Bowen Boyack of KBN: Tell me about yourself and what inspired you to be band director at Riley County.
Erin Lloyd: I graduated from Perryton High School in Perryton, TX in 2009. Perryton, at the time, was a 3A school with a band of 100 members that had a tradition of excellence being awarded sweepstakes yearly in both marching and concert band contest. This developed my philosophy that school size does not correlate to success; small schools can do big and great things. I then moved to Manhattan to start my studies in Music Education at Kansas State University. At K-State I was involved in concert ensembles, Cat Band, The Pride and Sigma Alpha Iota. I met my husband in the marching band and he took a job as a police officer for Riley County. Looking locally for secondary teaching opportunities, the 5-12 Instrumental Music position was open at Riley County, and after my interview with the administration I felt it was a good fit for a director developing pedagogically and with the energy to grow a program that needed a bit of TLC. I am now in my 4th year of teaching at Riley County.
BB: Tell me about the Band Program at RCHS.
EL: There are great things happening in our band program. The positive culture change of the student body supporting the band has influenced students to be proud of their role in the band. I take each and every opportunity to put the band out in the public eye. Riley County serves 3 local communities; Leonardville, Riley, Keats, and now several students from the west side of Manhattan. We perform in each community’s parade, Manhattan’s Veteran’s parade, local community events, regular season home football games, post-season away football games, regular season home basketball games, post-season away basketball games, graduations, promotions, pizza places, and more! I am willing to give up most weekends to take students to extra events to develop their personal talent from clinicians and directors that know substantially more than me. I am the only director with about 135 students in the band program (660 district wide). My daily schedule includes High School Band, Middle School Band, 6th Grade Band, 5th Grade Band, and Music Theory. I am also the Tri-M and Pep Club sponsor. My administration is very supportive of the program and I have the unique schedule to see 5-8 grades daily.
BB: What inspired your musical selections this year for marching band?
EL: We are growing and we are on the rise. I looked at the personnel and talent that would be in this year’s band coming up from 8th grade and the leadership in the 2019 senior class and got excited. This year’s show was called (Riley County on the)Rise. Our song selection included ‘Uprising’ by Muse, ‘Firebird Finale’ from the Firebird Suite, and ‘Phoenix’ by Fall Out Boy. Marching Band is still a relatively new concept to this ensemble, so including concepts like a marching feature with step two drill was exciting.
BB: What competitions did you go to this marching season and what ratings/scores did you get?
EL: We attended the Mission Valley Marching Festival and received a 1/Superior, Ft. Hays State University High Plains Marching Festival and received a 2/Excellent, and the WorldStrides Field Show Competition in San Antonio, Texas and placed 3rd in our division.
BB: Tell me about the upcoming trips you will be taking within the next 3-4 years.
EL: We took our first trip this Christmas since 2007 traveling to San Antonio, Texas. We had 3 performances during this once-in-a-lifetime trip. We opened for the Iowa State/Washington State Pep Rally on the Riverwalk, the Worldstrides Field Show Competition, and during halftime of the Alamo Bowl. For many students this was the first trip outside of Kansas, so getting to see palm trees, touring the Alamo, dancing at rodeo grounds, and staying in a hotel with hundreds of other high schoolers from across the country truly was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. My goal is for the band to take a large trip every 4 years to allow the choir program to travel 2 years later.
BB: What concert band repertoire are your bands playing this year? When are your upcoming performances?
EL: The High School ensemble will be performing “Into the Storm” by Robert W. Smith and “On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss” by David Holsinger for State Large Group Contest. The full band program comes together for a mass band performance in March and they will be playing Michael Sweeney’s “Shorewood Overture”.
Our upcoming concerts are:
5-12 Mass Band: Friday, March 22nd
HS State Large Group: Wednesday, April 10th
7-12 Band: Monday, May 6th
5-6 Band: Thursday, May 9th
BB: Looking forward to 2019, any plans for your band that you would be willing to share?
EL: Each year we strive for musical literacy and independence, and we will work harder each and every day to achieve that while having a bit of fun along the way.
Thank you, Erin. Best of luck to you and the RC Bands in the future.
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