Email:

jdecaro@iu.edu

Department:

Music Education

Jim DeCaro is adjunct lecturer in music in music education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He earned a B.M.E. in 1979 and an M.M. in clarinet performance in 1981 from Indiana University.

DeCaro’s career includes two years of teaching at the MCCSC in Bloomington, Indiana, 20 years teaching band, jazz band, and general music at Edgewood Junior High School in Ellettsville, Indiana, and 10 years in the Lawrence Township Schools of Indianapolis teaching band and jazz band and serving as the curriculum director for a townshipwide summer performing arts program. He possesses a lifetime music teaching area teaching license from the State of Indiana.

Career highlights include directing his eighth-grade band from Edgewood Junior High School at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, multiple performances at the annual state IMEA convention, unanimous first division and gold ratings at the annual ISSMA Organization and Jazz Band contests, performances and first-place awards in various band contests in Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio, and Honor Band awards at the Purdue University, Eastern Illinois, and Mattoon Jazz festivals.

After retiring from public school teaching in 2013, DeCaro has worked with several local high school and middle school band programs, served as a frequent adjudicator at numerous concert and jazz band contests and festivals, directed several honors concert and jazz bands, and served on ISSMA state list music revision committees. He has also had articles published in several publications.

For the past six years, DeCaro has served as a university supervisor of Jacobs music education student teachers.

He is an active clarinetist and performs with the Indiana Wind Symphony, Indianapolis Symphonic Band, St. Luke’s Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Clarinet Ensemble. He occasionally plays with other groups in the Indianapolis area, including the Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rossi Clarinet Consort.

Residing in New Palestine, Indiana, DeCaro and his wife, Cheryl, have two children and four grandchildren.