Beat the band!
Roy Townend receives the Alberta Band Association’s 2008 Elkhorn Award for Band Director of the Year
The ATA News
Alberta Teachers' Association
January 13, 2009
Edmonton’s Harry Ainlay High School band teachers Roy Townend (centre left) and Rob Speers (centre right) pose with some of their band students. Townend recently received the Alberta Band Association’s Elkhorn Award for Band Director of the Year; Speers received the award in 2005.
Roy Townend is the department head of Fine Arts at Harry Ainlay High School and teaches band, jazz band, guitar and electronic music. He is treasurer of the Alberta Band Association and president of the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia (NEWS). Rob Speers is the head of the Music department at Ainlay, where he teaches band, jazz band, choir and jazz choir. He is also on the boards of the Alberta Band Association and NEWS. Together, they run the northern segment of the Alberta International Band Festival.
Townend says helping students to appreciate all the various aspects of music is rewarding. “It’s heartening to find out that some students have stayed in school because of your class. Some go on to pursue music as their career, often as performers and teachers. At a minimum, you know they are leaving school with a knowledge and appreciation of music that will hopefully make them consumers of live music for the rest of their lives.”