University of South Florida’s loss is University of Texas Permian Basin’s gain with the addition of Director of Bands Bryan Braue.
What helped Braue decide on his post was the students and Department Chair Frank Eychaner, Adjunct Professor of Percussion Tim Feerst and Director of Orchestral Activities Jean Gomez Fonseca.
“(The students’) excitement and their drive for excellence was very clear throughout my interview process,” Braue said.
He added that Eychaner, Feerst and Gomez Fonseca were wonderful hosts.
“The teaching philosophy (at UTPB) is very much in line with mine. The kids come first. Our job is to get them a quality education and let them be successful,” Braue said.
Braue will be in charge of the athletic band program and the concert band program and teach courses in music education.
About 55 to 60 students are in band and he stresses that he plans to increase those numbers.
“I’ve got to get out in the classrooms. I have to build relationships with the area directors. I have to build relationships with the high school and middle school students. We need to get those kids on campus here as frequently as we can,” Braue said.
“I had a lot of success with recruitment in my previous post at the University of South Florida. We ran several large recruitment events and getting kids on campus was … huge. (It) makes a big difference when they can see what they could possibly be involved with; what direction they can go into,” he added.
The USF marching band was between 360 and 375 students. Because of COVID, Braue said numbers have gone down everywhere, so he doesn’t have an accurate current count.
At the University of Florida, where Braue is getting his doctorate, they broke 400 this year.
Braue officially starts Aug. 15, but he and his wife, Michelle, will move here at the beginning of July.
In an April 22 interview, he said he earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Stetson University, his master’s in instrumental conducting at USF and was expected to get his doctorate in instrumental conducting from the University of Florida.
Braue started in percussion in seventh grade.
“I don’t have a music history in my family that I’m aware of. We used to go to church every Sunday and I would tinker around on the piano or the organ …,” he said.
Originally from Vero Beach, Fla., Braue said his hometown is similar to Odessa because on Friday nights you’re either in band, a cheerleader or on the football team.
“That was the atmosphere there, too. It feels different here, but it already feels like home,” he said.
Along with growing the band program, Braue said he is going to build the UTPB brand for the band department.
“I would like to see our numbers grow, both in the marching band and in the concert ensembles. I’d love for us to get at least two concert ensembles. I’d love to see the marching band increased to anywhere between 100 to 150 over the next five years. I’ve been out the last two days, visiting high schools, already meeting the directors. I just came from Permian High School before I was here. I was at Midland High School, Odessa High School and Legacy High School yesterday (April 21). I met with those directors who were all very warm and welcoming. Everybody’s been so nice and inviting, which again reassures me that I made the right choice,” Braue said.
Braue’s experience also includes teaching high school for 10 years. He was at Martin County High School and Clearwater High School and spent eight years at USF and three years at the University of Florida.
“It’s a lot of bands and it’s been my life for well over half of it now,” Braue said.
Eychaner said there were a number of things about Braue’s experiences and education that drew the music department to his application.
“He has 10 years of experience being very effective as a public school music educator since all of our young people are preparing to be teachers. That was first and foremost. Second, Dr. Braue has demonstrated that he’s very effective at adding value to other programs through clinics, through workshops and that is also very important to us because we at UTPB are committed to serving our community,” Eychaner said.
“In fact, that’s one of the pillars of the university. The third piece that was really attractive to us was that Dr. Braue has proven he is a very effective recruiter. He’s done that through camps. He’s done that through honor bands. He’s done that through getting out into the public schools and doing clinics. Our goal is to grow this program so that we can serve the people of our community and the students that come out of our schools,” he said.
“Finally, when we got him on campus, he’s just a heck of a nice guy. He’s passionate about making great music. He’s passionate about raising up leaders and we believe he’s going to really usher in a new chapter of amazing things in the music program at UTPB,” Eychaner said.
Braue said he believes that you have to have quality performance skills to be a successful educator.
“But after graduating from high school, I moved into teaching very quickly. I enjoyed playing in high school band. I did a lot of freelance performances throughout my undergraduate years,” Braue said.
He added that he still plays enough to keep his performance chops up, but says they are not what they used to be “because I’ve really fallen in love with teaching.”
“I enjoy seeing the kids have those aha moments, or the lightbulb moments, when they suddenly realize or they get something. Those are really important to me. Some of the students asked me that this morning in the meeting, what’s your drive and I said that right there; when I see their face lit up and they understand why we’re doing something. I believe that students should always understand the purpose behind what we’re doing. I’m not about just telling kids what to do. I want them to be collaborative in the process and I want them to have a vested meaning in what we’re doing,” Braue said.
What he loves about music is that it makes people better humans.
“… It makes people think about things differently. When I was at USF, one of the things that I loved the most was while the marching band had 350-plus kids, I would say less than 10% of them were actually music majors. They were kids getting degrees in nursing … They were doing other things and the band became an outlet for them. We had senior speeches at the end of the semester and kids got up and said their thank yous and what they really appreciate about the program and 99% of the kids who were non-music majors, so the vast majority of the band, always echoed and said it’s because this was my outlet,” Braue said.
“It gave me that break from studying for that chemistry exam … and I was able to create friendships and develop that very important social interaction that I know a lot of us have been missing over the last two years with COVID,” he added.
He noted that he is a family person.
“… But I’m very much about my students, but they’re also my second family. I want them to feel that pride when they’re in this program and I think that’s what I want to establish it on and build it off of. That’s how my high school program was. It’s how I did it when I taught high school. It’s how I did it when I was at USF. It’s how they do it at the University of Florida and that’s just … how I’m wired,” he said.
“I very much care about their success. I know that they’re not going to come out of here and be musicians. They’re going to get other degrees in other things. That’s perfectly okay. But I want them to have an appreciation for those life lessons that they learn. For example, I learned how to hang my pants properly on a hanger because of my assistant band director when I was in high school. I hang the same way today that I learned … by doing that. … That’s just as important to me as the music … making them better humans,” he added.
