Gretchen Renshaw (she/they) enjoys a multifaceted career as a higher education leader, conductor of bands and orchestras, and performer on tuba and euphonium. She serves as Coordinator of Assessment and Chair of the Music Department at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and recently completed a term as President of the Arkansas College Band Directors Association. While holding the Nancy and Craig Wood Odyssey Professorship at Hendrix, Gretchen launched Diverse Voices in Music, a project dedicated to advancing diversity and inclusivity in programming and commissioning works for both wind band and solo tuba.
Prior to her work in central Arkansas, Gretchen earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Tuba Performance and a Master of Music in Wind/Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University, where she was a University Distinguished Fellow. She also holds degrees in euphonium performance from the University of Arkansas and Penn State University. Her principal tuba and euphonium teachers include Velvet Brown, Steven Mead, Ben Pierce, and Philip Sinder, and her conducting mentors include Dennis Glocke, W. Dale Warren, Kevin Sedatole, and Kevin Noe.
Complementing her leadership at Hendrix, Gretchen maintains a vibrant international profile as a performer, presenter, and scholar. She has appeared as a soloist at the International Women’s Brass Conference in Japan, the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Arizona, and the U.S. Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop in Washington, D.C., and performed with the Athena Brass Band at the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass in Manchester, England. Her creative scholarship explores interdisciplinary connections between music, leadership, and other fields, with recent presentations at the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Storytelling Series and the Academy of Management’s Annual Meeting, where she contributed to a professional development workshop on arts-based pedagogies that received the award for Best in Management Education. Her forthcoming chapter in The Power of Arts-Based Pedagogies: Transforming Mindsets to Shape Our Future (Routledge, 2025) extends this work in print. In addition, Gretchen is a sought-after clinician and masterclass leader, having presented widely on topics ranging from brass performance to inclusive programming and the physiology of breathing.
Looking ahead, Gretchen is committed to deepening her leadership in higher education and the arts, even as she remains active as a tuba and euphonium performer and conductor of bands and orchestras. She is honored to be a Yamaha Performing Artist.