The Resurgence of the Music of Claude T. Smith
Pam Smith Kelly
PRESIDENT
Pam Smith Kelly, daughter of Claude T. and Maureen F. Smith, is a native of Cozad, Nebraska. She graduated from Chillicothe High School in Missouri before earning a Bachelor of Music Education from Central Missouri State University and a Master of Music Education from the University of Kansas.
Pam devoted 35 years to music education, teaching elementary music for 16 years before serving as choral director at Oxford Middle School in the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kansas, for 19 years. Throughout her career, she held numerous leadership positions within the Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA), including Northeast KMEA Elementary Chair, Middle Level Chair, and State Chair for the Elementary and Middle Level divisions.
A respected conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and educator, Pam has worked with bands, choirs, and orchestras throughout the United States and internationally. She is President of Claude T. Smith Publications, Inc., preserving and promoting the instrumental and choral music legacy of her late father. She is also the founding conductor and artistic director of the EncoreKC! Foundation and has served in church music ministry for more than 40 years, directing handbell choirs, children’s choirs, wind ensembles, and orchestras throughout the Kansas City area.
Pam is an active member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the Kansas City Alumnae Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota, and the Association of Concert Bands. In recognition of her distinguished contributions to music education and the band profession, she was inducted into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in 2024.
Pam and her husband, Jim, live in Overland Park, Kansas, and are the proud parents of three children.
Mark Doerffel
VICE PRESIDENT
Mark Doerffel is Vice President of Claude T. Smith Publications, Inc., where he leads publication development, editorial operations, and production, working closely with composers, arrangers, engravers, and production staff to bring new concert band music to directors and performers around the world. Based in North Carolina, he also teaches middle school band in the Winston-Salem area and remains an active conductor, clinician, and trombonist.
Doerffel previously served as Music Director and Conductor of The Village Band of Chapel Hill-Carrboro and has conducted community ensembles in both North Carolina and Iowa, including the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble and the Ankeny Community Band. He also served as Director of Instrumental Activities at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he directed the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble while teaching applied brass, conducting, music theory, instrumental methods, and music appreciation. Earlier in his career, he taught middle and high school band in Florida and North Carolina.
An active clinician and presenter, Doerffel has presented throughout the United States on conducting, score study, classroom management, music educator preparation, and brass pedagogy. He completed doctoral coursework (ABD) in Music Education at the University of Florida and holds degrees from Appalachian State University and Louisiana State University.
Joseph Benjamin Earp
ARRANGER AND MEDIA SPECIALIST
Joseph Benjamin Earp is the Music/Music Industry Chair and Director of Bands at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a Master of Music in Music Education from Anderson University (Anderson, South Carolina), and a Doctor of Music Education from Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia). 2019 Dr. Earp was inducted into the Omega Nu Lambda National College Honor Society based on his academic achievement at Liberty University. In 2020, he was named a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient by the College of Arts and Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
His professional teaching career began in 2006 as Director of Bands at Seneca High School in South Carolina. After two years, he taught band at Robbinsville Middle and High Schools for a year before becoming the founding Director of Bands at Cox Mill High School in Concord, North Carolina. Major accomplishments teaching at the secondary level include one of his symphonic bands auditioning and being selected to perform at the 2013 North Carolina Music Educators State Conference, multiple superior ratings, grand championships, awards, and recognitions from his instrumental ensembles. After eight years of numerous achievements at Cox Mill High School, he moved into his role at Limestone University (Gaffney, South Carolina) as Director of Athletic Bands, elevating many elements of Limestone’s athletic band program. A major accomplishment of the Limestone University Marching Saints was auditioning and being selected to lead one of the afternoon parades at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in January 2019. Just before his role at Hinds Community College, Dr. Earp was the Director of Instrumental Music at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina. Tasked with reviving the instrumental music program at Pfeiffer, he re-established the wind ensemble and pep band. Additionally, he wrote Pfeiffer’s first fight song which was adopted by the school’s student government association. Dr. Earp also ensured the instrumental building at Pfeiffer received much-needed renovations.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Earp is an active published composer and arranger with his music being performed internationally. His works are made available by BKJ Publications, Carl Fischer, CTS Publications (Distributed by C. L. Barnhouse), and RWS Music Company (Distributed by Alfred Music). Dr. Earp’s major compositional accomplishments include being the winner of the 2010 Claude T. Smith Composition Contest in Missouri, winner of the 2018 Thornton Community Band Composition Contest in Colorado, multiple J.W. Pepper Editors’ Choice awards, and multiple works selected to be part of the Band World Magazine Top 100. He currently resides in Clinton, Mississippi with his wife Mary Beth and sons Jackson and Jasper.
More about Dr. Earp can be found at www.joeemusic.com. Follow Dr. Earp on social media @earpcomposer.