Some Thoughts on Moving Forward
The most tumultuous and challenging year in recent history for music education is drawing to a close. Ensemble directors have been doing their best to give their students some type of meaningful musical experience. Concerts are being held in a variety of venues to limited audience members with music that is at points below the level of difficulty that the ensemble has previously performed. Directors have adjusted annual goals, but these educators are still in pursuit of excellence with their students.
As the next school year sits on the distant horizon, this post is part encouragement and part suggestion for ensemble directors as they prepare over the summer. This discussion is not about score study, repertoire suggestions, or even discussion of rehearsal techniques. Sustaining band programs over the next six to eight years will require a paradigm shift in the approach directors take with their students. Many band programs have experienced setbacks in ensemble growth and accomplishment. Yet, other programs have seen ensemble success replaced with individual advancement and development. It is a distinct reminder that ensembles are composed of students. Those students will need a director who recognizes their value, want the best for them, and will stand for truth on their path.
Ensemble directors must accept and embrace that personal character matters as much as the skill in the members of the ensemble. Who you are and what you do are equivalent characteristics in the 21st century ensemble rehearsal room. Members of the ensemble need to know their director cares about them as people first and musicians second. A student who feels value, acceptance, and safety is often more inclined to be productive and reliable members of a larger group. This spirit in each student contributes to rebuilding the sense of community that was lost over the 2020-21 academic year.
Ensemble directors need to have a passion for members of their ensemble to exhort, encourage, and equip them. Directors must be persistent in their daily journey to become good in the musical and social lives of their students, more than just doing good. Directors should exhort each member to be courageous in their pursuit of discovering their personal identity. Directors must encourage each member to strive for higher standards both musically and personally. Finally, directors must equip each member with dispositions, insight, and skills that help them find a life-long personal and communal sense of belonging and identity in music.
Every ensemble deserves to hear the truth. Ensemble directors need to stand for truth with grace and grit in the face of certain adversity and welcome prosperity. Directors need to meet adversity with grace as a director may not agree with the decision an ensemble member makes or the progress the group has made toward a musical goal. When a decision that contradicts an agreed upon code or puts the safety or well-being of other ensemble members, directors must confront with immediacy and focus on the decision, not the person. The grace extended to that member offers unmerited clemency to the person, reaffirming their value as an individual to the group. The grace extended to an ensemble refocuses their collective efforts to aspire to the agreed upon standards. While expectations can change in these uncertain times, working toward quality and higher standards will never go out of style.
Regardless of circumstances, directors must persist in being positive to their students without sacrificing integrity or truth. Directors must remind their students that it is acceptable to sometimes fail in endeavors that will ultimately succeed rather than find success in endeavors that are short-sighted or do not promote long-term growth. Trophies at competitions, degree of difficulty in the repertoire performed, or the number of performances completed will not determine the success of instrumental ensembles in music education in the immediate future. The future of instrumental ensembles requires a nuanced approach by directors that places the value of the students as the top priority.
