Todd Stalter. Source: https://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/bands/band-day/history/hall-of-fame/
Illinois State University. Photo: William Wesen Appraiser, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cookhall.JPG)
Illinois State University. Photo: William Wesen Appraiser, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cookhall.JPG)
clinician composer conductor music educator trumpet player adjudicator
Todd Andrew Stalter was born on August 19, 1966, in Peoria, Illinois, United States, to Larry Wagner and Karen Lucille Stalter. He developed his professional life in central Illinois, where Peoria served as an important regional center for education, culture, and the performing arts.
Stalter studied music at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, receiving a Bachelor of Music Education degree cum laude in 1988 and a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance in 1990. Illinois State University, founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, is Illinois's oldest public university and has a long tradition of preparing teachers and performing artists.
At Illinois State, Stalter studied trumpet with Richard Lehman and James Buckner and conducting with Stephen K. Steele. His graduate training connected instrumental performance with the conducting and pedagogical skills used in his later work as a band director, composer, clinician, and adjudicator.
Stalter became director of bands at Eureka High School in Eureka, Illinois, in 1991 and held the position through 2024. Eureka High School is part of Community Unit School District 140, a central Illinois public-school system. His responsibilities included directing the high-school band program, teaching general music at the elementary level, and serving as chair of the fine arts department.
Under Stalter's direction, Eureka's concert bands consistently earned Superior ratings in Illinois High School Association contests. The marching band won 16 Class 1A Illinois State Marching Band Championships and achieved additional high placements in Classes 1A and 2A. In 2008, the band won its class and the Governor's Trophy at the University of Illinois Marching Festival; in 2022, it placed 12th in the Illinois State Marching Band Championships finals, described by Illinois State University as the highest modern-finals placement achieved by a Class 1A band.
The Eureka ensembles performed at Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Walt Disney World, the Cotton Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, and Illinois High School Association state basketball and volleyball tournaments. Stalter also led all-state, honor, district, and regional bands in several states, including Delaware and Georgia, and worked as an adjudicator for solo, ensemble, large-group, and organizational contests.
As a trumpet performer, Stalter served as principal trumpeter and arranger for the Grace Brass ensemble at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, for nearly three decades. As a composer, he has written music for concert band and string orchestra, with works performed in the United States and internationally. His compositions have appeared on contest and festival lists and in the GIA reference series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.
Stalter directed the Eureka High School marching band to 16 Class 1A championships at the Illinois State Marching Band Championships and to nine additional placements while competing in Classes 1A and 2A.
He developed Eureka High School ensembles that earned repeated Superior ratings in Illinois High School Association contests and performed at major venues and events including Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Walt Disney World, the Cotton Bowl, the Liberty Bowl, and state athletic tournaments.
His compositions for concert band and string orchestra have been performed at national and international festivals and clinics and included in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, a major educational reference series published by GIA.
(A concert-band composition published for school ensembles...)
(A concert-band composition selected for inclusion in volu...)
(A concert-band fanfare commissioned by the Washington Hig...)
2007With Uncommon Valor
(A concert-band composition by Stalter included in educati...)
(A concert-band composition published for educational ense...)
(A concert-band composition published for educational ense...)
(A concert-band composition published for educational ense...)
(A concert-band composition published for educational ense...)
(A beginning string-orchestra work composed by Stalter and...)
Stalter is identified as a Republican. The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States and has historically combined support for constitutional government, individual liberty, private enterprise, and national defense, while encompassing changing conservative and moderate currents over time.
Stalter's professional work reflects a commitment to music education, ensemble performance, and the use of composition and conducting as complementary parts of musical training. His published repertoire is written largely for school concert bands and string orchestras, placing accessibility, graded performance, and educational usefulness at the center of his creative work.
Stalter has been associated with the National Education Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the Illinois Education Association, and the Illinois Music Educators Association. These organizations represent teachers, music educators, and education professionals through professional advocacy, instructional exchange, and the development of standards and opportunities in music education.
Stalter married Angie Sue Tibbs on May 27, 1989. They have one son, Evan Stalter. Angie has worked as a school orchestra director in Illinois.
