February 15, 2006
Band leader earns award
Pat Brumbaugh receives high state band director honor
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Pat Brumbaugh's small office is crowded with inspiration: portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt, President Lincoln and President Kennedy, motivational sayings and posters plus mementos from six years as West High School's director of bands.
Recognized in January by the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association as Band Teacher of the Year, Brumbaugh has prominently posted a quote by English author and poet John Ruskin: "The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."
Which provides a snapshot of her approach as she conducts two concert bands, two jazz bands, the marching band and a seventh grade band at West Junior High. Brumbaugh has also directed the Thirlby Marching Exhibition for six years.
"I just think that kids will rise to meet your expectations and if you have high expectations they will meet that goal," Brumbaugh summarized her teaching philosophy, adding about music specifically: "I think that music in general is vitally important to education."
As for recognition by her music teaching peers, it is a pleasing acknowledgment of years of dedication and hard work - which for her is really the point anyway.
"I was really surprised at being selected and I appreciate being nominated, too, that was awfully nice," said Brumbaugh, noting that Central High School band director John Campbell nominated her.
Wendee Wolf-Schlarf, the K-12 music coordinator for the district, noted that the 2006 Band Teacher of the Year award reflects Brumbaugh's influence on band programs, teachers and students throughout the state.
"It's really about Pat and her impact on not only Traverse City, but statewide," she said. "Which means her work and philosophy about music, education and kids has had a wide-reaching impact."
"I think she provides a very caring, nurturing environment in which she expects a lot of herself and a lot of her kids," Wolf-Schlarf noted.
Besides nominating her for the award, in 2000 Campbell was instrumental in Brumbaugh's joining the West High School faculty. While a guest conductor at Interlochen that summer, Brumbaugh phoned Campbell, a longtime friend, to say "hi." He immediately told her of the job opening and encouraged her to apply. Brumbaugh called the district and had an interview the next day.
A key factor to her decision to come to Traverse City - leaving her post as director of orchestral activities at the University of Memphis after eight years - was the district's commitment to music and the foundation of excellence at all levels.
"I really wanted to do college teaching," she said of her 12 years at that level, including four as director of bands at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. "But when the opportunity came to return to Traverse City, I was ready to leave the South."
The band program at West has grown during Brumbaugh's tenure, in part due to her close working relationship with West Junior High School band director Flournoy Humphreys.
"The program's integration is the reason for the success," noted Brumbaugh. "The school instituted it because they needed somebody but it's worked out great."
Her professional path has been a dream realized as Brumbaugh chose her career in the eighth grade. A band student in her native Jackson, she realized while playing at a basketball game that she wanted to be a band director, sharing the idea with her band director. John Whitwell, who went on to be director of bands and a professor of music at Michigan State University, believed in her and took her under his wing.
"I just happened to have the good fortune to have him as my junior high band director," recalled Brumbaugh. "And there weren't any woman band directors at the time."
Brumbaugh received a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Olivet College in 1972 - where she studied with Mel Larimer and played in a jazz band with Russ Larimer. In 1986, she completed her Master's of Music degree at the University of Michigan and has completed all but her dissertation in French horn performance doctoral program at the University of Memphis.
Brumbaugh has now been a teacher for 30 years, logging 12 years as a band director in Michigan districts downstate at the beginning of her career. She likens being band director to juggling so many plates, but the bottom line for her is the students, who are bright, high-achievers in many areas.
"They have a good sense of humor and we can tease back and forth, but they know when to get to work," she said.