Chris Gleason
Speaking to Rising Music Educators in 2025
Founder, Beyond The Notes Music Festival
Art and Creativity Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Chris Gleason is an award-winning educator, conductor, and advocate for arts education who has spent his career igniting creativity and curiosity in young musicians. As the Art and Creativity Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Chris supports educators across the state in elevating the role of the arts in learning and life.
Before joining the DPI, Chris spent twenty-five years as a dedicated instrumental music educator in East Troy, La Crosse, and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. His classroom work earned him national recognition, including being named the 2017 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, a semi-finalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award (2017, 2022), and the first Wisconsin finalist for National Teacher of the Year in five decades. He has also been honored as a Top 50 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize (2021) and a recipient of the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence (2022).
Chris’s ensembles have performed on some of Wisconsin’s most inspiring stages — from the State Capitol Rotunda to the Milwaukee Art Museum — and his ComMission Possible Project has connected students directly with leading composers such as John Mackey, Alex Shapiro, Viet Cuong, and Omar Thomas. To date, the project has premiered nearly twenty new works written mostly for young bands.
Working with his band at Patrick Marsh Middle School Band in Green Bay, WI.
As a conductor and clinician, Chris has led honor bands, camps, and festivals across the nation, including the Music for All National Band Camp, and has presented at conferences from the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic to NAfME’s National Conference. His leadership extends beyond the podium — he serves as chair for Wisconsin’s Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) Committee and as a recent advisor and mentor for the NEA Foundation.
In 2014, Chris founded the Beyond The Notes Music Festival, a non-profit that blends performance, creativity, and inspiration. Since its inception, the festival has reached more than 55,000 young musicians and inspired 140 future music educators to pursue careers in teaching.
A passionate advocate for arts-based learning, Chris has presented a TEDx Talk titled “Lighting a Fire in Kids” and co-hosts the Beyond ArtLess Podcast with Dr. Peter Haberman and Dr. Phil Ostrander. His work has been featured in national publications and books, and he continues to champion the power of music to change lives — one note, one student, and one community at a time.
