovett School. In addition to his duties as the Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Atlanta Concert Band, Paul currently serves as the Music Director for the Atlanta Swing Orchestra and as Orchestra Director for Northside United Methodist Church of Atlanta. Paul is in demand as a woodwind instructor, marching band drill writer, arranger and clinician. An avid golfer, Paul lives in Marietta with his wife Jenna, their beautiful daughter Sara, and Leo, the World's Greatest Chihuahua.

Walter L. Hickman, Assistant Conductor

Walter L. Hickman, Assistant Conductor, Atlanta Concert Band, and leader of the Big Peach Swing Band, earned the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Music from Georgia State University.

He moved to the Atlanta area in 1986 to accept the award of Graduate Assistant at Georgia State University. He served on the music staff at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Tucker, Georgia from 1988-2001 and currently is the staff trombonist at Dunwoody Baptist Church, Dunwoody, Georgia. He began studio teaching in 1990, and has performed often since age 16.

He has enjoyed a variety of engagements, including hundreds of community, recording and traveling events, performing for such artists as The Temptations, The Four tops, the Impressions, The Supremes, Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, Bernadette Peters, Marvin Hamlisch, Frank Sinatra Jr., Dionne Warwick, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, the Moody Blues, and others. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Bands at Peachtree Charter Middle School in the DeKalb County School System. Mr. Hickman joined the Atlanta Concert Band in 2002 as principal trombone and became Assistant Conductor in 2004.