Peter Sampson

Mr. Peter Sampson has been the Director of Bands at Whiteland Community High School since 2008. While there he has over doubled the size of the program to include three concert bands, three curricular jazz bands, jazz combos, pep band, and the Marching Warriors Marching Band. Mr. Sampson has led the WCHS Band program to consistent Gold and “With Distinction” ratings in Concert and Jazz band festivals, Semi-State Marching Band performances, members in all-state concert and jazz bands, as well as sixteen consecutive Indiana State School Music Association All-Music Awards. The Whiteland Jazz Bands have been honored as ISSMA Jazz State Finalists four times, performed at the Indiana Music Education Association State Conference, and the Indiana State House, and have earned ensemble, solo, and scholarship awards at jazz festivals across the state. In 2014, Whiteland Jazz Band One was selected as a National Finalist in the Essentially Ellington program through Jazz at Lincoln Center earning them the opportunity to perform for Wynton Marsalis in the world-famous Rose Hall in New York City. While attending this event the band was chosen as the subject of a documentary film called “On the Road to EE” that can be seen on the Jazz at Lincoln Center YouTube channel.

Mr. Sampson is a cum laude graduate of Ball State University with a major in Music Education and minor in Voice Performance as well as a Master of Science in Music Technology from Indiana University. Mr. Sampson has been named the 2021 “Outstanding High School Music Teacher” by the Indiana Music Education Association, a national “Distinguished Music Educator” by Yale University, a 2020 Grammy National Music Educator Award Semi-finalist, and a “Graduate of the Last Decade” by Ball State University. He is a proud member of the Indiana Music Education Association, Indiana Bandmasters Association, National Association for Music Education, Indiana State Teachers Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Pi Kappa Lambda. Mr. Sampson was the founding Vice-President of the Indiana Jazz Educators Association and currently serves on their state board as the All-District Jazz event chair, a project that he started through IJEA in 2015. The event has now grown to four sites around the state serving hundreds of students. He currently is serving as the President of the Indiana State School Music Association, the IMEA State Jazz Chair, and has served at the ISSMA State Jazz List Chair multiple times. Mr. Sampson resides in Whiteland, Indiana with his wife Julie and their twin 12-year old sons Conner and Luke. (2023)