Jordan Stern
Jordan Stern is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the School of Music at Texas State University, where he teaches music education classes. Dr. Stern also serves as the Associate Director for Student Success in the School of Music.
Dr. Stern received Bachelors degrees in Percussion Performance and Music Studies with Teacher Certification at Texas State University, and also received a Masters degree in Music Education from Texas State. In addition, Dr. Stern received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University in Music Education.
Dr. Stern has many years of teaching experience on various levels. As a former band director at William Brennan HS and Claudia Taylor Johnson HS, Stern enjoyed the chance to help many young musicians to achieve their artistic potential. Dr. Stern also taught a successful private percussion studio, with his students going on to achievements such as winning auditions for the TMEA All State Bands (with his students earning first chair in the state of Texas in 2014, 2015, and 2016) and National Youth Orchestra, and another former student recently winning a job in the US Navy Band. Dr. Stern also served as the front ensemble caption coordinator for the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps.
As a performer, Dr. Stern has enjoyed the opportunity to perform many different styles of music. Dr. Stern was a member of the Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Stern spent his summers as an orchestral fellow at the International Festival Institute at Round Top. In 2005, Stern was a member of the Texas Festival Orchestra. Stern would go on to perform as a substitute percussionist in the Austin Symphony and Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Stern also has a passion for Country-Western music, and has been humbled to share the stage with such fine musicians as Billy Mata, Justin Trevino, Darrell McCall, Tony Booth, Bobby Flores, Cornell Hurd, Bob Appel, The Merles, Floyd Domino, The Texases, Felix Truvere, Michael Monroe Goodman, Tumbleweed Hill, Manny Velazquez, and many others. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Stern was the drummer with Billy Mata and the Texas Tradition, and created arrangements for and co-produced their 2021 CD release Cowboys, Crooners, and Troubadours. Stern currently performs extensively as a pedal steel guitarist with many bands in Central Texas, and also plays keyboards and pedal steel with Brandon Padier and Black Gold. Dr. Stern also enjoys studying and performing Hawaiian music, and currently is a student of Hawaiian steel guitarist Alan Akaka.
In 2023, Dr. Stern founded Bobcat Country, a Country-Western ensemble in the school of music at Texas State University. Bobcat Country has performed extensively for the community, including opening up the 2025 LBJ distinguished lecture delivered by former President George W. Bush.
Dr. Stern is the owner and founder of Lone Star Reserve Records, an independent record label based in San Antonio, Texas, with the mission of preserving and perpetuating traditional country-western music. Since the label’s launch in 2023, Lone Star Reserve’s recordings have sold hundreds of physical copies, along with over 110,000 streams online.
In addition to teaching and performing, Dr. Stern is also a published author, with an article published in the Journal of Band Research, as well as a chapter in the Oxford University Press publication Sociological Thinking In Music Education. Dr. Stern also co-wrote the book Tuning with Technology with his colleague Dr. John Denis. He also contributed a chapter to the GIA Publication Program Notes: A Comprehensive Guide to Band Directing, edited by John Denis. Dr. Stern has presented clinics and paper presentations at the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic and Convention, the Texas Bandmasters Association Clinic and Convention, the Conversation on Music Education at Boston University, the 4th Encuentro de Escuelas de Musica in Colombia, The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, and the Four States Band Clinic.