LEO WELCH, Assistant Dean for Public Service and Professor, joined the School of Music in 2003. His responsibilities include School outreach and public relations activities, as well as providing administrative support for the Summer Music Camps and the Festival for New Music. Active as an editor and arranger, Dr. Welch has published over thirty arrangements and editions of solo, chamber, and guitar ensemble works with the FJH Music Company, Theodore Presser, and Class Guitar Resources. He also serves on the editorial board of the American String Teachers Association.

As a guitarist, Dr. Welch maintains an active schedule with performances at the 2002 National Flute Association Convention, the 2002 Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and the 2003 Snowshoe Fine Art Festival. A compact disc containing his reading of Kathryn Hoover's Canyon Echoes with flutist Wendell Dobbs was recently released on the Leonarda label. Prior to his return to Florida State University, Dr. Welch directed the guitar program and served as Assistant Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. As a teacher, Dr. Welch was awarded the 1996 Pickens-Queen award for excellence in teaching, the most prestigious teaching award that Marshall University offers for junior faculty.

Dr. Welch received his Doctor of Music, and Master of Music in performance from Florida State University, where he studied classical guitar with Bruce Holzman. His advanced classical guitar study includes the performance of Bach transcriptions with Nicholas Goluses, and jazz guitar studies with Gene Bertoncini at the Eastman School of Music.