Michael Stone

Michael D. Stone earned the B.A. in Music Education/Performance and the M. Ed. from University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Stone serves as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Bakersfield City School District, overseeing arts programs at 33 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 3 junior high schools. Prior to assuming this position, he served for more than 14 years as instrumental music teacher at Chipman Junior High School, also in the Bakersfield City School District.

Chipman bands and orchestras consistently earned Unanimous Superior Ratings at California Music Educators Association (CMEA) ratings festivals during his tenure. Chipman ensembles performed at the state conferences of CMEA and California Band Directors Association. Mr. Stone was featured in the January 1999 issue of The Instrumentalist Magazine and has written several articles for the magazine since that time. During the summer of 1998, he was awarded the prestigious “Fellowship in Music Education” at Northwestern University.

Under his leadership, Bakersfield City School District has been named a Best Communities for Music Education Award Winner by the National Association of Music Merchants for the past nine years. The District’s Music In Our Schools Week instrumental music recruitment program and Choir Standards Festival have both been recognized as Golden Bell Award recipients by the California School Boards Association in recent years. In October of 2015, Mr. Stone was recognized by the Arts Council of Kern as its Outstanding Arts Educator at its Accomplishments Awards Gala. In 2016, Mr. Stone authored a blog post entitled “Mentoring New Music Educators for Lifelong Success in the Profession” for the National Association for Music Education, or NAfME.

Mr. Stone is a Past President of CMEA, CBDA, CMEA Central Section, Kern County Music Educators Association, and is currently the Chair of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Council of Music Program Leaders, appointed by NAfME President Mackie Spradley. He has also recently served as the Music Supervisors Representative on the CMEA State Council from 2018-2020, and was Western Division Representative on the NAfME Council of Music Program leaders from 2016-2019. As an educational leader, Mr. Stone has extensive experience and passion for leading strategic arts planning in the Pre-K-12 setting. He has also served in an adjunct capacity at California State University, Bakersfield, teaching instrumental music methods to undergraduates. Mr. Stone holds active memberships in many professional associations, including NAfME, CBDA, CMEA, and Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association. He was inducted into the American School Band Directors Association in 2001. Mr. Stone is a euphoniumist and trombonist, and is a founding member of the Bakersfield Winds, a symphonic wind ensemble.

Active as an adjudicator and guest conductor, Mr. Stone has conducted numerous honor bands and orchestras, and conducted clinics, over his career, both throughout California, as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. He has served for many years as a guest conductor at the Cazadero Performing Arts Camp in California’s Sonoma County.