Haley Armstrong

Brief Bio

Dr. Haley Armstrong serves as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Musical Activities at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology conducting the wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and university band. She earned Bachelor's degrees in Music Education and Trumpet Performance from Eastern Washington University, a Master’s Degree in Music education from Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music and her Doctorate in Conducting from the University of Kansas.
            Before becoming to SD Mines, Dr. Armstrong worked as a conductor for the U.S. Air Force Band in Washington D.C. including holding positions as the Officer in Charge of the Airmen of Note and assistant conductor to the Concert Band. Prior to that, she was the Commander and Conductor of the AF Band of the Pacific in Japan, and also held command positions for AF Bands in CA and OH. Originally, she was a middle and high school band director in Washington State.

Research Expertie

As a guest conductor, Dr. Armstrong had the pleasure to work with multiple international and stateside ensembles, conducting community, school and professional groups in the U.S., Qatar, Japan and Guam. She continues to work in the educational community conducting festivals, presenting at conferences and giving clinics to young musicians.
She is also involved in multiple student research projects at SD Mines including the computer science senior project Score-Score and multiple metallurgical design project creating new instruments for performances.

Teaching

Courses taught by Dr, Armstrong are music ensembles (MUS 117/MUEN 260) as well as upper division humanities courses (MUS 317) including topics such as Music and Conflict (2018); Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll- The Trouble with Creative Genius (2019); Hamilton! A Diverse America (2020); Problem with Preference (2021); Creative Leadership (Spring 2022); Sacred, Secular, and Sacrilege (2022); Legend in Music- John Williams (2023) and Conducting- Leadership in Motion (2024).