Candi Granlund

CANDI GRANLUND serves as Band Director at Zionsville West Middle School. Previous teaching experience includes eighteen years as Band Director at Sycamore School in Indianapolis, one year as Band Director for the Saratoga Community Consolidated School in Morris, Illinois, and five years at the Delphi Community School Corporation in Delphi, Indiana where she served as Associate Director of Bands.

Professional honors include the IMEA Outstanding Middle School Music Educator Award in 2017, and the prestigious Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship in 2013. As a part of the $10,000 grant from the Lilly Foundation, Candi traveled to Austria and Hungary to bicycle through the countryside visiting historical sites related to the lives of Mozart, Mahler, and Franz Liszt. She then returned to study the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Dr. Keith Sweger in preparation for a performance of the solo with members of the Sycamore Symphonic Band in the winter of 2013. This experience has sparked a passion for additional travel including trips to England, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, France, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to pursue additional study in music history.

She was inducted into the Phi Beta Mu International Honorary Bandmasters Fraternity in 2012 and served as co-coordinator for the IBA Jr. All-State Band from 2014-2019 before being elected Vice President of Indiana Bandmasters Association in 2019.. She currently serves as Past President of IBA. Granlund has served as an IBA All-Region Honor Band Guest Conductor, the Middle School Chair for IBA as well as the IMEA Awards Chair and Recording Secretary. She was a co-founder and Clinician of the Ball State University Bassoon Camp from 1998-2009 and currently serves as the director of the Zionsville West Summer Music Clinic.

In 2020, Granlund presented a clinic at the IMEA professional development conference titled "The Road Less Traveled" and was selected to present her clinic “Redefining Student Practice” at the 2021 Midwest Band and Orchestral clinic in Chicago. She also served as a feature clinician at the 2022 Arkansas Bandmasters Summer Convention. Ensembles under her direction have performed at the IMEA and NAGC conventions and the IMEA/MENC North Central Division Conference.

Bands under the direction of Mrs. Granlund have earned numerous honors and awards at national, state and local festivals and competitions. Past venues include St. Louis, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Chicago.

Mrs. Granlund is also an accomplished bassoonist, performer, and private lesson instructor. In 2019, she was selected as principal bassoon for the WAWOP (World Adult Wind Orchestra project) and traveled to Austria to perform in the Mid-Europe Festival. Private lesson students of Mrs. Granlund have gone on to hold first chair positions in the All-State Orchestra, All-State Honor Band, Interlochen Arts Academy ensembles, and earn undergraduate and graduate bassoon performance and music education degrees.

Mrs. Granlund is a graduate of Ball State University where she was a Presidential Scholar and was awarded the prestigious Young Artist Award. She has completed masters coursework at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois, and the Masters of Arts in Education with a focus on music from the University of Indianapolis. She is married to Rick Granlund, 6-12 Performing Arts Department Chair and Director of Bands at North Central High School, and they have three children, Elise, Connor, and Laurel.