2021 NBA Summer Journal

VOLUME LXI, NO. 4 | SUMMER 2021

FEATURING The NBA Part III: Windshields and Rear-view Mirrors

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION

Iconic Legacy…Vision for the Future

NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION

DECEMBER 15 – 18, 2021 | BOOTH 825

You Are Invited TO THE FOLLOWING NBA EVENTS DATES & TIMES TBD

NBA 60TH ANNIVERSARY COMMISSION JAMES M. DAVID'S URBAN LIGHT

PREMIERED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY FIELD BAND, COL. JIM KEENE, CONDUCTOR

NBA YOUNG COMPOSERS JAZZ COMPOSITION WINNER

PREMIERED BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY BLUES

NBA PAST PRESIDENT’S PANEL PRESENTATION NBA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING NBA 60TH ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION

NationalBandAssociation.org

VOLUME LXI, NO. 4 | SUMMER 2021

Executive Committee/Project and Committee Chairs

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President’s Message

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First Vice President’s Message

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Second Vice President’s Message

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Immediate Past President’s Message

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Mission Statement

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About the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts

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Past Presidents

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Board of Directors 2020 - 2022

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NBA Awards & Contests

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NBA 2021 William D. Revelli Composition Contest

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The NBA Part III: Windshields and Rear-view Mirrors – David Gregory

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The Tool You Need Now: Growth Mindset as a Guide to Successful Reentry – Arris Golden & Tiffany Hitz

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Start the New Job Avoiding the Unexpected – Gary Barton

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I – Matt Temple

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AFTERMATH: The Post-COVID Wind Band – Rodney K Workman

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Connecting Curriculum, Creativity, and Community to Develop Culture Through Repertoire – Hunter Kopczinski

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Understanding Practice Engagement:“Too Hot,” “Too Cold,” and The Goldilocks Zone – Cayla Bellamy

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A Concise Conductor’s Analysis of James M. David’s Heartland Verses for Wind Symphony – Myron Peterson

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A Discussion with Composers and Wind Band Conductors on the Importance of Performing Quality Literature – Chris Chapman

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How to Submit Peer-Reviewed Research Articles to the NBA Journal – Matthew Talbert

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NBA WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU

We welcome and encourage members to submit articles for inclusion in future editions of the NBA Journal. Peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles are accepted. Please note the following deadlines for submission: JOURNAL EDITION Winter Edition (February) Spring Edition (May) Summer Edition (August) Fall Edition (November)

DEADLINE January 1 April 1 July 1 October 1

Please submit your article in Word document format to NBA Journal Editor Matthew Talbert at talbertm@ohio.edu.

For guidance on how to submit a peer-reviewed article, please see page 65. Articles are published at the discretion of the editor and may appear in a later journal edition.

Articles presented in the NBA Journal represent views, opinions, ideas and research by the authors and are selected for their general interest to the NBA members. Authors’ views do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Band Association, nor does their publication constitute an endorsement by the National Band Association.

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COMMITTEES & EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE

Educational Purposes OF THE NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Rebecca Phillips, President Randall Coleman, First Vice-President Matt Temple, Second Vice-President

To promote the excellence of band performance throughout the world

Linda R. Moorhouse, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Scott Tobias, Immediate Past President

PROJECT AND COMMITTEE CHAIRS

To encourage the composition and performance of quality band music at all levels

Alfred Young Band Composition Contest, Audrey Murphy AWAPA Commission, Richard Floyd Citations & Awards, Heath Nails Constitution & By-Laws, Randall Coleman

To assist directors at all levels of experience to identify areas of mutual concern

Corporate Relations, Gary Smith Foster Project NBA Representative, Wolson Gustama Hall of Fame Board of Directors, Larry Blocher & Mark Walker Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors, Thomas Fraschillo

To promote pride and continued enthusiasm among band directors

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Awareness, Arris Golden & Elizabeth Peterson Merrill Jones Composition Contest, Paul Popiel Music Education, Bruce Moss National Programs of Excellence, Myra Rhoden

To encourage quality students to pursue careers in music

NBA Foundation, Susan Creasap Nominating Committee, Scott Tobias Research, Matthew D. Talbert Selective Music List - Concert, Cody Birdwell Selective Music List - Jazz, Erich Rivero Selective Music List - March, Col. Jason Fettig William D. Revelli Composition Contest, Matthew McCutchen

To promote a spirit of cooperation and continued dialogue among directors, performers, the music industry, and all other band support organizations at all levels

Young Composers Jazz Composition Contest, Erich Rivero Young Composer Mentor Project, Mark Camphouse Young Conductor Mentor Project, Linda R. Moorhouse NBA Journal Editor, Matthew D. Talbert NBA Journal Layout & Design, Nash P. McCutchen 4

NBA JOURNAL

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

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reetings from the National Band Association as we continue to celebrate our 60th Anniversary throughout 2021. The NBA Journal is an incredible resource for band directors, with this edition including articles on teaching techniques for band rehearsals, post-COVID classroom recovery ideas, curriculum thoughts, a conductor’s analysis of James M. David’s Heartland Verses, and an article about practice engagement. In addition, I am excited to invite you to a number of NBA events at Midwest, including the NBA 60th Anniversary Celebration Reception, the General Membership Meeting, and the Past President’s Panel Presentation. I am also excited to share that the United States Army Field Band, Col. Jim Keene, conductor, will be performing the NBA 60th Anniversary Commission by composer James M. David and the United States Army Blues will be performing the premiere of the winning piece from the NBA Young Composers Jazz Composition.

More information including dates and times will be sent out after they have been confirmed.

One of the many features of this journal is the third installment of a historical journey, beautifully researched and written by NBA Past President David Gregory.

These articles highlight the past sixty years of the National Band Association. We are grateful to David for collecting artifacts and stories from the past sixty years to create this three-part series, all

of which will be available in the resource section of the website starting September 1st.

This edition also includes fascinating interview excerpts gathered and edited by Matthew Temple, director of bands at New Trier High School, featuring Alfred Watkins. Alfred is the retired director of bands at Lassiter High School (Marietta, Georgia), an NBA Board Member, and founder of the Minority Band Directors National Association. The second part of these interview excerpts will be highlighted in the upcoming NBA Winter Journal.

NBA RESOURCES AVAILABLE! If you visit the website and select the top menu option “What We Offer,” there are many resources available to members, including funding, promotional, awards, educational, and professional development opportunities.

NBA FUNDING NBA is able to provide funding opportunities through the dues of NBA members and funds provided by corporate sponsors.

There are several types of funding initiatives for individuals and states who are hosting events or developing projects/compositions that benefit band and band directors across their state or region. These include State Convention NBA Booth funding, Project Grants, and Research Grants.

1. States interested in hosting Continued on next page

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REBECCA PHILLIPS

One of the many features of this journal is the third installment of a historical journey, beautifully researched and written by NBA Past President David Gregory. These articles highlight the past sixty years of the National Band Association.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

President’s Message, Rebecca Phillips, cont. the NBA Booth at your state music or band convention, please let your state chair know immediately. They will gather the convention application forms, timelines, and costs (not including shipping of the booth) and submit this request on behalf of your state via the website.

2. If you have developed an event or project (not a consortium) that benefits band and band directors across your state or region and would like to apply for NBA Project Grant funding, please gather your details of budget, purpose, how your event serves bands in your state etc. and submit your request via the website.

3. NBA members, graduate students, or university professors conducting band research for future publication who wish to request research funding, please go to the website to read about NBA Research Grant Funding details.

In addition, the NBA Journal has a wonderful peer-reviewed section of the Journal for those who are looking to publish articles and are needing these activities to help with tenure or promotion.

PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES VIA NBA SOCIAL MEDIA The NBA would like to stay up to date with your professional accomplishments, resources you have discovered and recommend, or events you and your state are hosting. One way to help you promote these individual accomplishments, “For the Good of the Association” items, and 6

band events in your state is by sharing your news items though the NBA website news submission link. Your shared information does not automatically go public from this submission. We will then turn your information into a news announcement via the NBA Facebook page whenever possible and appropriate. This should be in addition to the state reports that your State Chair writes on your behalf every Fall. Please login to the website and go to NationalBandAssociation.org/ news/submit-news/ to let us know your band news so we can share with the membership and others who follow the NBA Facebook page.

NBA AWARDS By visiting the website and selecting “What We Offer” and “About” from the menu options, you can find information about “Awards & Recognition” for your program, individuals, students, and nomination forms for the AWAPA, and Hall of Fame, and Al & Gladys Wright Distinguished Legacy awards. You can also find information about the Programs of Excellence Blue Ribbon application process (due summer 2022), composition submission information for the four NBA contests, and information regarding the Dr. William P. Foster Project awards.

NBA EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Take a moment to search the NBA website to see the various educational resources available to you as a member. In addition to access to every NBA Journal from 1990 forward, each member receives The Instrumentalist Magazine, has access to the

Selected Concert Band, Jazz, and March music lists, interview videos with past NBA presidents, information on how to host an NBA Concert Band Symposium, membership lists and contact information for connection and collaboration, and mentor/mentee opportunities.

NBA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Information and application details for the Young Composer & Conductor Mentor Projects will be available on the website in September. We are thrilled to announce that Col. Donald Schofield and the United States Air Force Band will once again host this event on June 12-16, 2022, in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to Mark Camphouse and Linda Moorhouse for running this event on behalf of the NBA. The leadership of the National Band Association is committed to providing you, our members, with resources to continue developing bands across the nation, providing professional development opportunities for band directors, and offering encouragement to all associated with band programs as we work together to build the finest band organization in the world. I am honored and humbled to serve as your president. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or thoughts.

Dr. Rebecca Phillips President National Band Association

NBA JOURNAL

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

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ne of my rituals as I prepare to stare at the blank page to begin composing a new message for The NBA Journal is to go back and review messages from years past. As I reviewed the message that I wrote for the Summer 2020 NBA Journal, we were all entering the early months of the pandemic. I certainly had no idea of the profound impact that the pandemic would have on our programs, if nothing else, forcing us all to find new ways to deliver instruction to our students. In that message, I brought a quote to you which read: “Life is a circle of happiness, sadness, hard times and good times. If you are going through a hard time, know that good times are on the way.”

As we now sit in the middle of summer 2021, a full 15 months since our musical world changed drastically, I certainly hope we are at the beginning of our “good times.” For many of us, the past year has been full of so many mixed emotions. I can imagine you have felt the full range of emotions at some point over the past year. From sadness to joy; frustration to celebration; anger to cheer, the 2020-2021 school year will forever be one that we will all remember. As we all prepare to fully embrace the “good times”, don’t be afraid to keep ideas and methodologies that your students embraced. Likewise, don’t be hesitant to be done with those that just simply didn’t work. Change is always hard at the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end, so keep your eyes at the end goal and keep working

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through these crazy and hopefully unique times.

I would also like to remind everyone to keep an eye out for the return of the NBA projects that have been on hiatus during the pandemic. Our Young Composer/Conductor Mentor Project (YCCMP) will return in 2022 with applications available this coming September. The event will take place June 12-16, 2022 and will be hosted by the United States Air Force Band and Col. Don Schofield. This is an amazing opportunity for our profession’s rising stars to have the opportunity to work with legendary conductor and composer mentors, and have the experience of conducting the US Air Force Band, or having your work performed by the US Air Force Band! Another of our projects, the Programs of Excellence Blue Ribbon Award, will return for 2022 as well. Be on the lookout for application information to be active in December. The roster of previous winners of this prestigious award reads like a “Who’s Who” of amazing high school and middle school band programs.

Start planning now to apply for this national recognition.

Keep an eye on the NBA website under the “What We Offer” tab for information about all the opportunities that exist for the membership of the National Band Association!

I absolutely can’t wait to hear “meet you at the tree” this December in Chicago for our annual meetings during the Midwest Clinic! After a year’s absence, I imagine this coming Midwest will be a celebration

Continued on next page

RANDALL COLEMAN

Change is always hard at the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end, so keep your eyes at the end goal and keep working through these crazy and hopefully unique times.

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FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

First Vice-President’s Message, Randall Coleman, cont. for us all. Please make note of the very special ways that NBA is celebrating our 60th anniversary!

You won’t want to miss the session moderated by current NBA PastPresident Dr. Scott Tobias, that will feature many of the past presidents of our organization. Hearing these giants remind us of the historic past of our organization and how we can lead into the future will be one of the convention highlights.

The Executive Committee is also planning a celebratory reception that will follow immediately after our Annual Membership Meeting and, of course, don’t miss the premiere of James David’s new work that will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the NBA. Make sure to stop by the NBA booth in the exhibit hall and say hello. It’s these connections that we have all missed so much over the past year.

leads to a renewed energy and dedication to our profession, our families and our students. All three deserve nothing less.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance to you or your program. It is my honor to serve you through NBA. Best wishes to you all!

Randall Coleman First Vice-President The National Band Association

I hope our renewed appreciation of what we do and how we do it leads to a renewed energy and dedication to our profession, our families and our students.

As we all prepare to embark on a new school year, for me this is year 40 (and in a new job, too!), I feel everyone’s excitement to be able to once again make music, in person, with our students.

For me, I haven’t had a “normal” rehearsal with my collegiate ensemble since February 2020, even though we enjoyed some fractured time together this past year. The thought of having a rehearsal where you can work on crafting that wonderful ensemble sonority, where you can challenge your students to achieve far more than they may have the day before, where your students can experience that feeling of accomplishment that is felt in that second or two between the music’s final notes and the audience applause; I simply can’t wait! I hope our renewed appreciation of what we do and how we do it 8

NBA JOURNAL

SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

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spent a great deal of time this past summer reflecting on the lessons I learned from teaching during the pandemic. I also managed to cram in as many vacations as possible in an effort to compensate for all the time my family was stuck at home last year. And while we won’t fully comprehend the lasting impact of the pandemic on our band programs for years to come, I was able to recalibrate my “compass” for the short term.

Heading into last year, I felt like a first-year teacher all over again: anxious and overwhelmed. As we head into this year, I feel like the Energizer Bunny! I am bursting with ideas and renewed passion for our craft.

During the pandemic, many of us were forced to try what felt like a million new ways to teach music in virtual and hybrid formats.

As many of us return to mostly normal rehearsals in our schools and communities, I encourage you to brush off your tried-andtrue rehearsal techniques while incorporating new approaches that you discovered during the pandemic. There is an adage that John Thomson, my predecessor at New Trier High School, frequently uses: “Evolution, not revolution.”

Now is the time for us to begin rebuilding our band programs in a thoughtful and intentional way for the future. Balancing the old and the new is key!

Many of us have experienced critical drops in enrollment and retention for this year. It may take years to increase the number of students in our programs again.

For now, I have resolved to focus my energies on the musicians that

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are still seated right in front of me. Music will always be about the personal connections that we share with, in real time, and that connection is not dependent upon the number of members in our groups.

As I prepared for this school year, I found myself daydreaming about the music that I would be able to program. After a year of using flex arrangements and music a grade level lower than usual, I am looking forward to playing more complex music.

On a related note, the National Band Association is in the process of updating the Selective Music List and will be releasing a new 60th Anniversary edition. In particular, several pieces by underrepresented composers have been recommended for inclusion on the new list. I hope you will find this to be a very worthwhile resource as you program for your ensembles.

On the topic of underrepresented musicians, I look forward to exploring issues of diversity, race, and social justice in person again. It was very difficult to have these complex discussions in virtual and hybrid formats.

Fortunately, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Septet released their new album, The Democracy! Suite, which included several YouTube videos that I was able to utilize as we discussed the election process in our jazz classes. Another new resource that I have found to be particularly enlightening is The Horizon Leans Forward…Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field, (2021) compiled Continued on next page

MATT TEMPLE

Heading into last year, I felt like a first-year teacher all over again: anxious and overwhelmed.

As we head into this year, I feel like the Energizer Bunny!

I am bursting with ideas and renewed passion for our craft.

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SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Second Vice-President’s Message, Matt Temple, cont. and edited by Erik Kar Jun Leung, and published by GIA Publications.

The book consists of two main sections: a collection of essays by underrepresented musicians and an annotated bibliography of band works.

More than anything, though, I am looking forward to being on the pit crew this year for my son and daughter’s marching band.

My wife and I were cheated out of this opportunity last year due to the pandemic. Our children are twins, so we only have three years left! We do not have a marching band at New Trier High School (ask me about this sometime), so I will be able to attend most of their halftime performances and marching competitions. I plan to blend in with the other parents and just be a band dad, not a band director.

I hope you have a joyous return to directing bands this year. I know that I am beyond grateful for each day that I can make music normally again.

Matt Temple Second Vice-President The National Band Association

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NBA JOURNAL

IMMEDIATE PAST-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

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reetings National Band Association. As we look to the start of the 20212022 academic year, I hope you are finding the light at the end of tunnel a bit brighter. We appear to be making progress with schools re-opening and live performances beginning to return. I know this is a welcome change from what we were experiencing at this same time one year ago.

Those of you familiar with the original “MacGyver” television series from the late 1980s might remember that many episodes would start with Richard Dean Anderson offering an obscure factoid about some commonplace item. The voiceover usually started with something like, “Funny thing about a paper clip…,” and then continued with an explanation as to how he was going to use the item to escape from an impossible situation. Well, here’s my attempt at that plot device – Funny thing about a slingshot.

You first have to pull the rock backwards in order for it to be launched forwards.

Now you may be wondering what in the world that has to do with anything band related, but I believe it’s a good analogy for the situation in which we currently find ourselves. During the past year, the pandemic forced us to make a number of changes that I believe we would all agree felt like we were moving backwards.

We had less in-person interaction.

Restrictions were placed on live music making. And a number of our traditional activities were put on hold. But now that we are

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beginning the return to normal, we have an opportunity to use the challenges of the past year as a proverbial slingshot to provide momentum to launch ourselves forward.

As Thomas Haynes Bayly stated in his 1844 poem Isle of Beauty, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Communities are eager for the return of live performances, providing us with an opportunity to increase support for our programs. Students are eager to return to the classroom after a year of staring at computer screens. What impact might that energy and eagerness have in our classrooms and rehearsal halls? We very well might find a new atmosphere of excitement upon which we can capitalize to better serve our students and communities.

There is no doubt that there will be challenges as we come out of the pandemic. Missed instructional time and the interruption of established curriculum sequences will affect our programs. However, instead of focusing on the missed opportunities of the past year, consider the possible benefits of the slingshot effect. Our brief move backwards may have provided us with the potential energy needed to launch us forward and to help us come back stronger than we were before.

Best wishes to everyone for the year ahead!

Scott C. Tobias Immediate Past President National Band Association

SCOTT TOBIAS

... Now that we are beginning the return to normal, we have an opportunity to use the challenges of the past year as a proverbial slingshot to provide momentum to launch ourselves forward.

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NBA MISSION STATEMENT FOR DIRECTORS OF SCHOOL BANDS

by Dr. William Moody | Revised in December 2009 The mission for directors of school bands is understood inherently by those who think of themselves more often as instrumental music teachers rather than simply as band directors. The basic objective of instrumental music education is that students will learn performance skills in order to understand musical language and to experience the joys of recreating music in the expressive medium of their choice. Music education should prepare students also for a fuller understanding and appreciation of the music they will be hearing the rest of their lives regardless of its style or venue.

Efforts to address the National Standards for Music Education in band class by including music theory, music history, improvisation, and composition will help the students be better listeners in adulthood and will make better musicians of those who wish to pursue musical careers or practice music as an avocation in adult life.

The National Band Association would like school administrators, teachers, and parents to recognize that students elect to study instrumental music for a variety of reasons, including: as an outlet for creativity, a source of social interaction with like-minded peers, a possible career choice, gratification that comes from recognition by responsive audiences, discipline through study and practice, and service to school and community. The evaluation of instrumental music programs should be grounded in a review of the educationally and aesthetically justifiable objectives that are explicit in this mission statement.

The long-respected model for learning to play a musical instrument based on the role of artist-teacher with a studio of private students applies as well to school bands. Band class must provide these same foundations: a correct concept of characteristic tone quality, development of technique based on a graded course of study, a formal system for counting rhythms, practice in developing good intonation, and the sure goal of playing expressively.

An instrumental music program should offer a broad range of musical experiences: an extensive solo and chamber music repertory that provides subtle opportunities for nuance and other systems of expression; a school jazz ensemble that stresses rhythmic precision, understanding of harmonic progression, and creative improvisation; a concert band, the core of the program, where our musical heritage is transmitted through inspirational compositions by the most creative composers.

Service activities such as marching band are often important to the school and community, and students who participate gain social, educational, and musical values. Because evaluative competition can raise standards and motivate progress, NBA strongly recommends that all bands participate in festivals or contests sponsored by district and state music education associations, especially when a rating rather than a ranking is the goal. However, the integrity of the instructional program can be threatened by a disproportionate emphasis on competitions and service-related performances. Marching band activities that require extra rehearsals and travel time should be scheduled with concern for the many responsibilities that students have in addition to their musical studies, and must never be the focus of the instrumental music program. Excessive demands on students, parents, and community––financial and otherwise–– bring about consequences harmful to the essence of the instrumental music program.

History demonstrates that those who cultivate a special intelligence in an area of personal interest make great contributions to the way we live. Efforts by legislators or educators to emphasize one area of study alone stifle the pluralism that has been one of this country's strengths. Rather, schools should provide a broad base of knowledge for students and also encourage development of the special abilities of those who demonstrate the capacity to excel.

Instrumental music studies provide a laboratory of artistic and social opportunities for individual development that contributes to the collective good.

The arts provide unique forms of knowledge, present a basic means of communication, and produce lasting works that are the hallmarks of a civilization. President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that education is not for the purpose of learning to earn a living, but for learning what to do with a living after it has been earned. Whether in the arts or other areas of interest, students who are encouraged to develop their talents and interests participate in the continuous regeneration of our democratic ideals.

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NBA JOURNAL

A B O U T AWA PA

NBA’S ACADEMY OF WIND AND PERCUSSION ARTS NBA AT ITS BEST

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he National Band Association was founded on September 11, 1960. This new organization was the dream and brain child of Traugott Rohner, the editor and founder of The Instrumentalist magazine. Rohner set up a meeting with two of the most capable leaders among America’s band directors, Dr. Al G. Wright, who was at that time Director of Bands at Purdue University, and John Paynter, Director of Bands at Northwestern University, and these two very able leaders established a new, inclusive band organization which grew into the largest band organization in the world.

Al Wright was the NBA’s first president, and he soon became aware of a need to establish a special, high level award program to recognize excellence and exceptional service to bands. The result of this was the establishment of The Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (AWAPA). This award was established for the purpose of recognizing those individuals who have made truly significant and outstanding contributions to furthering the excellence of bands and of band music, and it was not to be limited to band directors, but to anyone who’s contributions were determined to be so outstanding that they deserved and warranted honor and recognition.

The nine-inch silver AWAPA figure is designed to be the “Oscar” of the band world. Elections to the academy are made from time to time by the Board of Directors acting upon nominations from the AWAPA Commission. Presentations of AWAPA awards are made at band performances or meetings of national significance. The new recipients of the award are announced at the annual National Band Association Membership Meeting at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago each December, and the honorees from the previous year are invited to attend that meeting for a formal presentation of the award.

If the recipient is not able to be present at that meeting, the award is presented at another prestigious band event where the recipient is properly honored and recognized. The award consists of a silver statuette, a silver medallion, and an engraved certificate.

The Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts represents the highest honor which the National Band Association can confer on any individual.

The NBA represents the best there is in a great, proud profession. When we honor our very best, we bring honor on our organization and on our profession. A list of the past recipients of the AWAPA Award is literally a “Who’s Who” list of some of the greatest leaders involved in the band movement during the past six decades. The list includes an international cross section of important individuals representing all aspects of the band world, who have rendered remarkable service to bands.

AWAPA RECIPIENTS LISTED BY DATE AND YEAR OF PRESENTATION William D. Revelli November 25, 1961

Jan Molenaar July 11, 1974

Vincent Persichetti December 16, 1981

Warren Benson December 14, 1988

Russell Hammond December 14, 1999

James Croft April 16, 2011

Karl L. King November 10, 1962

Frederick Fennell August 3, 1975

Clare Grundman December 15, 1982

John Bourgeois December 14, 1988

William F. Ludwig December 14, 1999

Paula Crider December 15, 2011

Harold D. Bachman January 9, 1965

Harry Mortimer August 3, 1975

Morton Gould December 15, 1982

Donald Hunsberger December 19, 1990

John M. Long December 20, 2001

Mark Kelly December 15, 2011

Glenn Cliffe Bainum February 21, 1965

George S. Howard December 16, 1976

Karel Husa December 15, 1982

Edgar Gangware December 19, 1991

Raoul Camus December 19, 2002

Bobby Adams December 19, 2013

Al G. Wright March 7, 1969

Mark Hindsley March 2, 1978

Harry Begian December 14, 1983

W J Julian December 16, 1992

Paul Bierley June 14, 2003

Richard Floyd December 18, 2014

Harry Guggenheim August 18, 1969

Howard Hanson December 13, 1978

Francis McBeth December 12, 1984

Geoffrey Brand December 20, 1995

William J. Moody December 18, 2003

Edward Lisk December 17, 2015

Paul V. Yoder December 18, 1969

James Neilson December 13, 1978

Normal Dello Joio December 12, 1984

Harvey Phillips December 21, 1995

Earl Dunn December 16, 2004

Linda R. Moorhouse December 15, 2016

Toshio Akiyama December 13, 1970

Vaclav Nelhybel December 13, 1978

J. Clifton Williams December 18, 1984

Richard Strange December 20, 1995

Victor Zajec December 16, 2004

Thomas V. Fraschillo December 21, 2017

Richard Franko Goldman July 23, 1971

Leonard Falcone December 12, 1979

Frank W. Erickson December 17, 1986

L. Howard Nicar, Jr. October 16, 1996

James T. Rohner December 15, 2005

John Whitwell December 20, 2018

John Paynter March 5, 1972

Alfred Reed December 12, 1979

Neil A. Kjos December 17, 1986

Kenneth Bloomquist December 18, 1996

Frank Battisti December 21, 2006

Richard Crain December 19, 2019

Roger A. Nixon July 12, 1972

Arnald Gabriel December 16, 1980

Merle Evans December 20, 1986

H. Robert Reynolds December 18, 1996

David Whitwell December 20, 2007

Loras John Schissel December 15, 2020

Traugott Rohner February 11, 1973

Nilo Hovey December 16, 1980

Hugh E. McMillen December 17, 1986

Elizabeth Ludwig Fennell December 17, 1997

Frank B. Wickes December 18, 2008

Sir Vivian Dunn March 2, 1973

Trevor Ford December 16, 1981

Claude T. Smith December 16, 1987

Arthur Gurwitz December 17, 1997

Ray Cramer December 17, 2009

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NBA PAST PRESIDENTS

PAST PRESIDENTS OF THE NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION

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Al G. Wright 1960 - 1962 Honorary Life President

John Paynter 1962 - 1966 Honorary Life President

Edward W. Volz 1966 - 1968

William J. Moody 1968 - 1970

George S. Howard 1970 - 1974

F. Earl Dunn 1974 - 1976

William D. Revelli 1976 - 1978

W J Julian 1978 - 1980

Kenneth Bloomquist 1980 - 1982

James Neilson 1982 - 1984

James K. Copenhaver 1984 - 1986

James Croft 1986 - 1988

Frank B. Wickes 1988 - 1990

Edward S. Lisk 1990 - 1992

Robert E. Foster 1992 - 1994

John R. Bourgeois 1994 - 1996

James Keene 1996 - 1998

Thomas Fraschillo 1998 - 2000

Paula Crider 2000 - 2002

David Gregory 2002- 2004

Linda Moorhouse 2004- 2006

Bobby Adams 2006- 2008

Finley Hamilton 2008- 2009

John Culvahouse 2009- 2012

John M. Long 2010 Honorary President

Roy Holder 2012 - 2014

Richard Good 2014 - 2016

Scott Casagrande 2016 - 2018

Scott Tobias 2018 - 2020

NBA JOURNAL

NBA BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2020— ­ 2022

PRESIDENT Rebecca Phillips

Director of Bands Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado

FIRST VICEPRESIDENT Randall Coleman

Associate Director of Bands University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabama

SECOND VICEPRESIDENT Matt Temple

Director of Bands New Trier High School Winnetka, Illinois

ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE SCHOOL & JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES

KIM BAIN

CHIP DE STEFANO

Director of Bands Pizitz Middle School Vestavia Hills, Alabama

Director of Bands McCracken Middle School Skokie, Illinois

MILITARY/PROF. BANDS LT. COL. DANIEL TOVEN

COMMUNITY BANDS MICHAEL BURCH-PESSES

Associate Director School of Music University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

MUSIC INDUSTRY AT-LARGE REP. STEVE TRULL ALFRED WATKINS DeMoulin Uniforms Greenville, Illinois

Retired Music Educator Atlanta, Georgia

Director of Bands Pacific University Forest Grove, Oregon

AT-LARGE REP. CRAIG AARHUS

Associate Director of Bands Mississippi State University Starkville, Mississippi

AT-LARGE REPRESENTATIVES

SUSAN WATERS

Director of Bands Del Webb Middle School Las Vegas, Nevada

Director of Bands West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY-TREASURER Linda R. Moorhouse

APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVES

Deputy Commander & Associate Bandmaster United States Army Band Washington, D.C.

TRACY LESLIE

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Scott Tobias

Director of Bands W.H. Oliver Middle School Nashville, Tennessee

HIGH SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES

TRAVIS COAKLEY

SHELBY R. CHIPMAN Director of Bands Florida A&M University Tallahassee, Florida

COL. JASON K. FETTIG

Director United States Marine Band Washington, D.C.

GARY GRIBBLE

Retired Music Educator Marietta, Georgia

ELIZABETH PETERSON

DAVID VANDERWALKER

Associate Director of Bands Executive Director University of Illinois Feierabend Association for Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Music Education Marietta, Georgia

BRIAN COVEY

Director of Bands Biloxi High School Biloxi, Mississippi

Director of Bands Lockport Township High School Lockport, Illinois

KRISTY DELL

CHAD KAMEI

Associate Director of Bands Gaither High School Tampa, Florida

Director of Bands Pearl City High School Honolulu, Hawaii

DIVISION CHAIRS

EASTERN ANDREW YOZVIAK

SOUTHERN COREY SPURLIN

Director of Bands Associate Director of Bands West Chester University Auburn University West Chester, Pennsylvania Auburn, Alabama

NORTH CENTRAL MARK HEIDEL Director of Bands University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa

COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY REPRESENTATIVE ARRIS GOLDEN

Associate Director of Bands Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan

SUMMER 2021

SOUTHWESTERN DUSTIN SEIFERT Director of Bands Eastern New Mexico University Portales, New Mexico

WESTERN/ NORTHWESTERN DIANE KOUTSULIS Retired Music Educator Las Vegas, Nevada

WESTERN/ NORTHWESTERN JOHN MILLER Retired Music Educator American Fork, Utah

INTERNATIONAL HENK SMIT Education Specialist Dutch National Institute of Cultural Education and Voluntary Arts Groningen, Middelstum The Netherlands, Europe

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NBA NEWS

OF THE FOLLOWIN G AWARDS C AN BE FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE: NATIONALBANDASSOCIATION.ORG/AWARDS-RECOGNITION

The NBA/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest The NBA/Merrill Jones Memorial Band Composition Contest The NBA Young Composers Jazz Composition Contest The NBA/Alfred Music Young Band Composition Contest NBA Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors Academy of Wind and Percussion Ar ts (AWAPA) Award Al & Gladys Wright Distinguished Legacy Award Programs of Excellence Blue Ribbon Award

FREE NBA AWARDS FOR OUR MEMBERS TO USE Mentor Award Citation of Excellence Outstanding Jazz Educator Citation of Merit for Marching Excellence 16

Outstanding Musician Award Outstanding Jazz Musician Award Music Camper Award Band Booster Award NBA JOURNAL

NBA NEWS

NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION 2021 FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL

NBA/WILLIAM D. REVELLI MEMORIAL BAND COMPOSITION CONTEST WHO MAY ENTER: REQUIREMENTS:

ENTRY MATERIALS:

This contest is open to anyone regardless of age, color, national origin, or religious belief.

A work for Concert Band/Wind Ensemble. Recommendations as to style, form, length, and instrumentation are outlined in the contest rules.

A pdf of the full score plus a digital audio recording of a live performance or recording session must be sent to the chair. $5000

AWARD

FORMS & MATERIALS

ENTRY DEADLINE:

November 1, 2021

Dr. Matthew McCutchen (e-mail: mccutchen@usf.edu) Attn: NBA Composition Contest School of Music University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Ave., MUS 101 Tampa, FL 33617

NBA/WILLIAM D. REVELLI MEMORIAL BAND COMPOSITION CONTEST COMMITTEE Matthew McCutchen, University of South Florida, Chair Terry Austin Virginia Commonwealth University

Arris Golden Michigan State University

Jason Nam Indiana University

Marcellus Brown Boise State University (ID)

Jennifer Hamilton] Red Mountain High School (AZ)

Scott Rush Fine Arts Supervisor (SC)

John Burn Homestead High School (CA)

Chadwick Kamei

Shanti Simon University of Oklahoma

Catherine Sinon Bushman St. Cloud State University (MN)

Tremon Kizer University of Central Florida

Colonel Jason Fettig United States Marine Band (DC)

John Thomson Roosevelt University (IL)

Pearl City High School (HI)

SPONSORED BY

Diane Koutsulis Retired (NV) CONTEST RULES & PAST WINNERS:

nationalbandassociation.org/composition-contests SUMMER 2021

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6 0 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y S P O T L I G H T

THE NBA - PART THREE: WINDSHIELDS AND REAR-VIEW MIRRORS DAVID GREGORY, PAST PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BAND ASSOCIATION "Learning from our past provides us with opportunities to do even greater things in the future."

The National Band Association has guided, shaped, and promoted bands and band music while celebrating unsurpassed achievement in the band world for more than 60 years.

T

he National Band Association is the legacy of three men: Traugott Rohner, Al Wright, and John Paynter. Their vision in 1960 became a reality in the form of the most significant band organization in the world... one that championed and shaped bands and band programs for generations of teachers and students. The 60th anniversary of the NBA was celebrated in 2020, and this third and final article on that storied history is an attempt to reflect on many of the achievements and legacies of the past six decades. It is also a look at some of the exciting possibilities and undertakings the organization will have in the coming years.

Historical recounting normally moves from distant to recent events. The previous two articles on the history of the NBA dealt with periods of time of the

18

organization 1960-1976 and 19762000. This final article on the sixty-year history of the National Band Association will focus primarily on the events of the years 2000-2020 but will provide a review of the previous forty years of the organization's work as a summation of its history. The metaphorical rear-view mirror is the "look back at what has passed" in the NBA's long and colorful legacy of guiding and shaping the band movement in America, and the "windshield" will be a glimpse of what lies ahead for the organization as it continues to help mold and perpetuate the legacy of bands and band music in America.

The first two decades of the new millennium were times of significant change in the operations of the NBA as well as years when exceptional programs and recognitions were created that helped further shape bands

Dr. David Gregory, Founder and Conductor Emeritus of the Georgia Wind Symphony, is former Director of Bands/Coordinator of Music Education at Reinhardt University (Ret.) and Conductor Emeritus of Tara Winds Community Band. He has conducted elementary, junior high, high school, community college, university, and professional bands during his career. He is a Past President of the National Band Association and served eight years as Advisor to the Executive Committee of that organization. Maintaining a regular schedule of appearances, Dr. Gregory has received invitations to appear throughout the United States and abroad. He has conducted allstate bands throughout America, and his band activities have taken him across the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and the European continent where he appeared as guest conductor of La Banda dell’Esercito of Rome, Italy (2x), the Associazione Musicale “G. Verdi” Band of Aci S. Antonio, Sicily, the Federazione Bande Siciliane of Santa Maria di Licodia, Sicily, the Lucania Orchestra di Fiati of Matera, Italy, La Banda di Sant’Oreste (Rome), La Banda di Commune Triuggio, and five times with La Banda di Sacrofano in Rome. He is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and served as a member of the Board of Directors for that organization. In February of 2020, Gregory was inducted into the National Band Association’s “Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors” and was named as a “Midwest Legend” for 2021.

and band music in our country.

It was a time of loss, and it was a time of unprecedented growth for the organization. It was a time of endings and a time of beginnings.

Nine past presidents and one Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. honorary president died (one president while in office); the NBA began awarding project grants and research grants; the NBA Journal was expanded to include pedagogical, informational, and peer-reviewed articles; college and university NBA student chapters were established; the first International Conducting Symposium was held; young composer and young conductor mentor programs began; the NBA Journal moved to digital publication; the organization moved toward more inclusive and diverse programs and offerings; new composition contests were started; the NBA expanded its services and networking further into the corporate world; the NBA Foundation was established; and a twenty-year tradition of the NBA Past Presidents came to an end.

The years 2000 to 2020 were some of the most productive in the history of the organization, and they impacted more bands, band students, band music, and band directors than ever before.

ONCE MORE...A QUICK LOOK AT THE FIRST FORTY YEARS: THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR Rear-view Mirror: Allows one to see what is passed without turning away from the direction of travel.

1960 •The National Band Association was organized by Traugott Rohner, founder and publisher of The Instrumentalist magazine, Al Wright, Director of Bands at Purdue University, and John Paynter, Director of Bands at Northwestern University. A national organization to serve ALL bands was the vision of Mr. SUMMER 2021

Rohner, and it grew to become the largest band organization in the world.

•The Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (AWAPA) Award was established, and the first award was given to Dr. William D. Revelli in November of 1961.

1976 •The first NBA National Summer Convention was held at Iowa State University with Jimmie Howard Reynolds as host and Earl Dunn as NBA President.

•The first National Honors High School Concert Band was held in March of that year. Over 800 students from 49 states auditioned for the 110-member ensemble.

1977

•The NBA DeMoulin Band Composition Contest was established, and the first award was made that year. The contest was renamed the NBA/William D. Revelli Memorial Contest in 1994 in honor of Dr. Revelli who died that year. A total of 44 awards have been made.

1980 •NBA Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors opened at Troy University with 17 inductees in the inaugural class. Sixty members have been inducted into the Hall of Fame as of 2020.

1982 •The first National Honors High School Jazz Band performed at the NBA summer convention in Kansas City, Kansas that year.

The ensemble was organized by Dr. Ronald McCurdy.

1984 •NBA/CBDNA Southern Division combined conventions began.

That joint convention was held in Orlando, Florida.

1986 •NBA rebates to states began based on respective membership numbers.

President Jim Croft initiated this program so that states could receive financial assistance for special NBA projects. Note: the state rebates based on membership were discontinued and replaced with NBA Project Grants.

•The first NBA National Community Band met at the summer convention in Knoxville, Tennessee. "Stars and Stripes and Sousa" was the title of the premier event, and James Saied (as Mr. Sousa) was the conductor. This program of adult band performances continued as part of the NBA work for over twenty years.

1991 •The NBA/Merrill Jones Memorial Young Band Composition Contest was established by Priscilla Jones as a memorial to her late husband and for the purpose of helping young and aspiring composers.

Fourteen awards have been given.

1993 •The NBA Newsletter started in the fall of this year. Past President Ed Lisk initiated this project because he felt there was much more information continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. about the NBA that should be given to members than could adequately be addressed in the two issues per year of the NBA Journal. The NBA Newsletter continued to be an important part of the organization's communication to the membership for approximately a decade, after which the NBA moved to an electronic format for communication.

Additionally, during the presidency of Robert Foster a new NBA logo was introduced in the newsletters and later became the official logo for NBA publications and branding.

Note: The NBA continues to use two logos: the original for various projects and awards as well as for the NBA membership pin, and the new one for publications and the NBA website.

1994 •The Earl Dunn Student Leadership Workshops were established by Tim Lautzenheiser as a component of the NBA's outreach program for high school and college band students. Thousands of students were served through this program that came about as a result of Past President Earl Dunn's influence in Tim's life and career.

2000 •The final National Honors High School Jazz Band performance took place at the combined conventions of the NBA and the TBA summer event. Jim Culbertson was the director of that ensemble.

•The final National Honors High School Concert Band 20

performance took place at the NBA/TBA summer convention in San Antonio in July of that year. Colonel Lowell Graham, Commander and Conductor of the United States Air Force band, was the conductor.

THE MOST RECENT TWENTY The National Band Association moved virtually all communication and informational items online to the NBA website (NationalBandAssociation.org) by the early 2000s. Most of the events and projects noted below are presented in detail at respective locations on that website. Consequently, there will be expanded explanations only of those topics not fully addressed online. The reader is encouraged to visit the NBA website and review the most recent two decades of the history of this great organization as it is presented through detailed explanations. The following is an overview of the decades 2000-2020.

2000 •NBA Project Grants started under President Thomas Fraschillo. Grant requests were submitted to the Executive Committee for review, and awards were made in varying amounts up to $500, depending on the proposed project design and availability of funds.

That program continues in the year 2021 and is the program which replaced the state reimbursements based on respective membership numbers.

•The "NBA Outstanding Mentor Award" began during the presidency of Paula Crider (see original announcement,

pg. 19). It was designed to give recognition to a person named as a mentor of distinction and significance. The award afforded members an opportunity to recognize those special mentors who touched thousands of lives through a long career of dedicated teaching and had taken time to share their knowledge with others. NBA members could submit names and supporting material to the Executive Committee for evaluation, and presentations would be made at a special occasion designed to honor the recipient.

•The NBA Young Composer Mentor Project started as an idea of Mark Camphouse. As the organizer of the event, and with the guidance and approval of the NBA Executive Committee, he sought to provide young composers with an opportunity to have a new composition evaluated and critiqued by well-known and established composers. The young composers would meet with the mentor composers during the summer NBA convention, discuss possible changes, make recommended alterations and adjustments, review the final product, and have their work performed by a live ensemble.

As the culmination of the event, the young composers would have the opportunity to hear their original work crafted into a finished product based on the guidance of the mentor composers. The mentor composers for the first class of the YCMP were Mark Camphouse, Timothy Mahr, and Jack Stamp. Young composer Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont.

participants were Jay Glossup, Geoffrey Goodwin, Kyle Kindred, Christopher Tucker, and Matthew Schoendorff. Note: Mark will be retiring as Professor of Music and Director of Concert Bands at George Mason University effective June 1, 2022. He has offered to serve in an advisory role for the 2022 NBA Young Composer/Conductor Mentor Project.

2002 •Valerie Brown stepped down as NBA Office Manager at the end of the May, "passing the torch" to John SUMMER 2021

Stroube. Valerie served the organization faithfully for over 17 years, overseeing many of the organizational and administrative duties required to operate the NBA successfully through the tenure of nine NBA Presidents and on behalf of thousands of NBA members.

•NBA Student Member Chapters began at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire under the guidance of Mark Heidel, Director of Bands and chapter advisor (see report on page 22). This program was the first "official" attempt at reaching

out to and including college and university students in NBA membership, especially those who were preparing to become band directors. Annual membership dues for student members initially were $25.00, which gave them access to information and resources available to other NBA members. Later the editor of The Instrumentalist lowered the cost of the annual subscription price for student members as a means of encouraging more student participation.

At the same time, the NBA was able to offer full resource and networking capabilities to student members through online services not previously available. As a result, student membership dues dropped from the initial $25.00 to $5.00 per year, where it remains as of 2021.

Student membership numbers have climbed steadily since then. The NBA student membership totaled 717 at the end of 2020. (Note: because student membership now includes all the benefits of regular membership, there no longer are "student chapters," only student members at colleges and universities with full membership privileges.)

2003 •Discussion began on how to offer the NBA Journal in an online format. NBA President David Gregory asked Dr. John Carmichael from Western Kentucky University to produce an early PDF mock-up prototype of the Journal. The prototype served to help the organization move forward to Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont.

NBA JOURNAL (2003), 44(2), p. 70 NBA Student Chapter Committee Richard Mark Heidel, Chair I am pleased to report that 2003 has been an exciting year for the NBA Student Chapter Initiative. The first NBA Student Chapter in the country, founded at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, enjoyed a very successful and productive first year filled with informative presentations by guest speakers, numerous service projects that aided local and area band programs, and a young band composition commissioning project. Already this fall, there has been tremendous interest in the NBA Student Chapter Initiative among other universities throughout the country.

Stu-dent Chapters have been formed or are currently being formed at Appalachian State University, Ball State University, Georgia Southern University, University of WisconsinLa Crosse, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Other universities that have ex-pressed an interest in organizing an NBA Student Chapter include the University of California-Chico, University of WisconsinOshkosh, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Five Towns College in Central Islip, New York. NBA Student Chapters offer students a wonderful opportunity to promote the musical and educational significance of bands throughout the nation and to increase their knowledge and understanding of the national band movement. These are truly exciting times for the NBA, the world’s largest band association, and if you are interested in forming a Student Chapter, please contact Mark Heidel (715/836-4417 or heidelrm@uwec.edu) or visit the NBA website for additional information about NBA Student Chapters.

NBA JOURNAL (2003), 43(3), p. 34

Encourages Students to Pursue Musical Careers

Collegiate Chapters: A New Direction Richard Mark Heidel Timothy Michael Doleysh During the spring 2002 semester, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire recognized the National Band Association Collegiate Chapter – University of WisconsinEau Claire as an “approved and registered” campus organization. The formation of this new band association for university students was the product of ideas and considerable organizational work by numerous people at local, state, and national levels. The NBA Collegiate Chapter of UW-Eau Claire marks a step in a new direction for the National Band Association, and it offers exciting possibilities for the band movement in the United States.

Consistent with the National Band Association and National Band Association - Wisconsin Chapter, the purposes of the Collegiate Chapter - University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire are: • To promote the excellence of band throughout the state.

• To encourage the composition and performance of quality music for young bands.

• To assist people who are interested and/or involved, in any capacity and at any level, in the band movement.

• To promote pride and enthusiasm in the band movement.

• To encourage interested students to pursue careers in music.

• To promote a spirit of cooperation and dialogue among university students, band directors, performers, representatives of the music industry, and all other supporters of the band movement.

• To provide opportunities for university students to collaborate, network, and build relationships with professionals in the band movement.

Membership in the organization is open to all interested UW-Eau Claire students, faculty, or staff National dues for student membership are $25.00, and upon payment of dues student members will receive a one-year subscription to The Instrumentalist as well as access to the NBA website. National 34

The leadership within the association is provided by the Executive Board, which consists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Historian. The advisor, who provides guidance, oversees the activities of the organization, and promotes interest in the National Band Association, is a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire music faculty member as well as a member of the National Band Association.

The Collegiate Chapter - UW-Eau Claire has established the following immediate and long-term goals and projects: • Commission a work for young band by a nationallyrecognized composer • Assist other colleges and universities with the formation of student chapters • Invite clinicians/guest speakers to the UW-EC campus to address areas of interest and concern among students such as instrument repair, marching band, touring with bands, building a band program, band literature, and performance opportunities following graduation • Support local band programs • Increase the visibility of the organization within the community • Present master classes and teach lessons in area schools • Perform as soloists with area bands • Develop a summer band program – university, youth, community • Provide financial assistance to the university band program through various fundraising projects

May 2003

offer both PDF and hard copy formats once a new Journal template and new NBA logo were in place (December 2005). Online publication enabled the NBA to be more responsive, relevant, adaptive, and progressive in work on behalf of bands in America.

John's early contributions eventually became a significant element of the operations of the organization.

2004 •The NBA Young Conductor Mentor Program started as the companion to the Young Composer Mentor Project.

The program was designed to place the young conductor participants with mentors who guided them through the study and preparation of the 22

dues collected from each member of the collegiate chapter will be forwarded to the NBA national office while dues collected that are “above and beyond” the national dues will be used to support local administrative costs and special projects. A meeting of all members is held at least once a month, and all general meetings are open to any interested individual regardless of membership status.

compositions of the young composer participants. The young composers' works were conducted by the young conductors during the final concert of the week-long event.

Paula Crider was the organizer of this program and oversaw it until stepping down from that position at the end of the 2019 academic year. Dr. Linda Moorhouse assumed the role of organizer and administrator of the program in 2021. The conductor mentors for the initial class of the YCMP were Tom Fraschillo, James Keene, and Frank Wickes, and the conductor participants were Travis Cross, Brian Dell, and Andre Feagin. The NBA, and all the YCMP participants, are deeply indebted to Dr. Crider for her many years of

dedicated service, not only to the young conductors, but to all the conductors of our profession. She has been an exemplary model.

•The NBA Research Grants were started during the presidency of Dr. Linda Moorhouse. Grants are awarded on the basis of merit to our profession and to the extent the research is consistent with and supports the purposes of the National Band Association.

Grant awardees are asked to contribute a portion of their research for publication in the NBA Journal.

•The NBA Selective Music List was expanded to include graded march lists. Until 2004 the Selective Music List provided only graded lists of concert selections.

•The first NBA International Conducting Symposium was held in Rome, Italy (see photo pg. 21). The program was designed for young conductors (under the age of 35) who were chosen through an extensive audition process.

Three directors were chosen for this week-long conducting experience with the La Banda dell'Esercito Italiano (The Italian Army Band) of Rome. The three conductors chosen for the first ICS were: Scott Casagrande (John Hersey High School, Arlington Heights, IL), Scott Jones (Apple Valley High School, Apple Valley, MN), and Mohamad Schuman (Stone High School, Wiggins, MS).

The participants were provided with mentors for the week Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. who served as translators and assisted with musical preparation for the rehearsals and concert. Paula Crider, Tom Fraschillo, and David Gregory served as mentors for the week.

All participants conducted during a formal concert of the La Banda dell'Escercito at the conclusion of the workshop.

There were three such symposiums held in Rome, Italy: 2004, 2006, and 2008.

•Delta served as the Official Airlines of the NBA as a partner for the International Conducting Symposium in Rome, Italy. This is the only recorded instance of such a sponsorship. (See description below) 2005 •Earl Dunn retired as Editor of the NBA Journal after almost 40 years of service to the National Band Association. He was named "Editor Emeritus of the NBA Journal" and for many years continued to contribute to the success of the magazine through his counsel

First International Conducting Symposium - Rome, Italy 2004 (L-R) Jody Besse, Cornelius Young, Greg Springer-University of Southern Mississippi graduate students; Scott Jones, Scott Casagrande, Mohamad Schumann - ICS Participants; Thomas Fraschillo, David Gregory, Paula Crider - ICS Mentors; Maestro Fulvio Creux - Conductor of the Italian Army Band; Linda Moorhouse - NBA President

and oversight of articles and publication practices. Dr. Bobby Adams and Dr. Linda Moorhouse assumed the editorship of the Journal.

•The NBA publication logo was officially changed during the presidency of Dr. Linda Moorhouse. It was the wish of the Executive Committee that the organization project an image of greater inclusivity in its branding. The newly approved logo (which first appeared in the NBA Newsletters in the 1990s) appeared in the December 2005 issue of the NBA Journal, which also reflected a new internal design and online format. Note: The NBA continues to use two logos: the original for various projects and awards as well as for the NBA membership pin, and the new one for publications and the NBA website.

2008 •The final NBA Summer Convention was held at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida under President Bobby Adams.

SUMMER 2021

•The Final NBA Community Band was held at Stetson University during the presidency of Dr. Bobby Adams.

The Association of Concert Bands was the national leader in the community band movement, and it was felt that the NBA could better serve that musical population by joining ranks with and supporting the work of the ACB. Frank Wickes conducted the final NBA Community Band.

2009 •The original NBA Mission Statement, written by Past President William J. Moody, was revised with Dr. Moody again serving as author of the new document. Colonel Finley Hamilton was NBA President at that time.

•NBA President Colonel Finley Hamilton passed away during his term in office.

2010 •Dr. Johnny Long, Director of Bands Emeritus at Troy University, was named the first NBA Honorary President Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. in honor of his lifetime of exceptional service to the band profession.

2011 •The NBA Young Composers Jazz Composition Contest began.

Detailed information on this project may be found on the NBA website. Past President John Culvahouse and Dr. Alan Clark, Director of Bands at Middle Georgia State University, were the organizers. The award is sponsored by the University of Florida Bands.

•The NBA Concert Band Symposium began. Program information may be found on the NBA website as to how the events function and how a request may be made to host an event.

The initial format was designed through collaborations between Past Presidents John Culvahouse and Roy Holder and NBA members David Vandewalker and Alfred Watkins. The first event was held at Lake Braddock High School (Fairfax County, VA) where Roy Holder was Director of Bands. The two bands featured in the symposium were the Oxon Hill High School Band (Oxon Hill, MD), Walter Harley, Director, and the Harrison High School Band (Kennesaw, GA), David Vandewalker, Director.

Clinicians for the bands were Gary Green from the University of Miami and Alfred Watkins of Lassiter High School in Marietta, GA. Alfred, David, Gary and Roy presented professional development clinics for directors attending the symposium.

2012 •The NBA/Alfred Young Band Composition Contest began.

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Detailed information on this contest may be found on the NBA website. Past President John Culvahouse and Dr. Tonya Millsap, Director of Jones Middle School Band in Buford, GA, served as organizers for that project.

2013 •The NBA Programs of Excellence Blue Ribbon Award started under the presidency of Roy Holder. Detailed information is provided on the NBA website. Exceptional band programs across the country continue to receive well-deserved recognition at the national level through this program. Past President William (Bill) Moody can be credited with the vision for this award.

2014 •The NBA Foundation was established with funds bequeathed to the organization from the estate of NBA President Finley Hamilton who passed away during his time in office. Under the leadership of Dr. Susan Creasap of Morehead University, the foundation was established in 2014 and received its 501c3 tax exempt status in 2016. Contributions to the NBA Foundation are now tax deductible as allowed under the guidelines of 501c3 organizations.

2016 •The North Central Division of the NBA/CBDNA held its first combined convention. The Lockport High School Band (Brian Covey, Director) and the McCracken Middle School Band

(Chip De Stefano, Director) were invited to perform for this inaugural event (see programs page 25). The North Central Division joined the Southern Division in hosting combined meetings of the NBA and the CBDNA. (See above) 2017 •The Dr. William P. Foster Project "Award of Excellence" began under President Scott Casagrande. Extensive information on this distinctive award may be found on the NBA website, along with details of the collaboration between the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Music for All (MFA) and the National Band Association (NBA) in bringing this program to fruition. This program is designed to recognize quality programs serving historically disadvantaged student populations.

2020 •The Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts (AWAPA) was presented to 76 recipients during the first 60 years of the National Band Association.

•The Al and Gladys Wright "Distinguished Legacy Award" was endowed by Gladys Stone Wright in honor of her husband Al, Co-Founder and First President of the NBA and former Director of Bands at Purdue University, who passed away on September 5, 2020, at the age of 104. This prestigious award is described in detail on the NBA website as well as in the Winter 2020 Edition of the NBA Journal. It was designed to recognize a lifetime of a Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont.

legacy of service to the band profession through conducting, teaching, mentorship, scholarship, and leadership.

Former Commander/Conductor of the United States Army Field Band Colonel Hal J. Gibson was named the first recipient.

•The Chicago restaurant Trattoria #10 closed permanently. For twenty years this site had been the meeting place for the NBA Past Presidents' Dinner during the week of the Midwest Clinic.

The closing of this historic place brought to an end an NBA tradition.

SUMMER 2021

WHAT LIES AHEAD: THE WINDSHIELD Windshield: Provides vision of what lies ahead and allows the viewer to prepare for what is to come.

The future of the National Band Association appears to be exceptionally bright...one with great potential for promoting excellence in bands and band music, one that will continue to reach out to underserved populations, one that will increase in diversity and encourage greater inclusion, one that will continue to recognize the students and

teachers who do exceptional work, one that will become the professional organization for ALL bands in America, and one that will face the future with optimism and positive actions. The future holds great things for this exceptional and inclusive musical organization.

The windshield of the NBA is broad with a large "vision of what lies ahead." A number and variety of programs and offerings of the organization provide it with tremendous possibilities for continuing to shape the direction of the band movement in America. Listed below are ongoing Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. programs of the NBA. They are some of the vehicles through which bands, band music, and band directors will be recognized and will be given opportunities to change the landscape of the band movement.

•Sixteen NBA awards and recognition programs are offered in 2021, and these programs will continue to expand as services and needs dictate.

•Thousands of Certificates of Excellence and Student Awards have been presented. These programs will continue to highlight excellence in bands and band work.

•The newly formed committee charged with creating open discussions pertaining to inclusion, diversity, equity, and awareness (IDEA) will open additional windows of opportunity for the NBA to be an even stronger leader in the profession.

•The Dr. William P. Foster Project "Award of Excellence" will recognize scores of quality band programs in historically underserved populations, expanding further the efforts of the NBA toward inclusion and diversity.

•The NBA Al and Gladys Wright "Distinguished Legacy Award" will serve as a landmark "rear-view mirror" for the organization, allowing members to recognize and honor those exceptional leaders and legacies of the band world. Learning from the past and from those 26

who led our profession provides opportunities to accomplish even greater things in the future as a result of their examples.

•The NBA Mentor Project will continue to help guide the younger professionals through leadership from those who have served. This program has enormous potential for both the "rear-view mirror" and the "windshield" of the band profession.

•NBA Project Grants have assisted and will continue to assist scores of band programs and band directors through the thousands of dollars that have been awarded, and will continue to be awarded, to approved projects that promote the growth and excellence of band programs.

•NBA Research Grants have provided thousands of dollars to support valuable research in areas of bands and band music.

With assistance from the NBA Foundation and other sources, the NBA research grants will continue to provide much needed financial support for meaningful studies that will be of service to the profession.

•The Young Composer Mentor Project has served more than forty talented composers since its inception. This program will continue to assist aspiring composers as they work toward contributing quality literature to the repertoire.

•The Young Conductor Mentor Program has served more than two dozen conductors. Similar

programs are now in place at colleges and universities across the country, virtually all of which are using the NBA format as a model for their work.

•The NBA composition contests will continue to serve as a conduit for introducing quality band music into the repertoire.

Young composers, established composers, composers of young band music, and composers of jazz band music now have a forum through which they may be recognized. The NBA will continue to find more ways of promoting quality band music.

•The NBA Selective Music List has been expanded to include marches, concert compositions and jazz compositions. Through the NBA website the lists are more current and valid, and they are continually updated via the Selective Music Committee. There are few, if any, other national sources for music classification and recommendation.

•The AWAPA Awards will continue to give national recognition to those deserving of the highest honors. The NBA will continue to lead the way with this "Oscar" of the band world award.

•The NBA Journal has the potential to become THE magazine of the band profession, and with even more opportunities for expansion and growth. Few other publications provide the quality and quantity of professional literature as does the Journal.

Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont.

•The NBA Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors will continue to recognize conductors for exceptional contributions to the profession at the national level.

•There is the possibility that the NBA will have an even greater role as part of future Midwest Clinics. There are numerous opportunities and venues for collaboration and networking between the two organizations.

•NBA student memberships exceeded 700 in 2021with potential for enormous growth among that population. The opportunities provided for college and university students will serve as invaluable resources for them as they prepare to enter the band profession.

•NBA Online resources include the Library of Congress materials on bands, recommended reading lists for band directors, educational/ instructional videos on the NBA website, and interviews with NBA past presidents and advocacy specialists. These materials will continue to provide unique assistance to band directors and band students.

•The NBA will continue to be the place where ALL bands, band directors, and band students are recognized and valued. Each has something unique to contribute to the profession.

•The NBA should not be viewed as anything less than the SUMMER 2021

organization for ALL bands in America...one that is inclusive, diverse, progressive, innovative, and traditional. It will be THE organization that helps shape and mold the profession through its commitment to promoting bands and band music.

•The NBA will be a voice for those who do not have one and a forum for those who cannot find one.

CODA Robert Bolt's play, "A Man for All Seasons," presents a scene where Richard Rich was asked the question by Sir Thomas More: "Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one."

Rich: "And if I was [sic], who would know it?"

Sir Thomas: "You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public that..."

Excerpt from Past President Thomas Fraschillo's NBA Journal article - May 2002 The conclusion of this article, the third and final in a series on the history of the National Band Association, offers some personal observations and thoughts from the writer. To do so, the writing will move from third person to first person.

It has been a distinct privilege to research and write about the history of this grand organization.

My work has brought me into contact with many wonderful and knowledgeable people who contributed insightful and helpful

information about the NBA. My thanks also to the members of the NBA Executive Committee for giving me this opportunity.

Prior to my research and writings, I had great respect for the work of the NBA. After months of interviews, reviewing documents, and researching information through numerous sources, I have come to an even deeper and more profound appreciation of those who came before me, and for their work on behalf of and dedication to bands and band music. I am humbled by what I discovered and am inspired by those whose commitment to promoting bands and band music changed the landscape of bands in America.

To have served as President of this magnificent organization gives me great pride (my rear-view mirror), and it heightens my sense of obligation as to what must be done in the coming years on behalf of our profession (my windshield).

I close my final article with a few personal thoughts and observations. Here is my coda: * We must continually remind ourselves to "chase what matters" in our profession and not lose sight of those things that truly make differences in the lives of teachers and students. We must have both sight and vision as we move into the future of the NBA. •The legacy of the NBA, and our band profession, must be passed to those who follow.

Without such, it will fade into obscurity. We have a deep and abiding obligation to the legacy of those who came before us, and we have a similar obligation to pass that legacy along to Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont. those who will follow.

•We have an obligation to the work of those who shaped our profession (rear-view mirrors), just as we have the responsibility of recognizing and encouraging the true talent and leaders of the future (windshield).

•John Muir, late nineteenthcentury naturalist and defender of our national parks, once stated that occasionally he would go into a forest during a thunderstorm and climb to the top of a very tall tree. By doing so, he would have a better view of the magnitude of the storm and of what was taking place around him...and he also could experience first-hand some of the powerful forces to which the tree was exposed during the turmoil. I suggest that we as an organization, and as individuals, "climb some trees" in our profession.

Perhaps we will see better and more realistically some of the changes taking place...and possibly can better understand some of the struggles of those around us.

•I hold that if we truly believe what we say we believe, our actions will reflect those beliefs...as individuals and as an organization.

•I believe the teaching profession is a special calling.

Those of us who are privileged to serve students and to help change their lives through the teaching and creating of music are indeed fortunate. Every interaction we have with our 28

students is an opportunity to do something positive in the life of an individual..."not a bad public that."

•I believe those of us who have been called into the music profession reap rewards not measured by quantitative means. We can appreciate and value things others cannot.

•And once again, my sincere

and profound gratitude is expressed to those who allowed me this opportunity to honor my beloved National Band Association.

AS A FINAL REMINDER ...

"To those who understand, no explanation is needed. To those who don't, none will suffice."

-Jerry Lewis Continued on next page

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NBA Historical Article, David Gregory, cont.

Note: The information gathered for this article again came from many sources and people. It is possible that unintended errors might have occurred with regard to some of the dates, places, and names of people.

Every effort was made to bring to this document a factual and accurate accounting of the history of the NBA, and apologies are offered for any inaccuracies or oversights.

There was no intent to fictionalize or misrepresent the facts of history.

Sincere appreciation is expressed to the following people and sources for their contributions to the history of the National Band Association: Gary Barton Mark Camphouse John Carmichael Scott Casagrande Brian Covey Paula Crider John Culvahouse Chip De Stefano Robert Foster Thomas Fraschillo Jay Gephart Mark Heidel Roy Holder Scott Jones Ed Lisk Jim Little Tony Marinello

Linda Moorhouse Heath Nails Spencer Printing John Stroube

Matt Temple

David Vandewalker Alfred Watkins Lisa Zemlock Al and Gladys Wright: The Music Makers...A Love Story with Music

fine

SUMMER 2021

NBA Legacies Al Wright and John Paynter, Co-Founders and PastPresidents of NBA- "Windshields."

Colonel Hal J. Gibson - Our First Al & Gladys Wright Distinguished Legacy Award Recipient- "Windshield."

Al and John, "Rear-view Mirrors."

The Colonel at 97 years old, "Rear-view Mirror."

For Those Who Came Before ...

NBA Past Presidents - 2004 Seated L-R: W.J. Julian, Al Wright, James Keene, Ken Bloomquist, Robert Foster Standing: Thomas Fraschillo, John Bourgeois, James Copenhaver, James Croft, Frank Wickes, Paula Crider, Earl Dunn, William J. Moody, Ed Lisk, David Gregory

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THE TOOL YOU NEED NOW: GROWTH MINDSET AS A GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL REENTRY

BY ARRIS GOLDEN AND TIFFANY HITZ LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD

T

he COVID-19 Pandemic has caused the greatest and longest societal pause in our lifetimes. It caused us to quarantine ourselves away from our loved ones and essentially, society at large. It caused us to leave our classrooms, our students, and our professional lives for the latter half of the 2019-2020 school year and then to open and operate the 2020-2021 school year in a fairly constant state of limbo with ever changing discoveries and regulations. As we become more hopeful that the 2021-2022 school year may provide us with more “normalcy,” we must begin to ask ourselves some guiding questions. What will “re-entry” into our “normal” school settings look like? What will our programs look like and what will we be able to do? How will we be able to reestablish what we “left behind” in March 2020? Which important and successful pre-pandemic practices will we be able to build upon and which will we abandon for new ideas? How can we help our students build the resolve that will allow our programs to flourish again? What will our students and communities most need from us?

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CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING We as directors spent much of the last year and a half on our own, living in fear and worry for the world, and let’s face it, our band programs. In this time of transition, we more than ever need to seek out help and collaboration from others, we need to work together and share ideas of how to best build our band programs back up, and we need to work to accept that once successful practices may not yield the same results. It will not be how it was, and we cannot be fearful that it will never return to what we had. We must be willing to try new things, be willing to accept and truly welcome that all things will not work, and work to build the community that we and our students need and more importantly, deserve to have. For most of us, we will have a new set of students and the opportunity to build a new band room culture.

We will have students that may have never formally been part of a band, or perhaps at the least not THIS band. Challenges notwithstanding, transitioning back post-COVID does present an opportunity to identify and reframe what we want band experiences to look like for our students and to refocus what we can put in place to truly help them grow.

Dr. Arris Golden is the Assistant Director of Bands and Associate Director of the Spartan Marching Band at Michigan State University (MSU). In this capacity, Dr. Golden teaches courses in conducting, marching band techniques, conducts the Spartan Youth Wind Symphony and is coordinator of the MSU Performing Arts Camps.

Dr. Golden holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

A recipient of the MSU Distinguished Fellowship, Dr. Golden completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in wind conducting from MSU in May 2018. Email: goldenar@msu.edu

WHY MINDSET? “The important thing is learning in progress. That is brought about not only by effort but by trying new strategies and by seeking appropriate help and input.”

-Dr. Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success We both became familiar with the concept of Mindset, most specifically through reading Dr. Dweck’s book, many years before the pandemic. Both the book and the research surrounding it led us both to reflect on our teaching practices and on our interactions Continued on next page

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The Tool You Need Now ... , Arris Golden and Tiffany Hitz, cont. and relationships with our students. The information about growth mindset vs fixed mindset helped us put words to feelings and helped us better understand our past and our paths. It served to enhance our conversations with each other and helped us guide ourselves and each other toward more purposeful reflection. In short, Dweck's work has been nothing short of transformational.

All that we learned helped us both to make meaningful, substantive changes to how we do what we do and how we approach working with the others in our band communities.

A BRIEF MINDSET TUTORIAL What is IT? Dr. Carol Dweck’s groundbreaking research about motivation and the why and how of what makes people successful was featured in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In it, she defines the differences between two stages of mindset - fixed and growth. Individuals in a fixed mindset believe their basic abilities are simply fixed traits, and they define themselves by their perceived skill set or talents, rather than working to further develop and expand their skills. Conversely, in a growth mindset, people believe all types of intelligence, abilities, skills, and talents are malleable. As a result, these traits can be developed through dedication and hard work; additionally, we all move between a fixed and growth mindset at times as we further attain skills in a particular area. Further, instead of viewing mistakes or setbacks as a lack of ability or intelligence, SUMMER 2021

students and educators who embrace a growth mindset will actually view these challenges as an opportunity to learn and develop their skill set. They are inspired by the successes of others and may use those successes as motivation to work harder rather than seeing someone else’s success as a threat. This view encourages a “viewpoint of possibility,” creating love for learning and a receptiveness to new experiences.

WHY IS GROWTH MINDSET IMPORTANT IN OUR CURRENT TIMES Benefits to Students As we return to school for the 2021-2022 school year, we will all be concerned with and anxious about what school will look like; this is especially true for teachers of instrumental music. We not only want to ensure that students have successful musical experiences, we will want to continually support their social and emotional health and learning (SEL) through these experiences. Growth mindset is a gateway through which we can support our students in these experiences. As students return to school, the plethora of tasks and school-related activities will require them to learn and manage new information, manage the return-to-the-school setting, and manage assignments, etc.., in addition to managing their socialization, emotions, and reactions to all of these things.

Through the application of growth mindset, we can support our students in recognizing how they might achieve their goals, manage all the new information they receive, and find success in

Tiffany Hitz is Director of Bands and Music Department Chair at Rachel Carson Middle School in Fairfax County, VA. She received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and her Master of Music in Music Education from Boston University.

Mrs. Hitz has been a guest conductor and adjudicator from Maine to Mississippi and has been teaching in Fairfax County, VA since 2001. A member of the Virginia Music Educators Association, Mrs. Hitz is currently on the state’s New Music Grading Committee and chairs the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association Assessment Adjudicator Training Committee. Email: TLHitz@fcps.edu

the school setting by recognizing the growth that comes through struggles and the value in learning, rather than allowing negative feelings of failure to take root.

Benefits to Directors Additionally, viewing our work through a growth mindset will be invaluable for directors as we rebuild our programs. Many Continued on next page

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The Tool You Need Now ... , Arris Golden and Tiffany Hitz, cont. programs are struggling with enrollment and instrumentation issues moving into this school year.

Families may remain conflicted about band participation due to continued fears about COVID, and entire grade levels of what would-have-been beginning band members last year may be opting to continue in perceived “safer” elective options they began, rather than joining us now.

The benchmarks that are often used to define band program success - large enrollment, ideal instrumentation, mature performances of advanced music - may be difficult to achieve this year, or perhaps even impossible.

If we allow ourselves to view the results of our work through a growth mindset rather than comparing to past experiences, we will better attend to our own social and emotional health and will be better able to recognize and celebrate the gains we make along the way.

HOW GROWTH MINDSET WILL HELP “Teaching involves trust and respect as well as close, special relationships between students and teachers.”

Sonia Nieto, What Keeps Teachers Going, pg. 37 Setting the Culture Even before the pandemic, the communities that we joined our students in creating were both important to and supportive of student success; many of us know students for whom the band room is home. As we begin the new school year, we must quickly find ways to re-establish this culture (many of us have already started 32

this process). While doing this, we must consider the massive world events that have taken place alongside the pandemic and how our students and communities were affected. We must ensure that we embrace the diversity within our ensembles, continuing to place a high value on students’ identities (culture, race, language, gender, experiences) and making sure that we connect student learning to their real-life, lived experiences (via rehearsal experiences, concert programming, performance experiences, etc..).

Re-establishing these foundational building blocks will then allow us to re-establish high expectations for all our students, while allowing the growth mindset to be a “guiding light” to us and them within our rehearsals and performances. Our commitment to supporting students in spite of the obstacles they may face this coming year, musical or personal, will be key to our collective success.

Reflection Assisting students in being reflective is a key component of the growth mindset process, and we will have to guide them in realistically assessing both the strengths and weaknesses they may exhibit in their performance. We can help them work through feeling disappointed or discouraged when uncovering weaknesses by reframing weaknesses as exciting opportunities to improve and learn. We will have to help them understand that they are on a growth continuum and that they have not YET arrived at their best performance. Additionally, we should continually reflect

on what we are saying - verbally and nonverbally - and assess whether we are on the right track as educators. It is important that we constantly evaluate whether our actions are truly guiding our students toward reflection and if our choices are allowing them ample opportunity to practice being reflective, as reflection is a skill that develops over time and takes a certain amount of time to become engrained.

Recasting the Mold To support our students as school begins again, we must also allow them space to expand their growth mindset by trying new strategies and seeking input from us and others (their colleagues!) when they encounter issues in performance, etc... They require the opportunity to build and/or rebuild a repertoire of purposeful habits that will enable them to learn and improve, and be guided away from making repeated attempts with little to no feedback or reflection. We must help them see and understand that we are all along the same mindset continuum, just in different places, and acknowledge that the continuum will look different for different tasks, experiences, and different stages of life. However... if we choose to move closer to a growth mindset in our thoughts and daily practice sessions/ rehearsals, we have to be diligent in staying in touch with where we are in our journeys along the continuum.

Opportunities for Student Input Finally, showing our students that they have control, input, and the ability to collaborate on the Continued on next page

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The Tool You Need Now ... , Arris Golden and Tiffany Hitz, cont. path that their learning takes, especially when they may feel that they had no agency over their participation in the rehearsal setting in the past year, will be important to our overall success as we return to the in-person setting.

Students will feel more invested in the newest iteration of our “band room communities” when they play an active part in creating it.

Priorities for learning outcomes may look different to students, as well as parents, administration, communities at large. When we aid all stakeholders in understanding the ideals of the growth mindset and how to approach our work through that lens, we create a framework that does not require us to have all of the answers right now and welcomes necessary revisions along the way.

OUR HOMEWORK Starting Points For us to encourage a growth mindset within our ensembles, we too must work to make a growth mindset become habitual.

Managing the emotions that accompany failure and learning how to channel them toward improvement must be one of our ultimate goals for our students and ourselves! As we simultaneously reflect, refresh, and look ahead, we should strive to create intentions that will allow us to access the gifts that a growth mindset has to offer. Consider reading Dweck’s powerful text for a further dive into the concepts, search the web to discover some growth mindset verbiage shifts (“They are better than I am.” evolving to “What can I learn from them?”), or consider ways in which you can miraculously transform a SUMMER 2021

hopeless sentence by adding the word “yet” to the end (“I can’t do this...YET.”) Start thinking about which trusted colleagues will be your best allies as you rebuild your program. Which colleagues will be open to celebrating gains through a growth mindset lens, rather than being driven only by a final product? Which colleagues teach in similar situations or will experience similar challenges that you can collaboratively work through for mutual benefit? These will be important building blocks for you to rely on as you work to apply the mindset.

Been There Done That!

As you learn more about growth mindset, work to celebrate ways in which your thinking already leans toward a growth mindset. Think back to when you were in your students’ shoes.

Certainly we recognize that part of our path involved encountering something that was once “too hard” to play. Think of how you overcame that challenge. Did you give up? Unlikely, since music is your chosen career path. More than likely, you were guided by a teacher who helped you apply strategies that guided you through the challenge you were experiencing. It was not simply repeated attempts along the same path, but it probably involved setting small goals and steps to reach them using problem solving strategies. You may have slowed down a passage, practiced fingerings without playing, or isolated 2-3 notes. As small improvements were made, you likely widened the scope of your goal, persevered through challenges, and possibly applied

different strategies along the way to meeting your final goal. If this sounds familiar, you were utilizing a growth mindset.

Start Planning Once you recognize the successes that a growth mindset has provided you and begin to discover how applying a shift in your thinking can positively change your current outlook, begin looking for more ways to apply these ideals in your thoughts and actions, both professionally and personally. Keep your thoughts in check to ensure they reflect process and possibility.

To best help your students, it will be important for you to model the habits you wish for them to develop. Consider planning some experiences for your students to see how you respond when overtly faced with growth opportunities.

Here are some examples for you to consider as you prepare for the new school year: •Extend invitations to other directors, colleagues, and composers to join your rehearsals, to collaborate on the work of the students and to allow them to work with YOU - show YOUR openness to learning and improving. This can occur in a number of ways:

Investigate possibilities

for in-person visits from

area master teachers

whose work you know and

respect.

•Use platforms like Zoom to bring in master teachers or composers that are not in your immediate area.

•Allow students to hear you Continued on next page

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The Tool You Need Now ... , Arris Golden and Tiffany Hitz, cont. practice and work through difficult passages on main or secondary instruments during non-instructional times.

Initiate conversations with your students about your goals and the challenges you face, and ask for their suggestions.

•Just as we provide regular feedback to our students, consider ways to welcome their honest feedback about their band experience and, in particular, their experience with you as a director. Student input can be presented formally and informally: Include pointed questions into “small talk” opportunities before/after rehearsal and/or school Utilize post-rehearsal exit tickets that focus on rehearsal pace Craft quarterly surveys that invite students to share things they would alter about band If students see us being open to input and initiating our own learning in collaborative ways, they will be more willing to take risks, persevere through challenges, and collaborate with us AND with each other!

Moving Forward...

As you envision the start of the new school year, recognize that it will be a new norm for everyone, including yourself. Accept that mistakes will be made as you work to re-establish your program, and allow yourself the opportunity to learn from them. We all tend to be very hard on ourselves when something does not go as planned, but if we can allow ourselves that same empathy that we give our 34

students and colleagues, we can support our continued efforts in “doing better.” We have to model our overt work toward a growth mindset and as we do, students will sense that we are striving to be better and they will be motivated and reassured that we can move through the numerous challenges we will face together.

Scribner. 2016.

Floyd, Richard. The Artistry of Teaching and Making Music. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications. 2015.

Floyd, Richard. The Seven Deadly Sins of Music Making. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications. 2032.

Green, Eddie. On Teaching Band: Notes from Eddie Green. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard.

2012.

Boonshaft, Peter Loel. Teaching Music with Promise: Conducting, Rehearsing and Inspiring. 2009.

Gunn. Jennifer. “Using SEL to Alleviate Back to School Anxiety: Resilient Educator.”

ResilientEducator.com, June 8, 2021. https://resilienteducator.com/classroomresources/sel-school-anxiety/.

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born: It's Grown, Here's How. New York: Bantam Books. 2009.

Jordan, James Mark, James Whitbourn, and Donald Sheehan. The Musician's Trust.

Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc. 2013.

Denworth, Lydia. “Debate Arises over Teaching ‘Growth Mindsets’ to Motivate Students.” Scientific American. Scientific American, August 12, 2019. https://www. scientificamerican.com/article/debate-arisesover-teaching-growth-mindsets-to-motivatestudents/#.

Jorgensen, Estelle R. The Art of Teaching Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 2008.

REFERENCES

Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House. 2006.

Dweck, Carol. “The Power of Believing You Can Improve” TED talk, Noorkipings, Sweden, September 2014. https://www. ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_ believing_that_you_can_improve Dweck, Carol. “Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset,'” Education Week, http:// www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/ carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset. html Dweck, Carol (Stanford University): https:// psychology.stanford.edu/cdweck Dweck, Carol. “Mindset Online.” http:// mindsetonline.com/index.html Dweck, Carol. “Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' (Opinion).” Education Week. Education Week, December 2, 2020. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinioncarol-dweck-revisits-the-growthmindset/2015/09.

Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York, NY:

Kageyama, Noa. “How Not to Support a Student Who Is Struggling (and What To Do Instead).” https://tinyurl.com/4m3m7aef (retrieved February 28, 2021).

Love, Bettina L. We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and The Pursuit of Educational Freedom. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. 2019.

National Association for Gifted Children.

“Theoretical Frameworks for Giftedness.” https://www.nagc.org/theoreticalframeworks-giftedness (retrieved November 1, 2017).

Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. 2012.

Pusey, Stacey. “Using a Growth Mindset as the Foundation for SEL.” edWeb, June 26, 2019. https://home.edweb.net/using-agrowth-mindset-as-the-foundation-for-sel/.

Ricci, M.C. Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Growth Mindset Learning Community. Waco: Prufrock Publishing.

2013.

Zander, Rosamund Stone, and Benjamin Zander. The Art of Possibility. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.

2000.

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START THE NEW JOB AVOIDING THE UNEXPECTED

BY GARY BARTON

W

hether you’re a first-year teacher or a veteran, entering a new job is at once exciting, invigorating, and frightening. Except for the beginners, every student is part of the family and you are the guest, the unknown person who might shake up the family dynamic.

The students know what they like about the band and they are rightfully concerned about how you will affect their home. You’ll find that there are some who are, for whatever reason, ready for a change; those students will be flexible and ready to help. Plan with the ones in mind who have anxiety that their band comfort zone is about to change. If those students can tell that you’re concerned for them, your plan will be good for all of your students.

are starting from scratch. If it is in an electronic program and has been working, there is no need to change programs right away even if you’re anxious to try the latest popular technology. With the records in hand, check every piece of equipment against the serial numbers. Don’t be surprised if you can’t find some items. Are they in the repair shop? Are they checked out to students who have them at home? Even if this is the case you must physically read every serial number at the first opportunity.

Serial numbers are occasionally hard to read or written incorrectly so this will be the time to make sure that all is accurate. Oh, but the serial number is written on the case? If you trust those you won’t catch when an instrument has been unintentionally placed inside an identical case or a when a case was traded when a handle broke.

There are some things you must do and others you should do. One of the musts is to assure an accurate inventory of your instruments and equipment.

Another must is to become familiar with your students and their musical abilities as early as possible.

Once you’ve created a record of all school property, make sure your administration has access and understands that this is what you have found to be accurate.

Create a list of what was missing if you can’t find some items that appeared on a previous inventory and give that to the administration as well. You should only be held responsible for what is in your room when you arrive.

YOU MUST CREATE AN INVENTORY RECORD “ON STEROIDS”!

If you find an inventory record waiting for you it will be a good start, but go into the job as if you SUMMER 2021

Record separately the serial numbers of your students’ personally owned instruments.

Gary Barton retired from the La Porte, Texas Independent School District after thirty-seven years of teaching in five states. He received the Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Louisiana-Monroe and the Master of Science in Education from Indiana University.

A Past President of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association and Past 2nd VicePresident of the National Band Association, he has written for numerous publications and has done clinics and presentations in sixteen states.

Most parents won’t have this information and you may be a crisis solver if an instrument is stolen or damaged. Record the brand and model of mouthpiece as well. We like to think every student is honest, but I have had a mouthpiece disappear only to be found in the wrong case.

YOU MUST TRY TO MEET AND HEAR EVERY STUDENT When I started my first job, I remembered that a teacher told me that I should try to meet and hear every returning student before the first rehearsal. I have Continued on next page

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Start the New Job Avoiding the Unexpected, Gary Barton, cont. done this on a new job two times and, while it was time consuming, the payoff was enormous. Having done this, my first rehearsal as the new director was less stressful because I wasn’t working with strangers, and I had even met many of the parents. Another benefit was that I found myself adjusting the materials that I was considering. Maybe a piece is not a good choice right now, but maybe this other one will work after all. After hearing each student, I had a better idea about what our strengths were and what fundamentals would need to be emphasized.

I met with my students one at a time, but now I would try to meet with small groups instead to avoid being alone with a student, especially a student who is a stranger. Meeting with at least two students but not more than four is ideal. Parents should be welcome in the room as well. As you call the students, ask them if they have a friend in the band who could join them. The students will feel more at ease with you in small groups with their friends. Plan for 20 minutes or less and choose music that is unison so that any grouping of instruments can play together.

The music should be attainable for the age group so that they will feel good about the experience.

Play along with the students and they will feel more confident and will see you as a musician as well as a teacher. This is also a great time to record information about the students’ instruments and mouthpieces.

“HIT THE GROUND LISTENING” COVERS THE “SHOULDS” I wish I could take credit for this 36

phrase, but many years ago our local newspaper ran an article with the headline, “New President will Hit the Ground Listening”, about the incoming university president and his wish to assure everyone that this would be his focus in his new position. Everything that I’m about to write falls under this advice.

Cleaning is good, but throwing things away might be a problem.

I like to spend some time alone in my new room to start feeling at home. While acclimating myself to my new room one summer, I found some old drums that were obviously junk. I couldn’t imagine using them. If only If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to throw them out, I would have found out that those old drums were used by a pep club and were just stored in the band room. If you feel that you need to dispose of anything, check with your administration about procedures to purge school property, then check with students to find out if the item is important to them.

A new director found his new band room had been left a bit messy. Trophies were on top of file cabinets, on top of music cabinets, and generally on any surface that would hold them. He decided to build shelves that would hold all of the trophies as well as have enough room to add to the collection for several years to come. They were installed on the wall and above the sousaphone holders and looked terrific, but the students couldn’t read the engraving, and, in their eyes, the trophies had lost their identity. It was very good idea that just needed better timing.

When you walk into your new

room you don’t know why things are in the room or why they’re where they are. There is a chance that a student brought a poster to hang on the wall or some students made that sign that you’re not particularly fond of. Depending on the school, your students may have been in that room from two to even six years. It’s their home and your moving things around or throwing things away may be greeted with hurt feelings.

If there is a leadership group that was established before you arrived, that group is perfect to help go through the inventory, help in the library, or help with so many of the things that will be needed.

As you meet with the students to hear them play, ask them how they feel about the environment in the room, make notes as they talk to you, do everything you can to help them feel like part of the transition process.

You must take responsibility of the property in the program, and you must do everything possible to tailor your teaching to the needs of the students. You should seek input and advice about almost every other decision you make.

You will indeed be a guest at first, but take your time to become part of the family.

NBA JOURNAL

INTERVIEW

A CONVERSATION WITH ALFRED L. WATKINS, PART 1

A

BY MATT TEMPLE

lfred L. Watkins was the Director of Bands at Lassiter High School in Cobb County, Georgia, from 1982-2013, where he built and led an incredibly successful band program. With the recent formation of the NBA Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Awareness (IDEA) committee, the intention of this conversation is to acknowledge the many challenges that Watkins faced as a Black band director. In addition to his many professional affiliations, Watkins currently serves NBA as an At-Large Representative, is on the ABA IDEA Committee, and is a co-founder and President of the Minority Band Directors National Association.

AS A BLACK CHILD LIVING IN THE JIM CROW SOUTH, WHAT OBSTACLES TO YOUR MUSICAL TRAINING DID YOU ENCOUNTER? The Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling of 1896 established “separate but equal” accommodations for whites and Blacks. All the decision makers, however, in state and local government were white males, including the school boards. They designed laws that were beneficial to whites and punitive to Blacks. As a result of these laws, the schools in my hometown were segregated until my junior year in high school, and our Black grade schools

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received everything that the white schools had discarded. We had poor quality instruments – we had poor quality everything.

Books didn’t have covers and pages were missing, but the teachers mimeographed them so we received the information. Jim Crow was the law of the land, but our parents and teachers were determined to overcome those obstacles through self-respect, hard work, and determination.

The school provided beginning instruments because there were no music stores around. My first cornet only had two valves, so I would place my finger into the open third valve casing. I would sing the notes that I couldn’t play and began to audiate them in my head. I wanted to play, and my band teacher, Mr. Andrew Buggs, didn’t see it as something that I couldn’t do. After doing this for a year, I developed scar tissue on my third finger that took about twenty years to go away. When I received a King Cleveland trumpet my second year, I could already play those missing notes. With the encouragement of Mr. Buggs, my church, and my family, I pressed on, and eventually Mr. Buggs convinced my family to purchase a professional-line trumpet for me.

In high school, I made the district band my first three years and qualified for the final round of the Georgia All-State Band my senior year. My band director

Matt Temple is Director of Bands at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. In 2014, the New Trier band program was recognized by the National Band Association as an inaugural national winner of the Blue Ribbon Award for “Programs of Excellence.” Temple currently serves NBA as the Second Vice-President and is humbled to be a member of the IDEA committee. He has authored many articles over the past decade for multiple publications.

Temple has presented sessions on music selection, score analysis, student-centered instruction, and innovative band curriculum at multiple universities, state music conferences, and twice at the Midwest Clinic.

was my accompanist for the audition, and when we arrived, they wouldn’t let me audition.

The State Music Association didn’t allow Blacks to play in the All-State Band even though I had qualified and paid the appropriate fees. On the lonely ride back home, I was furious, but my teacher was very quiet. He had been a victim of racism and discrimination all of his life and wanted to guide me through it. He told me that the skills I had learned through the audition process would only Continued on next page

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I, Matt Temple, cont. enhance my musicianship, and I had already learned the skills necessary to be in the All-State Band, so not to worry about it. I auditioned for the Governor’s Honors Program two months later. After passing the audition and having a successful interview, I went to the final round of auditions. The same exact thing happened again.

I was really angry when those kinds of things happened because they were forms of blatant racism.

In 1972, my senior year in high school, I auditioned for the University of Georgia High School Music Festival. After the audition, the judge grilled me with questions: “Do you play in a dance band? How did you learn to play so high? Have you ever heard an orchestra before?” The judge put me in the orchestra, but he assigned a white college student to sit beside me in rehearsals because he didn’t think I could handle the principal trumpet position.

About halfway through the first rehearsal, the college student turned to me and said, “I don’t know why I’m here. You’re a fine trumpet player – you’re the best one we’ve got here.” I knew why, but I wasn’t going to tell him. At that moment, I knew that the University of Georgia was not going to be an option for me.

WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION LIKE FOR YOU? School desegregation became law in 1954 with the case of Brown vs. Board of Education.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF ALFREDWATKINS.ORG

The Southern states, however, begged the US government for additional years to ensure a smoother transition between the races. The state of Georgia was granted 16 years before the schools were actually integrated, which finally occurred during my junior year in high school.

Initially, desegregation was fearful. We didn’t want to go where we weren’t welcome. We had witnessed integration in other areas of the country not being successful. The forced integration in my hometown of Jackson was horrible due to backlash from white parents and their pure Continued on next page

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I, Matt Temple, cont. hatred of Blacks. The Board of Education in my community was all white and still had a “separate but equal” mindset.

The newly integrated school was approximately a 50/50 makeup of white and Black students. They brought the student leaders from the two schools together with appropriate staff oversight. I was one of the designated leaders from my school, and we helped design the new school, including the name, school colors, mascot, and logo. A new start! We also met with the School Board to help determine which people would lead the various organizations, such as the football team, baseball team, the band, etc. About a week before the school opened, we found out that the School Board had reneged on all their promises to us. They decided to keep every tradition from the white school instead. In protest, I assisted in leading a school walk-out until the School Board flipped a few of the positions to placate us.

Once school began, the students adjusted quickly and got along well, but many white teachers were openly racist. Every day in my social studies class, I sat staring at a row of pictures that featured white Presidents, Governors, and Senators, as well as our local Mayor, City leaders, and Police Chief. Some of the local officials could not read or write, but they were white, so it didn’t matter. The school also cheated Black students out of class rank. Before integration, the white school had used numbers for grades and the Black school had used letter grades. In grades 9 and 10, I had made all A’s and SUMMER 2021

A+’s with a couple of B+’s. My A’s became 95’s and my B’s became 85’s and my A+’s disappeared.

This led me to a lack of trust in “their” educational grading system that I never recovered from. I changed my focus away from strictly earning grades to learning and retaining knowledge.

That way, the dominant culture of whites could never take away from me anything dear to my heart again. Lesson learned.

HAVING ATTENDED FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY, AN HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGE, HOW DID THAT EXPERIENCE SUPPORT YOU DIFFERENTLY AS A STUDENT? I chose to go to an Historically Black College, along with a lot of other good, sharp Black kids, because we were welcomed in that community. I had grown up during the Civil Rights movement and had seen the footage of what happened when Black students attempted to attend white colleges in the south. So, the Black college experience was very alluring to me. Without a doubt, I found Black intellectuals, advanced thinkers, and terrific Black role models at Florida A&M University. The culture of musical excellence at FAMU was well established years before I started there.

Dr. William P. Foster was the Director of Bands and music department chair at FAMU. He developed an outstanding world-class school band program of nearly all Black students and had the highest expectations for us with regards to academic achievement, character

development, musicianship, leadership, and service. There were signs carrying this motto all over the music department, and it was on every document we received.

Dr. Foster truly lived out what he expected of us. He created a great learning environment beyond what I had expected – a wellrounded classical music education program. Dr. Foster never raised his voice, was always a perfect gentleman and earned our respect through his impeccable character and incredible musicianship.

He firmly believed in continued education. As a result, students at FAMU had the most determined work ethic and zeal toward excellence I have ever seen.

The University was not funded as well as our white academic neighbors who were literally on the other side of the railroad tracks, Florida State University.

Undeterred, Dr. Foster managed to procure what we needed. He was Past President of FMEA, CBDNA, and ABA, so he was well respected in the band world. He knew that for his students to be well trained, we had to have what Jim Crow laws prevented us from having.

Dr. Foster was good friends with Vito Pascucci, the founder and CEO of the LeBlanc corporation, so we had LeBlanc and Holton instruments everywhere. We were also a Mason and Hamlin Piano School, which meant there were new studio pianos, baby grands, and full grands everywhere.

There were a very large number of practice rooms – so many that they could never possibly be filled.

As a direct result of his alliances, we had great facilities and equipment.

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I, Matt Temple, cont.

My trumpet professor there was Dr. Leonard Bowie, who was also one of the band directors.

He was one of the best musical intellects and instrumentalists I have ever met. His emphasis on engaging both sides of the brain became central to my teaching philosophy. I also had Dr. Julian White, Assistant Director of Bands, who had come to FAMU after developing a highly respected band at an all-Black high school in Jacksonville. As the director at Williams Raines High School, his bands had consistently qualified for State, and was one of few programs to earn Superior Ratings performing Grade 6 music. His students lived in an economically depressed area and had no private instruction. Dr. White was our methods teacher, and he taught us what he called, “A Private Lesson Approach to Teaching Full Band.” I used Dr. White’s basic curriculum to anchor my entire 37-year teaching career with few modifications.

WHAT WAS YOUR VIEW ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AS A YOUNG BAND DIRECTOR, AND HOW HAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE CHANGED? I now understand that a part of my being hired at Lassiter High School was likely due to an affirmative action lawsuit levied against the Cobb County School District by the federal government.

It was determined that the school district had not hired enough Blacks in high profile positions. In the eyes of some administrators, the band director position seemed the convenient choice, likely because they thought it would be the least impactful on the district.

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So, affirmative action was more for the white people than it was for me. I took a pay cut to come to Lassiter. I had grown up in a Black neighborhood, attended a Black college, and had taught for six years at the all-Black Murphy High School, where I had developed a very successful band. The Murphy band actually had stronger skills than the Lassiter Band, which was only in the second year of its infancy.

I was comfortable in my Black “cocoon” and had very little to gain by moving to Lassiter. The attraction for me was the fact that there were over 700 students in the middle school feeder programs, the community was financially very stable, and the community did not consist of Southerners, but families who moved in from other regions of the country.

I was recruited for Lassiter by a wonderful gentleman, Boyd McKeown, Supervisor of Music in the Cobb County Schools. He wanted me to build the concert band program there, as he thought that many of the schools were overly focused on marching band.

I actually interviewed for the position at Lassiter while the school was under construction, but I did not accept the position until a year later when I was offered it a second time. During my interview with the Principal, I asked him how many Black teachers my future students had encountered in elementary and middle school. He was offended by the question and asked why it was important. I explained that it wasn’t important to me, but it was important to the students. I hesitantly accepted the position because I never wanted to be a

token of affirmative action. I’d like to think that my presence at Lassiter, though, was of equal benefit to my students and the school community as it was to me.

My views on affirmative action have not changed over time.

Affirmative action, along with other socioeconomic policies, are sometimes viewed as being negative toward the dominant culture – like a kind of handout.

One only needs to look at the 250 years of the slave trade to further understand the unequal treatment of a people. Many people of color identify the privileges given to whites as being the reverse of affirmative action. From my viewpoint, affirmative action was a way to begin addressing the unjust imbalance that had existed for Black people during our over 400 years in America.

LASSITER HIGH SCHOOL WAS A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE SCHOOL (99.5%) WHEN YOU STARTED TEACHING THERE IN 1982. WHAT FORMS OF RACISM DID YOU ENCOUNTER AND HOW DID YOU ADDRESS THEM? At the time of my hire, Cobb County, Georgia was considered one of the most racist communities in our part of the country. It was the home of the whitesonly restauranteur and former Governor Lester Maddox, and the staunch segregationist, J.B. Stoner.

Stoner founded several chapters of the Ku Klux Klan and was suspected by the FBI of being a co-conspirator in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He bombed the Bethel Baptist Church in 1958 but was not convicted until 1980. Stoner lived five Continued on next page

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I, Matt Temple, cont. minutes from Lassiter High School in a white house surrounded by a white wire fence and had white German Shepherds guarding the property. His house was adorned with confederate flags as well as flags with a white lightning bolt on a black background, which was a symbol of white power. We used to pass his house regularly on our bus rides to away games.

On my first day of band camp at Lassiter, I was meeting with the 120 students in the marching band and telling them how happy I was to be their band director. As I was speaking, I walked over and gently laid my hand on the shoulder of a young flute student, and she flinched out of fear. I immediately went back to the podium and said, “I’m your band director and I’m Black. I’m not going to hurt you.

I’m not going to leave you. I’ll be your friend. I’ll be firm, and I’ll be fair. I will develop a fine band for you. You do not need to be afraid of me.” The kids and I bonded quickly after that moment.

I was never called the N-word by students, and nothing derogatory was ever written anywhere. I was treated with nothing but respect by the 10,000 plus students I taught in my 31-year career at Lassiter.

Our relationship was a “dream come true” for any teacher.

During Homecoming week my first year, I was walking through the halls before school to get a cup of coffee from the front office when I noticed about 20 poster board signs placed on the walls by the student government that said, “Slave Auction.” Each of them contained a caricature of a smiling white male dragging around a Black person by the SUMMER 2021

neck with a caption that declared, “Doesn’t this look like fun?” I was about 28 years old at the time and well-seasoned in managing issues of race, so I yanked them off the wall and took them to the principal’s office. I laid them on his desk and said, “What is this?”

He looked through them and looked up again, baffled. “This is the slave auction. We do this every year as a fundraiser for the Student Government Association.”

I countered with, “We were under the impression that this practice ended over one hundred years ago.” He paused, thought for a second, and then said, “I’m sorry. You are correct. I’ll talk to the representatives from student government and have these taken down.” They changed the name to “Rent-a-Kid” instead. The next year we had changed principals, and the same thing happened at the exact same time. I took them down and laid them on his desk once more. His response was more brief than the first principal: “I heard you weren’t pleased with these last year, and that you might do this. I think these signs are fine.” I decided that I wasn’t going to tolerate it, and I don’t remember exactly how I faced it, but it was not kind, and it was not pleasant.

I was the only adult Black male on campus in any teaching position or otherwise for my first 13 years at Lassiter. Like most Blacks, I had been taught, “You must be twice as good as the white man in order to get to the same place.” I was frequently asked demeaning questions by some parents such as: “Did you go to college? Do you have a music degree?” Other parents would say:

“We thought the school was going to give us a white band director.

We never knew they were going to bring a Black one up from the city.” Many parents were furious that I was the one making all the decisions as Director of Bands instead of consulting them. I was called into several parent conferences those first few years with school administrators, but I would never back down. The administration seldom supported me, and they would ask questions to complicitly defend what the detractors were saying. The school even assigned an assistant principal who would stand in front of my parking spot and clock exactly what time I arrived on campus every day. I was under enormous pressure to achieve at extraordinary levels, which was particularly stressful.

In December of 1984, the day before winter break of my third year, I was released from my teaching contract under the premise that I didn’t have enough hours toward re-certification. I had filed my paperwork with the district, which somehow had never made it to the state office. The district said that my certificate had expired, there was nothing they could do about it, and I would be re-assigned to a temporary position at the central office after break. I was devastated. My mother had recently passed, my wife was pregnant with our first child, and now I had no job. Fortunately, the day after Christmas, my wife asked me about all the classes I had taken at Georgia State University and thought they had to count for something. I contacted the state office, and sure enough,

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A Conversation with Alfred L. Watkins, Part I, Matt Temple, cont. they said that I had plenty of hours. I drove down to their office, picked up a document, and was re-instated at Lassiter with no apologies whatsoever from the administration for their mistake.

After each incident of racism, I would go back to my band room and work even harder because I wanted to prove them all wrong. I knew that I was a good musician and a good classroom teacher.

The band program had grown to nearly 300 students, yet I was not given an assistant band director and had a daily assignment to assist the middle school band director. I was driving 45 minutes one way to work each day, and I was making sacrifices with my family just to work there.

WHAT EXPERIENCES DID YOU HAVE WITH THE KU KLUX KLAN, BOTH AS A CHILD AND AS A TEACHER? In the summertime, the Klan would march down the main street of my hometown as a terrorist, vigilante group in order to frighten Black people and recruit other whites to join them.

My parents would strictly forbid us from attending these marches because they wanted to keep us alive. With three teenage boys and a younger girl, my parents wanted to shield us from those horrible scenes and from being tempted to be defiant. The pivotal moment for me came when I was 12 or 13 years old. My friends and I were out biking when we stumbled upon a Klan march. We kept our distance but managed to overhear someone saying that the participants had parked their cars out on Brownlee Road. I had 42

some cousins who lived near there, so we knew a shortcut that would get us there in under a mile. We positioned ourselves at the top of the hill so we could peer down into the meadow where their cars were parked. As they arrived and disrobed, we recognized the mayor, city officials, school board members, town leaders and nearly the entire police force. It’s an image that I’ll never forget.

During my first year at Lassiter High School in 1982, we had loaded the buses to depart for our first football game, which was an away game versus Walton High School. As the buses turned out of the parking lot, I saw a large white sign that read “KKK Rally” and had an arrow pointing left into the meadow directly adjacent to our practice field. It was a pivotal moment, and I had to make a quick decision. So, I stopped the bus, banged on the roof to get the student’s attention, and told the students, “If you look out the right side of the bus, you’ll see a sign for a KKK rally. Does anyone want to get off the bus and join their parents?” I went to the second bus and did the same thing. No students got off the bus. The following Monday I was called in by the administration and after they confirmed what had happened, was told that I couldn’t treat the students that way and frighten them. My response was direct: “These are my students now and this is my program. I do not have a problem. Your community has a problem. You’re talking to the wrong person.”

band had grown from 120 to a powerhouse of 265, and we had already played for the President of the United States. The boosters and I were friendly by then, and they had become staunch supporters. The topic of that first game came up, and several of the parents admitted they had been at the KKK rally that night. I asked them, “What were you thinking?”

They explained that they had initially thought I was going to hurt their program and their children, so they had called the KKK to discuss whether or not to “burn me out.” That meant that a traditional, fire-lit cross would be placed on my front lawn, as a warning that my house would be burned down the next night.

They decided against it because I lived in an all-Black neighborhood south of town, and the community would have turned against the Klan. The boosters said that they had made a mistake, and they were sorry. I held no grudges after that and had no malice in my heart toward any of them. As a Christian, I had faith in God that if He had put me in this neighborhood, then He was going to protect me so that I could do His work. My conversations with God were frequent and He protected me at every turn. It was my Christian faith and trust in the Almighty that sustained me through my Lassiter years.

END PART I Part II will be published in the Winter 2022 edition of the NBA Journal.

About three years later, I was in a meeting with the executive board for my boosters. The NBA JOURNAL

PERSPECTIVE

AFTERMATH: THE POST-COVID WIND BAND

I

BY RODNEY K. WORKMAN

t is safe to say there isn’t a band program in this country that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic in some way. Recovery and rebuilding of band programs will likely look different across the country, just as the response to the pandemic was unique based upon geographic location. Some districts and schools simply modified the number of in-person days to reduce the number of students on campus or required social distancing in classrooms.

Other districts implemented mitigation plans so restrictive that the end result has been extremely detrimental to their band programs. In my home state, many urban school districts, including the two largest, not only stayed in remote learning for an entire year, but did not allow playing indoors even after a return. My own school in Asheville, North Carolina, spent 13 months entirely in remote learning. After returning to in-person instruction, we only had 16 in-person class days with different cohorts before the end of the year, with far less than half of our students coming in person for those days. This has been the case for many programs in urban areas across the country. When band camp starts in August there will be more than 75 students in our band who have not been inside the band room for at least 18 months.

While many of our neighboring states seemed to continue with education largely uninterrupted by

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early 2021, there are just as many that did not. Programs in these situations will be going through a total rebuild from the ground up.

It has often been said that band programs are an extremely fragile ecosystem. Whether your program took a direct hit or just some collateral damage, all programs have experienced a category 5 hurricane since March of 2020.

There are, without question, many challenges to overcome in the next few years as programs face choices of how to dig out of the pandemic rubble.

REBUILDING INTEREST As a high school director, what is most concerning is not just the immediate damage that will be visible this coming school year, but the damage that has occurred in middle school programs, which will directly impact the future of high school programs.

For my own program, we have already gone from around 80 incoming freshmen in 2020 to only 40 this coming school year.

While marching and concert band numbers next year are generally still pretty solid, we are staring down the barrel at what could potentially be a much more barren future. While high school students have had their own struggles, many were generally equipped with enough skill and fundamentals pre-COVID to function on their own and at least stay interested while at home.

High school students also had

Rodney K. Workman is the state chair for NBA in North Carolina and the Director of Bands at Asheville High School. He is a regular clinician and adjudicator in NC and surrounding states and his middle and high school bands have received Superior ratings at MPA and other regional concert festivals over the last 16 years.

He is a Past President of the North Carolina Bandmasters Association and a member of American School Band Directors Association.

the advantage of at least 3-4 years of in-person instruction before COVID and could hang on to the knowledge of what band can and should be. The same cannot be said for our youngest musicians.

In our eighth grade this fall, for example, the last time the students had a rehearsal in the band room together or a concert was December of their sixth grade year.

This cohort of students have had no concerts, no camps, no honor bands, and essentially no group instruction since beginning band in March of 2020. Having mostly experienced band through Google Meet and a beginning book, they do not even have the conceptual ability to imagine what it should or could be. For middle school students in these programs there

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AFTERMATH: The Post-COVID Wind Band, Rodney K. Workman, cont. isn’t just a crisis of ability, there is a crisis of interest and motivation due to lack of experience.

There is no bigger motivator than the director that stands in front of students each day. Every director must take ownership this year that the motivation and ideas of being in band are going to need to be shaped for students more than ever before and that it will come entirely from the work and planning of each director. Unique ways to build interest and motivation in this age group will not just be a need but a requirement for this next school year and should be a top priority this fall. Whether it be partnering with high school musicians in the first nine weeks for a mentoring clinic, playing a recruiting concert of very easy music for an elementary school, setting up a mentoring/ lessons program between older and younger students, or a recruitment night with the high school marching band at a football game, a motivated student is much easier to teach and retain and this must be first priority of our efforts. I know all high schools are not lucky enough to have direct feeders or the ability to be in those schools during the school day, but for those that are, I hope you will focus as much of your time and efforts as possible this year on assisting our youngest musicians and their directors to recover. If not, we may have bigger problems in the future than we do in the present.

REBUILDING MUSICIANSHIP For middle schools that either didn’t return last year or had very little in-person instruction, there 44

will essentially be two grade levels of beginning band and an eighth grade filled will students that have survived, but likely did not thrive, in a chaotic educational environment. This presents the unique option in many programs to start beginners in seventh grade or even eighth grade this fall, an idea that I hope many directors will implement. Beyond just numbers and a total rebuild of playing skills at the middle school level, we also have to consider that the last time many of our high school freshmen had an in-person band class was March of their seventh grade year. Sophomores have essentially missed their entire freshman year. Although new and innovative methods of music education occurred through online platforms, the amount of missed playing time, the number of bad habits that developed at home, and the lost hours of individual and ensemble training at such a crucial time developmentally has been devastating. While I do believe building interest and rebuilding a love of playing is going to need to be first priority, even at the high school level, there also needs to be a renewed commitment to building fundamentals and covering the material that was not able to be taught this past year if we hope to come out of this as strong on the other end.

The coming school year will need to be a year for many programs to focus on meeting students where they are, rather than where they should be, and carefully putting the fundamentals of playing back into place. For programs that spent all or most of last year in virtual learning, simply turning a switch back on

and starting again like nothing happened will likely not be a possibility. To do so, could be counterproductive and frustrating for students depending on the situation. We are faced with a choice of either taking the axe and going after that tree as hard as we can or taking a step back and sharpening it for a while to prepare. No matter how it happens, I think we can all agree that the more time spent sharpening skills and building playing fundamentals, the better the results will be. For my program and where we will be starting this fall, it may mean performing less demanding literature to start the year. It could also mean placing less emphasis, or no emphasis, on competition in October and focusing more on simply entertaining and using our fall activities to build fundamentals and program interest. There will be struggles ahead and curricular decisions based on the unique needs of this time and the unique situation of each program will need to be given great thought.

I acknowledge that playing long tones and scales for 75% of a class period may not be the best way to build interest and motivation in the opening months of this year, but simply throwing difficult music or a demanding show at students who have missed so much time just because it is what we have been able to do in past years may also not be the answer. In whatever way it happens in your respective programs, playing the long game and keeping a balanced student-centered approach is likely prudent.

RENAISSANCE While there are certainly Continued on next page

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AFTERMATH: The Post-COVID Wind Band, Rodney K. Workman, cont. unique challenges that will present themselves to all programs over the next few years, there are also some unique opportunities.

There has been great reason for gloom over the last year, but there is also great potential for hope and growth. The history of music education tells us that we have survived as long as we have by adapting to the needs of our society and the whims of the American education system. Our ability to change with the times has served us well and will be more important than ever this next year. History also teaches us that after the Black Plague was the Renaissance, and after the 1918 flu pandemic and WWI came the Roaring Twenties. Students and adults alike are starved for social interaction and communal activities after a year or more spent at home. A band program more than anything else offers a unique combination of musical, academic, social, and emotional connection that could be very appealing to students and parents this next year. “Social-Emotional Learning” has been a buzzword in music education for a while now, but it took the pandemic for me to realize just how important this part of music education is for our students. For my own teaching and philosophy, I will say that my forced time away from the podium has made me recognize and appreciate the act of communal music making, and the emotional connection and response that it can offer is the thing I have missed the most. I have also been given a renewed zeal after so long away and a healthier perspective about what is truly most important. The prospect of losing something often puts priorities in perspective.

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While there will undoubtedly be hard days ahead, we are poised to come back stronger than ever if we do focused work. Regardless of exactly how it is done, a focus on recruitment and growth, planned activities to generate interest and commitment among students, rebuilding musical fundamentals,

amplifying the communal and social aspects of a band program, and emphasizing the emotional connection and musical response of live music making will hopefully set us all up for years of growth and long-term success.

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CONNECTING CURRICULUM, CREATIVITY, AND COMMUNITY TO DEVELOP CULTURE THROUGH REPERTOIRE

BY HUNTER KOPCZYNSKI

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n ensemble’s culture is the personality of the program.

Educators strive to create a culture that is welcoming and safe for all students while simultaneously challenging and encouraging them to grow. Too often, however, ensemble culture is viewed as a byproduct of the extra-musical aspects in our programs (trips, student-leadership, awards, social activities, etc.). What if, instead of viewing culture as an element of the extrinsic and social and functional structures listed above, we centered our culture around the means of the instruction itself?

The repertoire we program.

When repertoire selection is at the intersection of curriculum, creativity, and community our ensemble culture is elevated.

Repertoire that considers what we need to teach, who we want to be, and who we are – while also being pedagogically appropriate and socially representative – allows for a culture of strong music-making with genuine depth of experience.

Repertoire contributes to an ensemble’s culture when it aligns with curriculum and pedagogy, considers the students’ creativity, and is inspired by and contributes

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to the community within the program and around the school.

CURRICULUM The repertoire is at the center of our curriculum and I argue that this defines our culture. But what is it, exactly, that we are trying to teach? What do we want these pieces to teach and what should our students gain from our teaching? And how does that relate to culture? Curriculum in its most essential form is the technique: the how and the when of teaching.

Just like budgets, our curriculum is an indicator of what we value instructionally.

We cannot create a culture of success without solid teaching.

If curriculum is the first consideration in a repertoirecentered culture, we need to determine exactly what students need to know and when and why they need to know it. The right music at the right time is important, not just because we need to ensure students are successful in one performance, but to ensure they are actually learning and growing. We should think about sequencing repertoire beyond asking “does this piece fit my group?” Consider what one piece teaches in order to prepare students for other pieces. A healthy ensemble

Hunter Kopczynski serves as Director of Bands and assistant professor of music at Mars Hill University.

At MHU, he conducts the Wind Symphony, teaches courses in conducting and music education, and coordinates the Mountain Lion Marching Band.

Kopczynski taught music through middle school and high school band in the public schools of Virginia for seven years. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in wind conducting from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts in education and Bachelor of Arts in music from Virginia Tech.

culture ensures success: it demonstrates a mastery of skills by the students, a demonstration of those skills in performance, and an understanding of the why.

Programming music to build a culture of success is choosing repertoire that supports our instruction, while also supporting the growth of our students. The success that students aim to have is not the contest score, rating, or award – but rather the success in learning and understanding that then allows these recognitions to happen.

PLAN with an awareness that thoughtful programming will provide intrinsic motivation through genuine learning rather than extrinsic rewards. Culture is not built in one concert or one year. Create short-term (concert cycles) and long-term Continued on next page

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Connecting Curriculum, Creativity, and Community ... Hunter Kopczynski, cont.

(four-year curricula) plans that allow you to build growth and long-term success for your students. Culture takes time to build.

Provide OPPORTUNITIES for new avenues of learning. The curriculum is a road to growth and repertoire is the vehicle to get you there. Be careful not to become complacent in doing the same thing over and over. Good repertoire planning provides the opportunity to hone a variety of skills while moving through the curriculum – consider a mix of tempi, keys, time signatures, articulation, rhythm, range, etc.

Challenge your students with a variety of STYLES. Allow them to experience more music than the latest contest or assessment. Every style or genre provides a wealth of new learning opportunities.

Consider performing a classical transcription or an arrangement from an opera. Connect with the history or literature teacher to design a cross-curricular lesson plan. Give students the opportunity to be exposed to music from throughout history and across the world. If every concert allows students the opportunity to see a part of the world or experience a new time period, they will be engaged and this fuels a culture of exploration.

ORCHESTRATION is a serious consideration in programming.

While the notes and rhythms teach technique, the orchestration teaches listening and an awareness of balance, SUMMER 2021

blend, and intonation. Always programming works that are thickly scored allows students to hide within their sections and limits the vulnerability needed to expand musical facility.

Challenge your students with music that has transparency and exposure. Encourage them to listen more intently and approach playing like chamber music. Performing music where everyone’s part is heard encourages accountability.

Accountability in orchestration builds vulnerability and trust, but also raises the expectations.

Rotating chair placement is an effective way to challenge every student while avoiding the stigma and negativity that can arise when students become defined by their chair.

You’ll learn which sections need more work and consider programming to strengthen your group. Use the fall to work with weaker sections, get everyone on the same page so that you feature them in the spring.

ENGAGE with every student through programming music that motivates the entire ensemble. Rehearse in a way that makes every student feel valued. The harmonic accompaniment is often where the most interesting music is, and affects how melody is shaped. Focus attention (and listening) to these students, not only to show how important they are, but to have musically interesting interpretations.

Obsess over harmony and bass motion. Every student should feel valued in what you ask

them to play. If they feel their part is important, they will spend more time practicing, show more commitment, and learn more deeply while giving a stronger performance. They will retain more because they have a positive memory of the part they played. How are you programming and teaching to help every student feel valued and noticed?

When we plan our curriculum in order to engage with all students, they are more invested in the learning process. By ensuring each student has an interesting part and understands how their part fits into the piece, students realize the importance they play in the entire product.

This foundational understanding creates the framework for creative expression.

CREATIVITY Our culture’s identity is illustrated through creativity and expression. I view creativity as expression in action – creativity goes into our performance to affect the emotion that comes out. Emotional response is the experience your students will remember and is what connects us to our audiences. These experiences are what make the music personal, meaningful, and memorable.

Creativity is the driver of the imagination towards a vision.

This applies to how we build our program, but also to how creativity and imagination inspire powerful musical experiences. When Continued on next page

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Connecting Curriculum, Creativity, and Community ... Hunter Kopczynski, cont. we allow these experiences to flourish, students create memories that last. When we provide these opportunities and celebrate them, we build culture in our programs.

Students carry distinct personal experiences, backgrounds, and social cultures which affects their creativity and expression. When we connect our curriculum to their experiences, this encourages and fosters their individual creativity.

Their lived-experience adds to the community we are building within our ensemble and allows connection with communities outside of our program.

Experience is a critical component of creativity, and creativity is the avenue through which our students are most apt to express themselves. Finding ways to encourage and celebrate students’ own unique identities shapes their creativity and vulnerability for aesthetic and emotional responses to music.

Seek out AESTHETIC AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSES to music: the goosebumps moment that sticks with students. Recognizing and celebrating emotion and response to music is important; they are the moments that students will recall years from now.

Consider EMOTIONAL DEPTH in music. Program repertoire that allows students to experience a wide range of emotions. Having conversations about emotional depth gives voice to students’ experience on a deeper level than technique alone. Remember that each student’s background connects them differently to each piece 48

– try to reach every student.

Program repertoire that offers a range of emotions and raises questions while considering the bigger narrative that defines your concerts. How does your programming show what you value?

REFLECTION allows for an assessment of creativity and expression. Encourage students to share through class discussion or a virtual discussion board. Invite discussions about what is working in rehearsals, what they are learning through the process. Share concert reflections – not only of their performances, but also concerts they have attended outside of school. Build connections outside of our rehearsal hall.

Students should be intelligent consumers and producers of music with an understanding of what they are doing and what they value – and their values won’t always align with ours. We should not shy away from these conversations – and they sometimes may be tough conversations – but invite all students to share and allow them a voice. This shared vulnerability builds trust that deepens the program.

Each of us brings our own EXPERIENCES, IDENTITY, AND PAST to rehearsals and to the music we play. Meet your students where they are while also encouraging who they are.

Programming decisions are representative of what we value, but also who we value. The repertoire we choose should be reflective of our students

and the world around us. The repertoire should spark their creativity, not control it.

COMMUNITY Culture is the manifestation of a community’s identity. When we engage our curriculum and programming with who we are as people, we open the doors to creativity and expression.

This cooperation then builds community within our program.

When the community is strong within our classroom, the community outside the school building notices; allowing your program to be a beacon that illuminates your students, your families, your school, and your town.

COMMUNICATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR COMMUNITY. Ensemble music is a cooperative activity. Ensemble cooperation is engagement through listening and active response. Therefore, rehearsals should be communicative – not through speaking, but in listening. We need to listen beyond assessment: Am I in tune with her? Am I playing the same articulation as him? This is a necessary first step, but this alone is not conversational.

Good ensemble listening is like improvisation in a jazz combo: listen for more than accuracy and alignment, but for opportunities to respond to what you hear. This level of listening enables performances that feature depth and a connection to our lived experiences. When the technique allows us to genuinely listen and respond, rather than struggle for notes and rhythms, we are free to Continued on next page

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Connecting Curriculum, Creativity, and Community ... Hunter Kopczynski, cont.

experience the living music.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT sustains programs when the community values what we do – but our own community of students must value what they do themselves first. Teach your students more than what and how, teach them the why.

Encourage a vision and goal for the program so they have the investment necessary to make it a reality. Allow students to be stakeholders – along with parents, boosters, and administration – in creating that vision. Students build community within the program when they value the community of the program.

Our classroom, and the rehearsal, provides a SENSE OF BELONGING that challenges SUMMER 2021

and encourages growth. If students do not feel this sense of belonging and purpose, we cannot teach them to their full potential. Culture will never be built without our students.

Culture is everything we do, but the best ensemble culture is not built on extra-musical aspects.

Culture is built through the music we play, how we teach it, and the experiences created through the ensemble. The repertoire we choose to program matters and is the basis for how we approach our teaching and ensembles. The repertoire informs the curriculum and represents our students. The repertoire elicits emotion and builds memories and feelings that will last a lifetime. Healthy ensemble culture uses repertoire to connect curriculum to creativity and emotion in order to cultivate

ownership and build community.

As we work to build our students’ experience in our programs, it is essential to keep the music and how we teach it at the center of our ensemble’s culture.

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UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE ENGAGEMENT: “TOO HOT,” “TOO COLD,” AND THE GOLDILOCKS ZONE

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BY CAYLA BELLAMY

n the fields of astronomy and astrobiology, the term “Goldilocks Zone” refers to what is more formally known as the circumstellar habitable zone. This is the zone around any given star that, much like the fabled porridge, is neither too hot nor too cold, just perfect for liquid water to exist. In order for a zone to be habitable, the size of the star and distance to the zone must be in balance, with just enough source energy just far enough away. Similarly, in the fields of athletic coaching and physiology, the “sweet spot” training zone is the speed in cardio sports such as running or cycling that is slower than the athlete’s strength threshold but faster than their endurance pace. It is the zone in which both power and stamina can be cultivated. This training must push the athlete to realms of muscle breakdown for strength development while also staying far enough away from driving them to ventilatory limits, so they can maintain breathing and repeat efforts.

Mars and marathons aside, what is this zone in music?

When a system is in balance in any field of study - when the stimulus is appropriate for the environment and able to be processed effectively - growth happens, and life flourishes. This

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systemic balance is the primary mechanism for achieving Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi's famous “flow state,” where skill and challenge are equally matched, and achievement comes handin-hand with enjoyment. In flow state practice, accuracy is learned alongside reduced anxiety. New technical and expressive stimuli are processed, coded, dedicated to long term memory, and legitimately enjoyed.

Understanding that balance and flow are ideal, is a lack thereof truly problematic? Aside from risks to mental and physical health - anxiety, depression, burnout, antisocial behaviors, repetitive use injuries, pinched nerves, muscle spasms - practicing “too hot” or “too cold” exists on a bed of failure. Practicers repeat patterns incorrectly more often than correctly. They lose a regular sense of personal satisfaction and infrequently experience accomplishment. From a purely statistical perspective, they have quite literally practiced being wrong. Their habit is to play not only incorrectly, but also with a sense of dread or boredom, tension or listlessness. We have all learned through years of experience that the most likely actions to happen in performance are those that have happened previously in rehearsal. We know

Dr. Cayla Bellamy currently serves as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Colorado State University, where she teaches applied bassoon, chamber music, contemporary music performance, and pedagogy. As a concert soloist, she most recently embarked on a performance series presenting contemporary concerti by Joan Tower, Libby Larsen, and James Stephenson.

This series is scheduled to conclude in 2021 with a premiere performance of John Steinmetz’ newest commission, The Illusion of Separateness.

Offstage, Cayla is an amateur endurance athlete with academic research focusing on coaching methodologies, burnout, and the intersections of artistic and athletic training. Find her online at www.caylabellamy.com.

that the stage does not and will not hold what the practice room did not.

With some reflection on our practice experiences, most everyone can readily identify the extremes of inefficiency.

We know what it feels like to be too frustrated or too bored to concentrate, and we are quite adept at recognizing when we are very far from flow. These, however, are merely the extremes.

There exist the three distinct levels of practice engagement, but there are also the gradual transitions among them. A musician can be overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or “just right.” Or, perhaps, they may be somewhere in between, just Continued on next page

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Understanding Practice Engagement ..., Cayla Bellamy, cont. shy of flow. In the remainder of this article, I will teach you how to identify your engagement level via simple sensory observations and, most importantly, I will address how to manage your practice environment to work in the very center of your Goldilocks Zone.

Anecdotally speaking, I find that most of us err on the side of overwhelmed. We are “too hot” all too often in the practice room, and this is not entirely our fault.

We train musicians from the very beginning that being dedicated to improvement means always doing more and trying harder.

We cling to the power-centric, brash metaphor of “taking it to the woodshed” to learn technique.

In the past six months alone, over half of the students in my own studio have used the term “brute force” to describe the kind practice they felt they needed to do. Identifying the overwhelmed, therefore, is our first and highest priority task.

Overwhelmed practice sounds like inaccuracies, anything from minor slips and hesitations to extreme cracks, squeaks, and squawks. It sounds like a pinched tone, often sharp. It is, however, also sometimes sneaky and sounds like “skaty” technique, not officially inaccurate but also not purposefully correct and grounded. It sounds like grunts and sighs on repeatedly failed repetitions. Overwhelmed practice looks like high shoulders and bouncing knees and furrowed eyebrows. It looks like shallow chest breaths and white, bloodless fingernails from pressing into tone holes and keys. It looks like flushed faces. Overwhelmed practice feels SUMMER 2021

angry, frustrated, and scared, but it can also feel anxious, nervous, disappointed, or confused.

By contrast, underwhelmed practice is as it sounds, just under our ideal sound and performance. We most often dip into this level during sustained breaks or times without clear performance or progress goals.

Underwhelmed practice sounds dull and uninteresting. It sounds with minimal overtones, often flat or hollow. Underwhelmed practice looks limp. It looks slouched, soft in core torso musculature, and droopy in the eyes. Underwhelmed practice certainly feels wholly aimless and unmotivated, but it can also feel easily distracted or bored. It feels like reaching for your phone or checking your email.

That perfect practice flow, though, seems more elusive than it need be. Some of this perception of elusiveness comes from our lack of ability to access engagement consistently, but some of it also happens because when we are engaged our sense of time is distorted. Two hours of practicing in flow state feels like ten minutes, whereas ten minutes of under or overwhelmed practice feels like those torturous two hours.

Engaged practice sounds accurate, resonant, and controlled. Engaged practice looks poised, expansive, and deliberate. It also, however, looks gentle and sustainable without fatigue. Engaged practice feels awake, present, and connected. It also feels curious, proud, intriguing, and fun.

Engaged practice sounds, looks, and feels beautiful, and the

process to achieve it is simple, if not always easy.

If you are overwhelmed, you are over-engaged. You need less - less input and fewer stimuli.

This indeed is the root of slow practice. To decrease your level of engagement, however, tempo is not the only option for removal.

Consider “doing more with less” of any element of your music: •Decrease the tempo •Reduce the duration of your practice excerpt (ex: one phrase to one measure) •Simplify articulations •Modify dynamic requirements •Insert “think pauses” (ex: add a single beat rest in the middle of a run) •Isolate the base rhythm, removing high level subdivisions or embellishments •Shorten practice sessions (ex: two 45 minute sessions instead of one 90 minute) •Increase the frequency of breaks (ex: five minutes every 20 instead of 15 every hour) As you have undoubtedly concluded, if you are underwhelmed, you are underengaged and need more. Again, our habit is to turn to tempo, but you may also consider doing more with any element: •Increase the tempo •Add subsequent or preceding Continued on next page

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Understanding Practice Engagement ..., Cayla Bellamy, cont. motives or measures •Play “metronome games” (ex: set click to half tempo or downbeats only) •Cycle through articulation permutations (ex: slur in sets of two, three, and four notes) •Exaggerate expressive and dynamic demands •Lengthen your practice sessions •Reduce the frequency of breaks •Play from memory •Introduce an audience or record yourself The creativity begins here: every day, you improvise your own engagement recipe using any amount and combination of the above. Once you have reached your personal Goldilocks Zone, maintaining that level relies on monitoring your repetitions for physical control and mental engagement then sprinkling in these strategies as needed to stay there. As we are focused on improvement in particular repertoire, this most often takes the form of learning at a slow enough tempo with base rhythms and in short sections then gradually adding velocity, duration, and ornamentation, but the most self-aware practicer will diversity their strategies for doing so while prioritizing feeling “just right,” both physically and mentally.

We know that habits develop through repetition, and the habits we want to develop are those of accuracy, expressiveness, and enjoyment. Much like circumstellar habitable zones and sweet spot training, engaged music practice relies on a balance of stimuli and our ability to respond.

We can achieve this and help our students, too, in a healthy, sustainable, and flowing manner, far from the woodshed and closer to the games. *For more information about specific approaches to increase or decrease engagement of a given musical element or to request notated exercises referenced above, please feel free to contact me via www. caylabellamy.com.

“And snap!” as observed by Mary Poppins. “The job’s a game.”

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A CONCISE CONDUCTOR'S ANALYSIS OF JAMES M. DAVID'S HEARTLAND VERSES FOR WIND SYMPHONY

BY MYRON PETERSON HEARTLAND VERSES BACKGROUND INFORMATION

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ward winning contemporary American composer Dr. James M. David (b. 1978) serves as Professor of Composition and Music Theory at Colorado State University. I first had the opportunity to collaborate with David during the 2017–2018 academic year, which resulted in the premiere of David’s Swing Landscape: Rhapsody for Piano and Wind Orchestra (2018) at the Iowa Bandmasters Association’s annual conference. Subsequently, David was inspired to compose a new piece designed to supplement the body of work for mature high school and undergraduate college and university bands. He reached out to me in the summer of 2018 with his idea for what would become Heartland Verses. During the 2018-2019 academic year, I gladly assembled a consortium of ten Iowa university and high school band programs (listed at the end of the article) to officially commission this piece. Heartland Verses enjoyed its consortium premieres during the 2019–2020 academic year, with its world premiere taking place on October 17, 2019 in West Des Moines, Iowa,

by West Des Moines Valley High School, under the direction of

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Mr. Josh Waymire. The piece was added to the Iowa High School Music Association’s prescribed music list in the spring of 2020.

The grade-four composition contains two movements. Each movement is inspired by a poem of Iowa native and U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. Movement one, “Flow, Blue” is based on Kooser’s poem by a similar name, “Flow Blue China.” Movement two, “The Dust of His Wings,” is based on the poem “Lobocraspis Griseifusa.”

The text of the poems is important to the full understanding and communication of the piece.

The poems are not printed here to honor copyright laws but are found in Kooser’s Pulitzer winning collection titled Delights & Shadows: Poems published

by Copper Canyon Press, 2004.

They are also searchable online.

Heartland Verses (HV) is dedicated to the composer’s high school English teacher, Mrs. Fischer, about whom David recalls, “she knew that I loved poetry almost as much as music.”1 HV is currently distributed by Murphy Music Press, LLC. A perusal score and sample recording are available at http://murphymusicpress.com/ products/w-631.

When Heartland Verses is performed in its entirety, the duration is eleven minutes;

Myron Peterson, a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, previously spent twentyone years as a director of bands at Urbandale High School in Iowa. During his tenure, the Urbandale Wind Ensemble performed at conferences, festivals, and collaborative concerts across the U.S. Peterson is a past president of the Iowa Bandmasters Association and was the founding treasurer of the Jazz Educators of Iowa. Peterson is also affiliated with the NBA and CBDNA. Peterson is currently pursuing a DMA at the University of Iowa. He holds an MM from Colorado State University, and a BME from the University of Northern Iowa.

movement one is seven minutes, and movement two is three minutes and thirty seconds.

The composer states that either movement may be performed separately. Movement one, “Flow, Blue,” is gentle and languid (quarter note = 58 BPM).

Movement two is spritely and effervescent (quarter note = 126 BPM). The composition is a hearty grade-four in range and technical demand. By design, the composer and the commissioning

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont. consortium targeted increased demand in two specific areas: first in the length of overall work (eleven minutes); second, in the maturity needed to achieve the intended artistic expressions and character of the piece. HV is presented in a full transposed score with highly detailed parts for each instrument (see table 1). There is no printed key signature; all accidentals are placed within the musical context.

Solos are generally cross cued to accommodate instrumentation challenges in the school setting.

Note, this piece does not call for timpani, however, the highly developed percussion parts are integral, and appropriately challenging technically and musically.

MOVEMENT ONE “FLOW, BLUE” Movement one, “Flow, Blue” is constructed in a modified compound rounded binary form (ABA’). The movement opens with a brief introduction (mm.

1–7), followed by a compound A section (mm. 8–51) with its two distinct subsections (mm. 8–30 and 31–51). David employs a short twomeasure transition (mm. 52–53), leading to the B section (mm. 54– 108). He overlaps, or dovetails, the B and A’ sections by reintroducing theme A within the B section and avoiding any overt cadence to conclude the B section. He definitively recapitulates the A section with an abbreviated eight-measure statement (mm.

109–116) which, for the purpose of this analysis, is referred to as the A’ section. “Flow, Blue”

James M. David (b. 1978) is an internationally recognized composer who currently serves as professor of composition and music theory at Colorado State University. His symphonic works for winds have been performed by some of the nation’s most prominent professional and university ensembles and his compositions have been presented at more than fifty national and international conferences throughout the world. David has earned numerous awards and commissions which can be found in detail at JamesMDavid.com.

concludes with a seven-measure coda (mm. 117–123). All thematic material is original. The following narrative of this movement’s form is organized chronologically by section. The sections as they relate to compositional form are defined in table 2 (see page 55).

The A section is defined by the lyrical melody (theme A) initially presented with an oboe solo (mm.

8–13, see example 1) and cross cued in alto saxophone and trumpet.

In each phrase of the A section, David derives small variations on the original theme. In measures 14–18 he orchestrates the theme as an oboe–clarinet duet and extends the range by a whole step (also cross cued in alto saxophone and trumpet). This thematic statement is accompanied by sustained chords in the piano, vibes, and lower clarinet parts.

The third phrase (mm. 19–23), 54

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont.

is presented in the brass choir.

David melodically maintains all of the original pitches while using longer rhythmic values to draw out the phrase. Subsequent phrase variations include: expanding the intervals to increase the range of the melody (mm. 24–27), reorchestrating the original oboe solo in the flute (mm. 32–35), and metrically displacing the melody (mm. 42–47) presenting it in an emphatically accented style underneath a bright trumpet fanfare. With each new treatment of theme A, David creates a new accompaniment as well. It is also noteworthy to identify the first four pitches of theme A (A–G–Bflat–A) as a unifying motto David transports and transposes across both movements to organically unite the work. It appears with significant prominence

in measures 28–29 led by the horns, piano, and crotales, with additional support from third trumpet and euphonium. David uses differentiated dynamics to illustrate this element should be brought to the front of the texture.

The B section’s defining feature is a dream-like texture in lydian, created by sustained piano and mallet percussion, which permeates the entire section from measures 54–101 (see example 2).

This lydian dreamscape texture underlies a series of building clusters which are scored in a variety of instrument families, and frequently overlapped: upper woodwinds (mm. 54–59), trumpets (mm. 63–67), trombones and horns (mm. 66–70), flutes and piccolo (mm. 66–79), clarinets and oboe (mm. 71–75), and low brass (mm.

76–80). In measures 76–85, David juxtaposes the already present dreamscape and clusters with a third layer—a new presentation of theme A in the saxophone quartet. In measures 86–100, the dreamscape continues with the addition of upper woodwinds, and the continued screen of flute trills. Theme A is now orchestrated in the trumpets, horns, and alto saxophones with substantial rhythmic augmentation. Low brass and low woodwinds provide a lush foundation of sustained yet slowly changing pitches. The movement reaches its dynamic and emotional highpoint at measure 101.

David uses three two-measure statements of tonally satisfying harmonies to gently step down from the high point.

Measures 109–116, represent the A’ section with a sparse texture similar to measure 8.

Here theme A is heard initially in the euphonium (cross cued in tenor saxophone and bassoon), and then extended with an oboe– clarinet duet (cross cued in alto saxophones). The movement concludes with a solemn and emotional coda (mm. 117–123), using a combination of consonant harmonies and dissonant clusters to finally arrive at rest on a resonant G-major triad. The unifying motto appears again in measures 118 and 120 in the glockenspiel, crotales, and piano.

The poem, “Flow Blue China,” influences this movement in several ways. The tonal centers are guided by the colors of the flow blue china, blue and gold. The A section represents the blue flowers in G; the B section represents the painted gold borders in D-flat, a

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont. tritone away. Additionally, David uses scratchy sounds of egg shakers, cabasa, sizzle cymbals, and maracas to depict the labored movements of an aging aunt.

David also imagines a glint of light sparkling off the painted gold borders of the china dishes. He imparts that idea to the listeners in measure 119 in the flute parts, supported by piano.2 MOVEMENT TWO “THE DUST OF HIS WINGS” “The Dust of His Wings” is composed in modified arch form.

Whereas the standard arch form is ABCBA, David rearranges the themes of the recap and also recalls a theme from movement one of this piece, resulting in the modified arch form ABC[movement 1-A]BCA. The sections as they relate to compositional form are defined in table 3. The most relevant factor in defining the sections of David’s composition is the thematic material.3 In “The Dust of His Wings,” each theme is unique and original, providing clear

diminution, re-orchestration, or textural variance.

Because the thematic material is the basis for this movement’s form, the following overview is organized by theme (not chronologically by section). At 126 beats per minute, the effervescent Theme A is based on the first two notes of the movement, E-flat-F, using an additive approach this becomes C-E-flat-F to E-flat-CE-flat-F, creating a disjunct and driving motivic-based theme (see example 3). Theme A appears in measures 1–8 orchestrated in the first and second clarinets, alto saxophones, piano, vibraphone, and glockenspiel.

It is accompanied by long tone dissonances in the third clarinet, horns and trombones, with a light rhythmic pattern on the suspended cymbal. Theme A recurs immediately in measures 9–17 with the addition of bassoon, bass clarinet, tenor and baritone saxophones, bass trombone, euphonium, and tuba. The accompaniment continues with

E-flat

dissonant long tones and is joined by muted trumpets. Also in this phrase, David introduces a central programmatic element for the movement intended to represent the constant fluttering motion of the moth’s wings for which the movement is titled.4 He creates this element with an accented sixteenth note pattern using heavy brushes on the snare drum. Each time this pattern appears, it is partnered with a mostly chromatic sixteenth note pattern in an upper woodwind voice, represented in this instance with the flutes.

After the moth sits still for just a moment in measures 18–21, theme A recurs a third time in this opening section. This variant removes all static long tones from the theme compressing the theme into two measures (mm. 22–23), unaccompanied, orchestrated in oboe, bassoon, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, euphonium, tuba, and marimba.

Theme A’s final iteration comes in the coda (mm. 100–112) with another derived variation in the alto and tenor saxophones, trumpets, horns, with occasional reinforcement from the trombones and crotales. It is accompanied with a flourish of repeating sixteenth note patterns in the upper woodwinds, and a powerful bass line using fragments of theme A as its source material.

delineation between sections.

The transitions between themes are concise, which is typical for David’s compositions. David derives variation in the thematic material each time it appears.

Variations appear as altered rhythm, metric displacement, modified ending, augmentation, 56

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont.

Theme B is slightly more linear in nature, providing contrast to the opening theme, yet stylistically still in an articulate manner (see example 4). In its entirety, theme B appears in measures 27–42 split between the trombones (mm.

27–33) and the horns (mm. 34–42).

It is accompanied again by the portrayal of the moth’s wings with brushes on snare drum and short sixteenth note patterns in the clarinets, and subsequently flutes.

A gentle third texture is presented in a pulsing static rhythm from the marimba, tambourine, and woodblock. Theme B recurs in measures 72–85 transposed up one whole step, but without any other

significant variation.

Theme C is the longest theme spanning eighteen measures (mm.

46–63, see example 5). Sitting in the middle of the composition, it is the sole lyrical theme of this movement. Scored for the trumpet section, it fans out from unison to three-part harmony SUMMER 2021

and harkens back to portions of the first movement’s theme A. Although it is not an exact replica, it is another example of a derived variation maintaining some recognizable intervallic structures, with modified rhythm and metric displacement. The flutes and oboes are added to the orchestration of theme C in its final seven measures. The low brass and low woodwinds accompany theme C in gentle sustained chords which migrate slowly, one note at a time, rather than all pitches changing together. This theme is primarily in the tonal center of E-flat. When it returns in measures 86–99, the melody is given increased weight with the addition of the horn

section. The accompaniment is heavier with chords progressing together, and the representation of the moth is intensified, now portrayed with sticks on hi-hat and sixteenth note flourishes in the clarinets.

One additional significant theme appears in measures

64–72. David overtly recalls movement one–theme A (mvt.

1, mm. 42–51), invoking a dreamlike remembrance of this “human” theme while allowing it to interact and relate with the moth’s thematic material.5 Its recurrence propels this movement toward an optimistic and jubilant recapitulation of each theme from movement two. He further uses the four-note unifying motto; its final augmented reiteration occurs at the end of movement two (mm. 110–111) in the saxophones, trumpets, and euphonium, thus bringing the work full circle to an emotionally and sonically climactic conclusion.

The poem by which this movement is inspired, “Lobocraspis Griseifusa,” (a species of moth) depicts a magical moth that drinks the tears from a sleeper’s eyes, and with it takes the sleeper’s sorrows, leaving the sleeper to awaken serenely, wiping “the dust of his wings” from her eyes. David takes inspiration from this poem in the energetic and fervent nature of a moth’s flight and portrays that energy in the composition through driving rhythms and thematic material.

He embodies the moth in the sounds of brushes on snare drum and sticks on hi-hat. Like the serenely awakened sleeper, the piece ends with a “bright and optimistic conclusion.”6 EDUCATIONAL VALUE Selecting repertoire for student ensembles is arguably the most important decision in the annual planning of a music educator.

It is the lens through which the curriculum is imparted, by which technical capacities are Continued on next page

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont. example, a clarinet player is asked to play in unison on a melody with alto saxophones, piano, vibraphone, and glockenspiel on one phrase, then to blend with the timbre of heavy brushes on a snare drum in another phrase, and then to blend with low brass on a long tone chordal accompaniment.

In general, Heartland Verses continually demands that students are aware of their musical surroundings, making critical assessments about what they hear from others, and how that should influence their real-time decisionmaking regarding their own playing.

challenged, and around which artistic growth is nurtured. David’s Heartland Verses presents mature high school and undergraduate college students with unique challenges that are not found in many other grade-four compositions. Primarily, and by design, this piece targets technical demand for grade-four musicians but extends the demand for a longer period of time compared to a typical grade-four piece, approximately eleven minutes (when played in its entirety).

Heartland Verses also presents numerous opportunities 58

for students to discover and understand musical themes, motives, mottos—and how those elements can be developed, manipulated, or transformed into related variations which give the piece a satisfying balance of predictability and unpredictability.

Through rehearsals of this piece, musicians are asked to explore many different compositional textures and timbre combinations.

Rehearsing in texture groupings allows the students to discover how their sound blends with a variety of other instruments, and to hear and understand the other parts of the composition. For

There are technical demands that warrant attention for developing students. The flourishes in the upper woodwinds are expertly curated to lay nicely under the fingers, yet they push musicians to maintain pulse and clarity through longer passages of repeated patterns, and to achieve fluid transitions between registers.

The brass ranges are within expected demand for grade-four music. In several cases, the greater challenge for brass musicians is achieving flexibility to cover large jumps quickly and single phrases which cover ranges greater than an octave. Each of these challenges is an appropriate and doable stretch for a grade-four band.

This piece presents literacy challenges for students, especially in rhythm reading. With David’s frequent use of rhythm to derive variation in motives, students must be keenly aware of rhythm and pulse, often tracking rhythm to the subdivision level. There are frequent changes to the rhythmic Continued on next page

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A Concise Conductor's Analysis ... Myron Peterson, cont. subdivision on consecutive beats, such as in movement two, measure 41, several musicians are asked to play three sixteenth notes (1-E-&-) followed by three eighth-note triplets (3-la-li) consecutively.

Studying this type of rhythmic vocabulary fuels student growth toward improved rhythmic integrity, which is an increasingly common demand in contemporary art music.

CONCLUSION James M. David is an artist who combines intellect, skill, knowledge, creativity, and above all—heart—in his compositions.

Many of his pieces, including Heartland Verses, are inspired by art, poetry, or literature. He stealthily infuses cultural artifacts (elements of jazz, hymn tunes, and folksongs) into his compositions.

While his compositions provide many curricular lessons to those who study them, more importantly they are serious pieces of art music which merit our serious consideration as teachers, performers, and audience members. This composition is an exceptional consideration for high school and undergraduate college or university ensembles due to its pedagogical benefits and most importantly its meaningful artistic merits.

An exceptional biography and exploration of David’s compositional style was published in the NBA Journal (Summer 2020, pg. 25–35) titled “An Introduction to Composer James M. David,” by Sheridan Monroe Loyd. It may be worth a trip back to that article to revisit more about James M. David and his work.

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HEARTLAND VERSES CONSORTIUM •Myron Peterson, consortium leader, Windsor Heights, IA •Urbandale High School, Urbandale, IA •West Des Moines Valley High School, West Des Moines, IA •Southeast Polk High School, Pleasant Hill, IA •Drake University, Des Moines, IA •Linn-Mar High School, Marion, IA •Mason City High School, Mason City, IA •Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, Cedar Rapids, IA •Waukee High School, Waukee, IA •North Scott High School, Eldridge, IA •University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA

David, James M. “James M. David, Composer.” Accessed November 17, 2019. www.jamesmdavid.com.

Kooser, Ted. Delights & Shadows: Poems. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2004.

Loyd, Sheridan Monroe. “An Introduction to Composer James M. David.” NBA Journal vol. 60, no.

4 (Summer 2020): 25–35.

Loyd, Sheridan Monroe. “James M. David: The Composer, His Compositional Style, and a Conductor’s Analysis of Symphony No. 1 – Codex Gigas.” MM Thesis, Colorado State University, 2020.

ENDNOTES 1 James M. David, Heartland Verses, (Fort Collins: Selfpublished, 2019).

James M. David, Interview by Author, Fort Collins, November 2019.

2

3

David, Interview.

4

David, Interview.

5

David, Interview.

6

David, Heartland Verses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY David, James M. Heartland Verses.

Fort Collins: Self-published, 2019.

David, James M. Interview by Author. Fort Collins, November 2019.

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A DISCUSSION WITH COMPOSERS AND WIND BAND CONDUCTORS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMING QUALITY LITERATURE

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BY CHRIS CHAPMAN

or many of us, the most important times in our musical growth occurred in two different places: high school and college.

Not only did those experiences help shape our musical and personal life choices, but they also influenced the repertoire selections we were to make in our professional careers. With college and university programs who were able to rehearse this academic year, three things helped to decide our repertoire choices; the size of the allowed ensembles, the budgets for new repertoire; and the available rehearsal space. This meant that many higher education wind band conductors chose to rehearse and perform chamber pieces by some of our genre’s finest composers.

Have performing works by such composers as Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky opened up the wind band conductors toward programming more selectively as they begin to contemplate repertoire selections for our ensembles when things become more normalized? Have musical concepts such as development of theme, harmonic structure, and rhythmic cells, for example, become more important to the collegiate conductors? Did their ears galvanize around literature that contained a sense of established musical form? Will

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they expect current composers to adhere to these principles brought to us from their compositional predecessors, or will wind band conductors settle on repertoire that rebels against the established norms? In this article, I asked composers Frank Ticheli, David Gillingham, and Kevin Walczyk, and university conductors Michael Haithcock, Erica Neidlinger, Scott Boerma, and Danh Pham questions about future repertoire selection and how teaching during the current pandemic altered their choices.

MELODY AND MELODIC DIRECTION Development of musical material in wind bands such as melody, harmony, and rhythm has proven important to our repertoire selection for centuries. Arriving on American shores in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European Harmoniemusik became this country’s first chamber wind ensembles. At the same time, the larger symphonic concert bands of Patrick Gillmore, John Philip Sousa, and Edwin Franco Goldman performed marches and orchestral transcriptions of the late Romantic period music that carried long melodic lines, harmonic development, and sweeping countermelodies.

Developing melody continues to be an important aspect to modern

Dr. Christopher Chapman is the Director of Bands at Central Michigan University where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds, coordinates the wind band conducting area, and guides all aspects of the band program. Ensembles under his direction have performed in major US venues as well as in Japan and Taiwan.

Chapman holds degrees from The Ohio State University, UNLV, and the University of Washington. He has appeared as a conductor, clinician and lecturer throughout the United States and was a contributing author in A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band. Dr. Chapman’s wind band compositions and arrangements are receiving performances across the United States.

Dr. Chapman is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association. He is also active in CBDNA, NBA, WASBE, Phi Beta Mu, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Tau Beta Sigma.

wind band composers today.

Modern composers, whose works have stood the test of time, speak freely on how they approach the craft of melodic development.

Kevin Walczyk states: "If present and handled well on my part, [melody] gives the listener a fighting chance to become better engaged with a piece by giving them something to track throughout the course of the work.

I cannot imagine being engaged Continued on next page

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A Discussion with Composers and Wind Band Conductors ... Chris Chapman, cont. in a book, movie, or play that did not have a central character.

Moreover, that character’s journey must be compelling if it is to keep me continually interested and engaged. Melody, for me, is the central character of my music, and how I develop it and present it throughout the piece must also be compelling if I am to expect a listener to remain engaged with the musical narrative."

Creating this character development takes painstaking, constant revision. Wind band composers spend a great amount of time trying to “get it right”.

They will revise these melodies by changing intervals, rhythms, colors, and eventually the harmony implied by the melody.

Cultivating these melodies in a modern sensibility allows composers to develop musical ideas other than linear content.

Such areas of development include: rhythmic, motivic, and harmonic development.

RHYTHMIC, MOTIVIC AND HARMONIC DEVELOPMENT Over the past hundred years, some wind band composers have replaced the concept of melody with sound blocks, textures, and colors. These concepts have dramatically influenced the modern composer of wind band music and opened up numerous avenues for development. Frank Ticheli goes so far as to say that “all of these (melodic, rhythmic, motivic, harmonic developments) are considered when developing a piece from its embryonic stage”, and so the modern wind band conductor can therefore find many reasons for a work to be considered a masterpiece for our SUMMER 2021

genre. Scott Boerma speaks to this: "There are fascinating, satisfying works that aren’t necessarily “melodic” or don’t necessarily have a great deal of "harmonic movement.” There are other factors that can give them artistic depth: use of colors, motivic manipulation and development, engaging rhythms, etc. However, if a non-melodic, non-harmonically moving piece does not make up for those absences in other ways, it will likely not speak to me, my students, or our audiences."

In choosing literature for our collegiate ensembles, it is important to select repertoire that both speaks to us (the conductor/ interpreter) as artists, or speaks to us as pedagogues. In this latter role, the importance of quality repertoire will have a direct impact on the profession. Our students, many of whom will teach music or perform, should be exposed to repertoire that is skillfully developed. When our rehearsals contain prominent examples of these concepts, it can lead to a more inspiring approach to our art. Imagine instead of saying, “let’s work on this rhythm”, one says, “listen to how this rhythm was developed by the composer”. A deeper understanding of the work should inspire the musician toward a heightened sense of being and encourage them to work to make those concepts understood by the audience. Whether it be cultivating melodically, rhythmically, or harmonically, the importance of selecting literature based upon these principles will positively affect the next generation of musicians.

THE USE OF FORM The colleges and universities fortunate to have continued performing often played works by composers of the classical and romantic periods of Western art music. In so doing, the student performers were exposed to music that contained structured form.

For numerous reasons, the means by which composers use form in their writing today has changed.

Seldom is a predetermined form considered before the composition process begins, but rather it develops slowly as the piece unfolds. Frank Ticheli discusses the process: "I never know the form beforehand. Form results from content, not vice versa.

Nevertheless, form is of course important. It’s just that it comes organically through the creative process, a bit at a time. In the end, the journey must feel right to me, although I have no words to describe what “right” is. It has to do with many things, the relationship between tension and repose, the overall dramatic arch, a feeling of inevitability, a sense of urgency."

The use of such forms proves an important asset to the tool box composers often employ. Allowing the composers to understand how melodic and harmonic material can develop, the use of form can give the composer an important guideline for which the music can naturally flow. Traditional forms such as sonata, ternary, fugue, rondo and the like are often combined with contemporary forms such as arch, mobile, and popular song forms. To this end, composers have an unlimited Continued on next page

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A Discussion with Composers and Wind Band Conductors ... Chris Chapman, cont. supply of forms to employ if they so choose.

Conductors who have performed music with discernible forms may have noticed that music containing this use of structure has considerable musical direction.

David Gillingham discusses form in his writing: “Music needs ‘direction’ since it is a ‘time art’ and form is the way the music is put together so that there is a ‘flow’ of events that make sense.”

ORCHESTRATION AND DOUBLING "I often orchestrate for multiple layers, colors and timbres that usually result in a dense orchestrational palette. Since I prefer these rich colors and layers (densities), I end up writing for many players. Because of this need for variance in orchestrational color it may appear that I overorchestrate but, in the pursuit of just the right color/timbre, I tend to engage much of my instrumental forces throughout a piece, which just happens to allow performers to play often."

Kevin Walczyk, whose quote above reminds us of the importance of having fine orchestration techniques, allows us into the mind of the composer/ orchestrator. While the art of composing takes a great amount of time to perfect, the art of orchestration is also vital to the craft. Composers of wind band music have at their disposal a wide variety of tonal colors from which to work, from the single reeds to the conical-bore brass instruments and percussion and everything in between. The vast amount of color 62

or timbre at the orchestrator’s disposal helps wind bands to prove themselves unique in the Western art music tradition. Very rarely are other types of ensembles capable of infinite doubling possibilities like the modern wind band.

Having performed chamber winds music for over a year, conductor/ interpreters of modern wind bands may be asking if there are moments when composers needlessly added doublings so that more musicians could play. When given restrictions on doublings, composers made sure the most prominent instruments were featured, and kept unnecessary doublings out of the orchestration.

Frank Ticheli weighs in: “If giving a player more to play means I’m doubling something that’s already fine undoubled, then I’m adding more weight of sound, more density where transparency is preferred, and that’s a mistake.”

Creating contrast in compositions often means that composers consider having lightly orchestrated passages to create gentle, intimate moments. These moments are contrasted by other meaningful moments created by more heavily orchestrated moments. Kevin Walczyk believes the dichotomy of these moments helps to create “a naturally occurring balance (ebb and flow) of the orchestration which winds its way throughout the piece while promoting the use of all instruments at my disposal”.

The use of chamber music orchestration combined with moments of fuller orchestration allows composer/orchestrators the full use of the modern wind band.

CHAMBER COMPOSITIONS

"I'm trying to expose my students to the historical wind repertoire that has stood the test of time or those new pieces I think will stand the test of time. I also have to attract the top levels of players to preference."

The quote above from Michael Haithcock helps to illustrate the importance of performing wind band repertoire from various musical eras. Works from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century have become staples in the wind repertoire, but a quick survey of wind band concert programs across the United States shows few performances of pieces outside the modern large-band repertoire. The current pandemic has, however, forced many collegiate conductors of wind band music to investigate the chamber repertoire for our medium, as universities placed guidelines on the number of players allowed in rehearsal and performance.

Chamber winds pieces by composers from Gabrieli to Ruth Gipps were studied by conductors and students alike which helped give student performers a deeper understanding of the wind band’s standard repertoire. Rehearsals of these pieces involved thoughtful conversations about the music and the time period during which the music was composed.

Performing these works helped attract the finest players in our music programs to the band room, as students understood that they were indeed performing some of the finest works ever composed. Modern composers Continued on next page

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A Discussion with Composers and Wind Band Conductors ... Chris Chapman, cont. also understand the importance of chamber winds and many have chamber ensemble music as a part of their overall compositional output. Being drawn to the chamber winds, David Gillingham writes: I think that chamber writing may be my true love and I feel that many of my chamber works are some of my best works. I love writing pieces that are basically “one on a part” and for different combinations of instruments. It is a challenge that I really love.

My Serenade – Songs of the Night and Waking Angels are hallmarks of my chamber writing utilizing the basic instrumentation of a combined woodwind quintet and brass quintet (thus getting 2 trumpets and two horns) plus percussion. Much of my full band music often resembles my chamber writing, as I don’t like the sound of a full woodwind sections with multiple clarinets and flutes. It sounds somewhat “accordion-like” and I really prefer the woodwind structure of the orchestra where they are basically in twos."

The creation of the wind ensemble in 1952 has allowed conductors of collegiate wind bands to perform a varied set of repertoire that includes both the large band and chamber ensemble. Since these conductors needed to perform chamber works during this pandemic, the question in regards to future programming is this: will the conductors begin to program more chamber music from multiple eras of music history in their concerts, or will they largely dismiss this repertoire so that all students can perform as much as possible? Three collegiate SUMMER 2021

conductors discuss this topic: Scott Boerma: "The pandemic has led us to explore more chamber music, so our students have therefore experienced more “one-on-a-part” experiences, contributing to their independence as musicians. Although many of us highly value those experiences for our students and strive to provide as many of them as possible during normal times, we may find that we seek even more opportunities in the future."

Erica Neidlinger: "My programming already included pieces with small instrumentation and 1 on a part experiences as well as a diverse representation of composers/human experiences. I will return to this combination of experiences to bring as diverse an experience as possible to the musicians we train. Our repertoire is mostly "art" music but there is an occasional piece from the realm of educational music, provided it supports the above- mentioned compositional qualities reasonably well. I suspect that highly conscientious teachers will be mindful of what they have learned and continue to employ the things that were beneficial."

Danh Pham: "I don’t think chamber music, which has been such a staple of band concert programs for these past few months, goes away. I’m looking forward to seeing a concert with sax quartet followed by a full wind ensemble work, followed by a solo unaccompanied player, to another full work for winds. The pandemic has widened our ears to a variety of fulfilling experiences in musical performance in any setting."

SO, WHAT WILL WIND BAND CONCERTS LOOK LIKE 30 YEARS FROM NOW? While no one can foresee the distant future, it is fair to say that current college students’ future programming as educators are positively and negatively impacted by the repertoire they performed in their own collegiate experience.

The importance of exposing college students to the very finest repertoire, from chamber music to large concert band, and works from the Renaissance era to the latest commissioning project will certainly influence the future of our repertoire. Kevin Walczyk speaks of the importance of exposing college students to quality works to aid in the wind band’s importance in future years.

"I notice that undergraduate and graduate students alike – especially those pursuing degrees in instrumental music education and wind conducting, see the intrinsic value of including the living composer as part and parcel of the entire wind band experience. These future band directors have most likely worked on a commissioning project during their secondary education years and, perhaps even more so, during their collegiate careers. When they graduate and become band directors, they understand the importance of commissioning new music and performing music by living composers. The band world looks to composers to help shape their identity and their repertoire so as to maintain a vital and meaningful connection between the justification of their art in contemporary society and its would-be listeners (audience)."

Continued on next page

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A Discussion with Composers and Wind Band Conductors ... Chris Chapman, cont.

FINALE Will the wind band conductor’s repertoire selections change to include music of melodic, motivic, and harmonic development; the inclusion of varying musical forms; thoughtful scoring practices devoid of unnecessary doublings; and the inclusion of chamber ensemble in a more substantial way? Erica Neidlinger on whether the wind band repertoire will be altered postpandemic.

"I expect the greatest factor that will determine this is not necessarily the pandemic but the degree of perception. ANY change cannot happen until a distinction between choices is first perceived.

Our colleagues will only program to the above listed qualities if they first recognize a difference in quality and perceive the need to create these types of experiences.

As Frank Battisti discusses in “The Winds of Change”, developing taste is important.

This development happens only by furthering our own musical experiences and enhancing our critical listening (becoming an educated musician)."

And Scott Boerma concludes: “I’m optimistic that conductors will look for more opportunities for our students to be educated through art music, in whatever form we’re able to share it”.

More information can be found at chrischapmanconductor.com.

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SUBMITTING PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH

HOW TO SUBMIT PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH ARTICLES TO THE NBA JOURNAL

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BY MATTHEW TALBERT

he difference between a peer- reviewed research article and the articles traditionally published in the NBA Journal is best described as a difference in the vetting process and source material. To have an article appear as “peer-reviewed” in the NBA Journal means recognized researchers and scholars in the field of music/music education will read, evaluate, and then recommend whether or not an article should be published, revised or rejected. This process is widely recognized as an indicator of quality scholarship in a particular discipline or field. Other names for these types of articles are “scholarly” or “refereed.”

heightened beyond the traditional article. These articles are also of extraordinary value as they may also impact the way the reader approaches the subject material in a potentially more generalizable way. When incorporating the peerreview process, the an author’s article now has a final layer of review (for accuracy) utilizing other experts within the same subject matter.

A traditional NBA Journal article is most often written from the perspective of the author’s unique experiences in life, music, and/or the profession. These articles are of extraordinary value, as they often present a number of ideas that have been effective for the author and may also be effective for the reader.

A research article is most often written as a continuation of ideas presented in previous articles, with the motivation drawn from combining the findings of those previous articles and the author’s own experiences, experiments, or observations. In building the article in this way, the validity of the information is

A number of peer-reviewed research articles may read like other articles found in the NBA Journal, with the author outlining their thoughts on a subject while using citations to support the premise of the issue being discussed. Other research articles will take on a bit more of a scientific approach. These articles begin with a review of literature summarizing the research on the topic that already exists, while simultaneously presenting the reader with the rationale driving the current article. A method section follows, describing what actually happened in the

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The Traditional Research Layout and Value of the Research Article Dr. Russell Gavin, former chair of NBA’s Research (and Editorial) committees, shares his thoughts on the layout and value of these types of articles:

Matthew Talbert is Assistant Professor of Music Education at Ohio University. Joining the faculty in the fall of 2016, his responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, with additional teaching responsibilities in the Patton College of Education.

Talbert earned a Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of South Carolina (2012), a Master of Music in Music Education from Appalachian State University (2005), and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Appalachian State University (2004).

research, then a results and analysis section(s) describing what the researcher found, if anything. The article closes with a discussion of the findings and how they may relate to the world. The article concludes with a list of references from which the author drew information and ideas.

If you are inexperienced at reading research articles, you may want to read the discussion section first. This part of the article will explain how the information found in the rest of the article may impact you and others in the article subject community.

Oftentimes this is the place Continued on next page

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How to Submit Peer-Reviewed Research to the NBA Journal, Matthew Talbert, cont. where practical ideas will be most clearly expressed; however, taking in the entire article will always give a much clearer view of what the author was attempting to express.

As mentioned above, an ideal research article is adding to the research that came before it. This continuation and growth of knowledge is one of the defining characteristics of this kind of inquiry. At the end of the article, the reader is left with information that is not only new to them, but simultaneously new to the world. This level of investigation is of paramount importance in all areas of music and education, and the NBA is proud to present this new avenue for such exploration and thought.

Guidelines for Submission of Peer-Review Research Articles A. Submission Method: Manuscripts should be submitted as Microsoft Word attachments via email to the Editorial Committee Chair: Matthew Talbert at talbertm@ohio.edu.

B. Length: The manuscript should not exceed 25 pages and should include an abstract of 100-150 words in length on a separate page. We encourage the submission of short form articles (4-10 pages) as well as full-length articles.

C. Cover Page: To ensure anonymity in the review process, the manuscript should 66

contain no clues as to the author’s institutional affiliation or identity. Author’s name(s), address, institution affiliations, and pertinent information should be listed on a separate cover page at the beginning of the submission. The cover page should also include up to five keywords/phrases that describe the contents of the manuscript.

D. Style Guide: Manuscripts should conform to one of the following style manuals:

documentation allowing the reproduction of these materials.

F. Ethical Requirements: It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that no copyright issues have been violated by the submission, including images, charts, etc. Manuscripts already published in other journals can be submitted for consideration in the NBA Journal providing the author has permission to do so.

(1) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2019),

Questions about submitting a peer- reviewed article? Email Research Chair Matthew Talbert at TALBERTM@OHIO.EDU.

(2) The Chicago Manual of Style(17th edition, 2017), or

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(3) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (K. L. Turabian, 9th edition, revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff, 2018).

Note: Authors may not combine and/or mix styles within a single manuscript E. Tables and Figures: Tables and figures may be included with the manuscript, however, these must be publishable in black and white. It is the author’s responsibility to make sure any tables/figures are checked for accuracy before submission. Additionally, if any copyrighted materials are submitted, it is the author’s responsibility to provide

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