Larry MacTaggart

  Larry MacTaggart is freelance composer, arranger, conductor, and clinician based out of Omaha, Nebraska.  A graduate of the University of Arkansas (BME-1981) and the University of Nebraska (MM-1983), MacTaggart was director of instrumental music in the Fairbury (Nebraska) public school system from 1983 to 1985.  He enlisted in the Air Force in September 1985, serving as a member of the Public Affairs career field as a full-time musician starting his career as a percussionist with the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command Band, (later, the Heartland of America Band) at Offutt AFB, NE. In 1994, MacTaggart transitioned from performing to composing and arranging music. In 1997, he was reassigned to The United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C., serving as a staff music arranger.  In 2000, he was named Chief Music Arranger and Production Manager, a position he held until 2007. 

   MacTaggart transitioned to a senior level management position in February of 2007, taking an assignment at the Pentagon as the senior Human Resources program manager for all Air Force Bands.  In this position, he served as an advisor to the Air Force Director of Public Affairs on personnel, recruiting, deployment, training, and quality of life issues for 14 Air Force bands.  In 2009, MacTaggart transferred to the Headquarters, Pacific Air Forces at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii where he served as Regional Human Resources Manager for the Air Force Band of the Pacific. 

   After 27 years on active duty; MacTaggart retired from the Air Force in October of 2012.   Upon his retirement from military service, he transitioned to a career in Human Resources, first as a Benefits Specialist for the Omaha World-Herald and to a similar position with LEO A DALY, an architecture, engineering, and design firm headquartered in Omaha, NE.  He retired from Human Resources in December of 2021. 

   MacTaggart served as the Music Director and Conductor of The Nebraska Wind Symphony on two occasions: 1995-1997 and 2014-2019.

   Larry is blessed to be married to the former Jill Divis, a native of Brainard, NE.  They have one amazing daughter, Mallory.