Biography

Dr. John Hagan serves as the District Director of Fine Arts Instruction and Applied Low Brass Instructor at Northwest Mississippi Community College. A highly regarded music educator in the greater Memphis area, he is an active soloist, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the Mid-South.

Dr. Hagan has extensive professional performance experience. From 2002 to 2010, he served as a trombonist in the United States Navy Band, performing at high-profile events, including the opening of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and the Oklahoma State Fair. Locally, he has performed and recorded with the Memphis Jazz Orchestra and the Memphis Repertory Orchestra and is a former member of FreeWorld, a Beale Street Brass Note Award-winning ensemble. His musical theater experience includes conducting and performing in productions of The Little Mermaid, Sweeney Todd, Urinetown, Anything Goes, Tarzan, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, The Wizard of Oz, and Les Misérables. Most recently he presented and  performed his arrangement of the Sonata for Bass Trombone by Alec Wilder at the International Trombone Festival in Fort Worth, Texas.

A native of Steubenville, Ohio, Dr. Hagan studied music education at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. While on active duty, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, New Jersey. He went on to complete both his Master of Music in Trombone Performance and Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. His major teacher’s include Dr. Michael Crist, Paul McKee, Dr. Stephen Gage, Dr. Albert Nguyen and Dr. John Mueller.