It’s a tough time for all teachers, and the band department is no exception.  Joel Bryan, a band teacher is joining the music staff to help alleviate some of the problems.

Bryan helps out with the Varsity Band, and in addition he helps at Lily Lake and Stonebridge elementary.  A new teacher was needed to help out after several teachers retired and because the music department received another budget cut of about 3.5 percent.  This has been squeezing the current band teacher, Dennis Lindsey, pretty hard.

The music department recently suffered two retirements which is pushing the remaining teachers harder than before.  Some teachers have had to start helping out at other schools in the district.  Bryan intends to help relieve the stress.

“We lost two full time teachers and we needed those teachers to teach the numbers,” Lindsey said.

The teachers Stillwater has lost are Dr. Erik Christiansen and Larry Neumann.  Christiansen taught for 27 years as a high school choir director.  Neumann has taught for 30 years at Lake Elmo, Oak Park and Stonebridge.  With 57 years between them they needed someone who could help pick up the slack. Most students were relatively unaware that a new band teacher was hired.  Lindsey has been doing such a great job teaching and been working so hard most students didn’t even recognize the need for a new teacher.  Now Lindsey can sit back and relax just a little more now that Bryan is starting.

“Another teacher is coming to this school? I know Lindsey is great but I have no idea about the new teacher,” sophomore Max Rosenmeier said. Max has been playing percussion for four years and his favorite instrument is the snare drum.

Bryan wanted to be a music teacher ever since he played in his marching band when he was in 10th grade.  To this day he enjoys playing and listening to music. He has a 2 year old daughter who tries to play the ukulele.  He hopes she decides to pick up playing a musical instrument when she gets older.

“Trombone is my favorite instrument to play, but my favorite type of ensemble is the full orchestra,” Bryan added.  In his free time Bryan enjoys listening to most music but her prefers a classical orchestra.

The goals Bryan has for this year are working along side Lindsey and assisting in any way he can at his other schools.  In addition he wants students to enjoy playing music.  He’s doing everything from simple tasks like finding where the copy paper is to more complex tasks like conducting for the Varsity Band.  In addition Bryan deals with all kinds of students.  He teaches 5th graders at elementary schools just learning how to make their first notes; he also teaches advanced techniques to the experienced musicians in the bands at the high school.

Bryan said, ” It’s [my goal] to create a quality experience for Varsity band and my other bands.”

The Varsity Band is Bryan’s main band at Stillwater, but he also occasionally helps out with the Percussion Ensemble.  Bryan is incredibly helpful because while Lindsey is teaching the whole band Bryan can help out with students individually.  Bryan is excited to get to know the students and have a great year.

“It’s a tough time for every teacher. It’s not just numbers [of kids] it’s how we teach those numbers,” Lindsey said.