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I met yesterday with Sharon Johnson, the band director at Patrick Henry High School. This coming year will be my third year working with her band as pit percussion instructor. I can't think of enough good things to say about her, but one thing stands out in my mind. As widely known as she is throughout the valley, I have never encountered a single soul who had one bad word to say about her. I've never seen a person cultivate such an atmosphere of respect and admiration.

If you don't know the situation at Patrick Henry, the short version is that the school is being almost completely re-built as part of a multi-million dollar renovation. This included the demolition of several buildings, including the one that used to house the band room. Now, a concert band takes up a fair amount of space, and it certainly can't fit inside a trailer like more traditional classes. So, the Patrick Henry High School Patriot Band was relocated to a former wood shop in the technical arts building just at the edge of campus. This room featured a concrete floor (creating an acoustic akin to a barn), a large roll-down door that frequently gets stuck and doesn't close all the way (creating a more natural air-conditioning than what's usually good for musical instruments), and the room had no phone or internet connectivity until January (classes started in September). Through it all, Mrs. Johnson just kept on rolling, doing everything she had to do for her band to get by.

Well, that all changed last month when the band parents, frustrated by seeing their children forced to practice and work in this kind of environment and by seeing this incredibly gentle and committed woman nearly begging for money for her program, got together and created an endowment for the band to pay for new uniforms, instruments, music, and electronic recording equipment. There are angels that live right here in Roanoke, folks.

Resultantly, mine went from being a contract position to a salaried position. In addition to being paid for my time working with the group, I'll be paid for the music I write for them, and for any trips or extra rehearsals I assist with. Now, I never once complained about what I got paid last year. Hell, I didn't even get paid at all the year before that, but I didn't mind for a second. But this is a boon for me, I won't lie.

The most money I've made professionally was as the band director for Woodrow Wilson Middle School. I took that position when the school's band director was forced to take emergency medical leave. I came in with less than two months before their spring concert, led them to that concert (quite well, if I say so myself), and then finished out the year before they were able to hire a full-time teacher with a teaching license (not a thing I have). In the time since, I've found a great job, but now I'm looking at the prospect of keeping that job and still getting paid to do another thing I love.

I'll be writing a piece for their spring concert. Mrs. Johnson is a woodwind player and will be the first to tell you that she doesn't know much about percussion other than what sounds good. Anyway, her percussion students are good players, but becoming bored with their current concert music, having already attained a high level of proficiency with it. So, I volunteered to write something for them, only to keep them occupied, but she wanted something for the concert. I'm down with that.

At the moment, I'm toying with either something original, or an idea I've had for a while to arrange the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony for percussion ensemble. The latter creates a fairly long piece, at least in terms of a high school spring concert, but it could be fun. Still, I think an original piece would allow for more personalization as I could write to their abilities and strengths more. We'll see. The concert isn't until after Memorial Day, so I've got some time.