DURANT, Okla. --  Mike Raleigh is the new Director of Bands at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and will be an instructor in the Department of Fine Arts.

"This was an opportunity I couldnıt pass up," said Raleigh, who played trumpet in college and sat in with circus and rodeo bands that came through Louisiana State University (his alma mater).  "Now I will be able to teach band directors to be band directors."

Raleigh has more than 30 years of experience as a band director. From 1979-2004, he was coordinator of instrumental music and high school band director in Denison, Texas. While at Denison, Raleigh increased the number of students in the band program from 66 to 240.

Also during Raleighıs tenure, the Denison marching and symphonic bands earned numerous First-Division ratings in contests and performed at such events at Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City, the Orange Bowl Parade in Miami, Florida, and the Cotton Bowl Parade in Dallas, Texas.

Raleigh was a high school band director 12 years in Louisiana and recently served as part-time instructor at Southeastern.

Raleigh and wife Mary Lillian have two daughters. Stacy is a second-grade teacher at Denisonıs Golden Rule Elementary School and Shannon is the comptroller for the Choctaw Nation. They have two grandchildren, Tyson and Cadi.

Raleigh will handle marching and symphonic bands at Southeastern in his first full-time university job.