German-born conductor Dr. Martin H. Seggelke is the Founding Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Francisco Wind Symphony (formerly: San Francisco Wind Ensemble), a professional level wind ensemble in the Bay Area, the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pinellas Park Civic Orchestra, the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Dunedin Music Society and the Dunedin Concert Band, and works as music and humanities professor and administrator at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Prior to his appointment at USF, Dr. Seggelke has conducted wind bands and orchestras and has taught conducting at San Francisco State University, the College of Marin, the University of Minnesota Morris, Illinois State University, the Eastman School of Music, the State University of New York in Fredonia, the University of Bremen, Germany, and the Performing Arts Institute at Wyoming Seminary. He has held several professional positions as Music Director and Conductor, including the New Opera Theatre Ensemble (NOTE) Bremen, OSSIA New Music at Eastman, the Symphonic Wind Band Norderstedt, and the Norderstedt Youth Wind Orchestra.

Ensembles under Dr. Seggelke’s leadership have enjoyed high critical acclaim at national and international conferences and performance venues. With the San Francisco Wind Symphony, he has recorded at Skywalker Ranch, at the 2015 WASBE Conference in San Jose’s California Theatre, and for the Mark Records label; with the ISU Wind Symphony he has recorded on the Naxos and Klavier labels, winning the American Prize in 2015.
Professor Seggelke is a highly sought-after guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator, nationally and internationally. He has presented at national and international conferences, and has authored book chapters and articles in various music magazines. Composers, ensemble musicians, audiences and critics continue to praise his emotional interpretations and innovative concert programming. Among his honors and awards are the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Award for Excellence in Teaching, the University of Minnesota Award for Outstanding Student Leadership, the Illinois State University Impact Award, the Eastman School of Music Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as several international and national grants, scholarships and first prizes at national music competitions. An advocate of contemporary music, Dr. Seggelke has commissioned and premiered a large number of new compositions.

Martin Seggelke holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music where he worked with Mark Scatterday, Neil Varon, Brad Lubman, and Donald Hunsberger. He also completed a Master of Music in Conducting at SUNY Fredonia, USA, a Diploma of Fine Arts in Conducting at the University of Calgary, Canada, and both a Master of Music in Music Education and a Master of Science in Geography at the University of Bremen, Germany. Additional teachers of his include Christoph Eschenbach, Toshiyuki Shimada, Paula Holcomb, Glenn Price, Mark Hopkins, Felix Hauswirth, Gunther Schuller, Michael Haithcock, Rodney Winther, Paul Vermel, Pierre Kuijpers, Baldur Brönnimann, Frederick Fennell, and Claus Peter Flor.

For four years, he served as a board member of the German Section of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE). In addition to WASBE, he is a member of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the College Music Society (CMS), the International Society for the Promotion and Research of Wind Music (IGEB), the National Band Association (NBA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME, formerly MENC), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Mensa, as well as an honorary member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Tau Beta Sigma.

For two years Dr. Seggelke played clarinet with the German Marine Band, Kiel. He proceeded to work as a studio musician and freelance performer, including productions for the Northern German Radio Station (NDR) and appearances at the Salzburg Festival 2003 and the Schauspielhaus Hannover. His principal teachers were Martin Stoffel (University of Bremen), Wolfgang Braun and Jürgen Schmidt. He performed with the Bremen Chamber Symphony, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the WASBE International Youth Wind Orchestra, the MID Europe International Wind Orchestra and the Symphonic Wind Band Norderstedt, as well as appearing as soloist with the Buxtehude Symphony Orchestra. His private clarinet studio included students in Hamburg, Norderstedt, Bremen and Morris. As a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, he can be found exploring the underwater world and sharing that passion with students. A certified Reiki Master Teacher, he practices Reiki throughout the community.