James M. Reddan

Dr. James Reddan is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Education at Central Washington University. Reddan is an active scholar, pedagogue, conductor, adjudicator, and clinician in demand regionally, domestically and internationally. He serves as the CWU-NAfME Chapter Advisor, as well as the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) Collegiate Curriculum Officer.

Reddan is an active scholar presenting research on music perception, music and gender, assessment in music and other areas both domestically and internationally. He has presented his research to the International Society for Music Education (Montreal, 2026; Helsinki, 2024), at Documenting Jazz (Wales, 2023; Scotland, 2022; Ireland, 2019), the 45th Meeting of the International Committee for Traditional Music (Bangkok, Thailand, 2019), Cultural Diversity in Music Education (Kathamandu, Nepal, 2018), and at many regional and state conferences. He recently served as editor and contributor of the Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender (August, 2022) and serves on the editorial board of JazzEd.

As a choral music educator, ensembles under Reddan’s direction have achieved worldwide recognition performing domestically, and throughout Europe and Asia. This includes performances for the 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London) Summer Olympics, the Berlin Philharmonic, and Category winner at the 2014 World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia. He gave his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in May 2022 with the Western Oregon University Choirs.

Reddan received the citation for “Excellence in Music Education” from the American Prize in Choral Music and was recognized as the conductor for the first Honored Artist Choral Ensemble by the American Prize. Additionally, Reddan arranges and composes works for Vocal A cappella ensembles.

Prior to his appointment at CWU, Reddan served as Chair and Associate Professor of Music at Western Oregon University, Assistant Professor of Music at Frostburg State University in Maryland, and served as the Chair and Professor of Music in the Performing Arts Department at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon. He also served as the choral and general music educator at Arbor View High School and Cannon Junior High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Reddan received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education from Boston University, the Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting and Music Education from the University of Oregon in Eugene and the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Reddan completed additional studies at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Australia, the Oregon Bach Festival, and interned with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.