Pat on the back for ‘band geek’
Roy Townend’s 30 years of hard work and good humour recognized
By Francois Marchand
Edmonton Journal
January 5, 2009
Harry Ainlay High School band teacher Roy Townend poses for a photo with some of his students. Townend, who has been teaching band since 1978, recently received the Alberta Band Association's Elkhorn Award for Band Director of the Year. Photograph by: Ryan Jackson
Roy Townend never really wanted to hog the spotlight. The Harry Ainlay High School teacher and self-professed “band geek” just loves music.
These days, the 53-year-old spends most of his time teaching his students the patience and precision required to play and appreciate band music.
And when he finally gets to showcase his young team's talent at their end-of-the-semester concerts, Townend can always count on his most dedicated fans to show up.
“My parents have been coming to my concerts since 1966,” he laughs wholeheartedly. Townend started playing trumpet when he was in Grade 7. “It's amazing — they're still coming out to support me.”
Townend has been teaching band since graduating from the University of Alberta in 1978. Thirty years of hard work and complete dedication to his students and his music certainly have not gone unnoticed.
He was recently awarded the Alberta Band Association's Elkhorn Award, which is handed out yearly to the province's best band director.
"It's truly an honour to have your peers say what you're doing is good," Townend says. "We all know it's worth it because we know what the kids get out of it, but to have them say, 'Yeah, you're doing a good job,' it's a nice pat on the back."
For a man who prefers to work behind the scenes, Roy Townend certainly has a knack for keeping busy — and to do it with his characteristic good humour and contagious smile, not to mention a balding cranium which he loves to have his students make fun of.
Townend is the Alberta Band Association's treasurer and Harry Ainlay's head of the department of Fine Arts. He is also the president of the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia, with which he plays trumpet. On top of staying late after class to help students during extra practice sessions or guitar lessons, he also assists with the organization of the Alberta International Band Festival with fellow Harry Ainlay music teacher Rob Speers.
Townend says his current workload is just as (if not more) hectic as it was 30 years ago, when he started out by teaching for the county of Grande Prairie's two elementary schools, junior high and high school — all at the same time.
"It was hectic, but that's what you did," he says. "You worked really hard — you did the after-school stuff, you ran the tours, you did the helpful things at noon hour and before school, and that was part of the gig.
"That doesn't happen as much anymore — I see new teachers coming out and they're reluctant to give up that after-school time and to run extra rehearsals and to do the above-and-beyond things that we just expected because that's what our teachers did for us."
Time has also changed attitudes about music. Townend admits new trends have made it a bit more difficult to get students hooked on learning their scales.
“In this instant-gratification society, music isn't (instantly gratifying) at all,” he says. “Well, what they listen to on their iPods is, but when they're involved in a performing group, it takes a long time to get ready. You give out a piece of music and it sounds like a disaster the first time or they don't understand it — 'Hang on, you'll get to like this.' ”
At the end of the day, Townend says the true reward is seeing some of his students follow in his footsteps to become his colleagues or simply hearing comments confirming that his class had a profound impact in giving young ones a better appreciation for music's intricacies.
“ 'It was the class' or 'It was the thing that kept me in school,' ” Townend says. “Those are the ones that make you really proud about what you do.”