When Mark Spede took over at Clemson in 2002, the Tigers' marching band consisted of 160 members. Now the number is 356, and the football team's six straight trips to the College Football Playoff (and two national titles) gave Spede a trove of stories to share from criss-crossing the country with his large traveling party.

He remembers trying to control his emotions in January of 2017 in Tampa immediately after Hunter Renfrow cradled Deshaun Watson's pass in the end zone. It normally takes three seconds for the band to crank up Tiger Rag after a touchdown. This time it took 17 seconds for him to get himself and everyone else under control.

As the president of the College Band Directors National Association, Spede found himself with no choice but to dive head-first into the science of a pandemic in March of 2020 after everything shut down and the entire performing-arts world faced existential questions.

He helped spearhead the International Performing Arts Aerosol study, which ended up pioneering the path to marching bands at the college and high school level reconvening and playing safely.

Spede's leadership and research drew so much attention in the early days of the pandemic that he was receiving 400 to 500 emails a day from not just the United States but abroad. And he said he answered every one of them.

Dr. Spede is Professor, Director of Bands, Director of Tiger Band, and Conductor of the Symphonic Band at Clemson University, where he administrates the band program (symphonic, athletic, and jazz bands). He is the recipient of the Clemson University 2009 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching (College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities), and three Clemson University Board of Trustees Awards for Faculty Excellence (2008, 2009, and 2012). He teaches a number of courses, including two for the Calhoun Honors College: aesthetics of music and science of music. In 2012, he conducted the Clemson University Symphonic Band at venues in London, England, for the Summer Olympic Games. Also in 2012, he founded the Clemson Faculty Jazz Quintet, for which he plays drums.

Spede earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan (1984), and Master of Music from Ball State University (1988), and a Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Texas at Austin (1998).