U.S. Coast Guard Band

Captain Adam Williamson serves as the seventh Director of the United States Coast Guard Band, leading the ensemble in its mission to promote public goodwill through exceptional musical performance, preserve the heritage and traditions of the nation and the service, and support official Coast Guard functions. He oversees the artistic direction and presentation of all Coast Guard Band activities, maintains the world‑class stature of the 55‑member ensemble, and supports hundreds of engagements each year.

As the leader of the sole official musical representative of both the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, CAPT Williamson serves as the service’s senior musical authority. He provides guidance for official ceremonies and creates musical programs that advance the Coast Guard’s public affairs objectives. During his tenure, he has led the Coast Guard Band in performances for Presidents, senior military and civic leaders, and audiences nationwide. CAPT Williamson is also deeply committed to music education; under his leadership, the Band’s outreach initiatives have expanded to reach more than countless students in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and throughout the nation. He established the “American Composers Series” recordings to highlight the musical language and artistry of contemporary American composers, and has broadened the Band’s global reach through extensive use of online and social media platforms, bringing concerts and educational programming to millions around the world.

CAPT Williamson originally joined the Coast Guard Band as a tenor saxophonist in 2003 and was featured as a soloist on numerous occasions, including the Band’s 2007 Southeast Tour and performances at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra and at Boston’s Hatch Shell. As a member of the Coast Guard Band Saxophone Quartet, he performed and taught throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, major university music programs, and concert venues in Taiwan and Japan. After ten years in the saxophone section, he was selected as Director and commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in October 2013.

CAPT Williamson earned degrees from the State University of New York at Potsdam, pursued graduate studies at Indiana University and the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and earned an MBA from Johnson & Wales University.

Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey A. Spenner joined the United States Coast Guard in June 2019 as Assistant Director and is the first conductor in the Coast Guard Band’s history to have been hired from outside the organization. As one of two officers in charge of this world-renowned ensemble, he helps manage all aspects of the 55-member ensemble’s multifaceted mission – including concerts, ceremonies, recordings, and the band’s annual national tour. 

Mr. Spenner also frequently performs with the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale as their Orchestra Artistic Director. He has guest conducted performances with the Battle Creek Symphony, Berlin Sinfonietta, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Connecticut Symphony, Filharmonica “Mihail Jora” Bacau, Lexington Philharmonic, Mesabi Symphony, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Prairie Fire Theater Opera, and Sinfonia da Camera. In selective workshop settings he was worked with the Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Pops, Cincinnati Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Mr. Spenner is a veteran of the 399th Army Band at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. While there, he took part in hundreds of performances throughout the Midwest as both a conductor and trumpeter and was instrumental in developing a relationship between that band and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. His final performance in the Army was conducting a concert at Powell Hall in St. Louis that combined the symphony’s winds, brass, and percussion with the 399th Army Band and the Air Force Band of Mid-America.

Prior to military service, Mr. Spenner has been the Assistant Conductor and Operations Manager with the Battle Creek Symphony (MI) and Artistic and Education Coordinator for the Lexington Philharmonic (KY). An advocate for music making at all levels, he has held music directorships with numerous community ensembles including the Borgess Hospital Resounding Spirit Choir. This amateur chorus comprised of doctors, nurses, staff, and volunteers received acclaim throughout western Michigan and beyond performing at events such as the Kalamazoo Sacred Music Festival. Mr. Spenner brings his passion for music education and advocacy to the Coast Guard Band where he directly oversees all education and outreach programs. He is personally in demand as an honors ensemble conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad, particularly in Australia where he has toured three times working with thousands of musicians at all levels – student to professional – in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, and most recently in Adelaide as the conductor of the 2025 Australian Combined Schools Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. A life-long learner himself, he is currently pursuing graduate studies in Cognitive Science at the University of Connecticut where he is a member of Dr. Ed Large’s Music Dynamics Lab. 

Mr. Spenner earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and he holds a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from Western Michigan University. His primary teachers include Donald Schleicher, James F. Keene, Eduardo Diazmunoz, Bruce Uchimura, and Bob Yoon with additional study with and mentorship from Roberto Abbado, Stefan Asbury, Marin Alsop, David Daniels, Timothy W. Foley, Anne Harrigan, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Raymond Harvey, Mark Heron, Ian Hobson, Mihail Jurowski, Kenneth Kiesler, David Lockington, Timothy Reynish, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Diane Wittry, and Benjamin Zander.

Originally from Essexville, MI, Mr. Spenner is married to Mira Shifrin Spenner, a professional flutist, and they enjoy geeking out over science fiction and playing board games together. They live in Norwich, CT with their four cats - Rousseau, Apollo, Georgia, and Debussy - who enjoy chasing laser pointers and stealing board game pieces.

Captain Lewis J. Buckley served as Director, U. S. Coast Guard Band, from June 1, 1975 through September 30, 2004. The Coast Guard Band’s fifth Director, he was the first to achieve the rank of Commander and then Captain, and he retired as the longest-tenured conductor of a major service band in American history. During his tenure, he and the Band’s dedicated senior leadership transformed the group from a local band that seldom performed far from the Coast Guard Academy into a major touring and broadcasting organization, representing the Coast Guard nationally and internationally through its live performances and media productions.

Captain Buckley guided the Coast Guard Band to a position of renown among the world’s most respected wind bands. During nearly 30 years under his baton, the Band established an international reputation for excellence through its superb recordings; by airing more live and recorded concert broadcasts on National Public Radio than any other U. S. wind band, military or civilian; and through hundreds of highly acclaimed live appearances, including those at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago. He led the Band in seven Presidential Inaugurations and dozens of performances in Washington D.C, including four White House National Christmas Tree lightings and a rare performance on the floor of the House of Representatives.

He conducted for every American president from Gerald Ford through George W. Bush and for numerous international heads of state; led the Band’s first Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center appearances; worked with such diverse stars as Jim Nabors, Placido Domingo, and Walter Cronkite, among a great many others; and conducted the first concerts ever presented by an American service band in the Soviet Union, when the Coast Guard Band journeyed to then-Leningrad in 1989.

Upon his retirement, the Coast Guard awarded Captain Buckley the Legion of Merit, and the Coast Guard Band named him Conductor Laureate and endowed an annual invitation to a reknowned conductor, to be known as the Captain Lewis J. Buckley Guest Conductor.