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A Lifetime Love<br />
of <strong>Music</strong><br />
Almost 75 years after first performing at our association’s convention,<br />
Millicent Wiley returned this February, as she has every five years, to<br />
perform in the All-State Alumni Ensemble. As the group’s most senior<br />
member, we asked Millie to share some thoughts about her participation<br />
in this group and to give us a look back at her years as a young<br />
band member starting out in the 1930s. We thank Millie for her time<br />
and for inspiring us all to make music for life.<br />
16 Southwestern <strong>Music</strong>ian | May 2010<br />
Millicent Yoder (center) at a 1937 contest with<br />
members of a Weslaco HS woodwind ensemble.<br />
Millicent Wiley performs with the<br />
2010 TMEA All-State Alumni Ensemble.<br />
Tell us about your experience playing with this<br />
year’s All-State alumni.<br />
The 7 a.m. rehearsal time was murder for this old<br />
lady! I left my retirement home on that rainy morning<br />
at 5:30 a.m. and traveled to the convention center<br />
in a handicap-accessible taxi van. I got there fine and<br />
thoroughly enjoyed the participation, even with my<br />
shortness of breath and weak embouchure. Most of my<br />
fellow participants from 1936 are deceased or unable to<br />
travel, but I invited as many as I could find. However,<br />
one of my former students, Rolando Molina, was playing<br />
his trumpet on the row behind me and we had a<br />
wonderful visit. <strong>Music</strong>ians are family and will always<br />
be family. When you study, perform, or work together<br />
in music, a bond is formed that never seems to break.<br />
What do you remember about the All-State<br />
Bands you performed with in the ’30s?<br />
Back in the 1930s, the All-State Band each year was<br />
actually the State Championship Band that had won<br />
One of the true high points of standing<br />
before the <strong>Texas</strong> All-State Alumni Band,<br />
Choir, and Orchestra was meeting and<br />
visiting with Millicent Wiley, who first<br />
sat on a <strong>Texas</strong> All-State Stage 74 years<br />
ago in 1936. With a twinkle in her eye<br />
she spoke of her conductor who was<br />
a young, very fiery William D. Revelli.<br />
Millicent returns every five years to<br />
celebrate this achievement and join<br />
with over seven decades of talented<br />
Texans who share the honor of being<br />
recognized as <strong>Texas</strong> All-State <strong>Music</strong>ians.<br />
—Richard Floyd, All-State<br />
Alumni Conductor and<br />
UIL Director of <strong>Music</strong> Activities
first place in the state contest the previous spring. In 1935, my<br />
high school band, Weslaco High School band under the direction<br />
of Lloyd Reitz, won first place at district contest, first place<br />
at region contest, first place at area contest, first place at state<br />
contest, and first place at tri-state contest. For that reason, the<br />
Weslaco High School Band would be the 1936 All-State Band<br />
for the <strong>Texas</strong> Band Teachers <strong>Association</strong> convention in February<br />
(predecessor organization of TMEA). The convention was held<br />
that year in San Antonio at the City Auditorium and the clinician<br />
was William D. Revelli, a wonderful director as I recall. We gave<br />
demonstrations on tone production, sightreading, and concert<br />
work, and on Saturday we performed a grand concert.<br />
As I recall, Otto Zoeller, then director of the Breckenridge<br />
High School Band, was tired of Weslaco always being the All-<br />
State Band (Weslaco had won first place at state contest for eleven<br />
consecutive years), so at the 1937 convention he proposed that a<br />
percentage of students from each top band in the state would play<br />
in the All-State Band the next year, and the proposal passed. I<br />
don’t know how they worked it out, but I was lucky to be selected<br />
by Mr. Reitz.<br />
The 1938 convention was in Fort Worth and there were two<br />
bands, the Red Band and the Blue Band. I am not sure, but I<br />
think one of the bands was a sightreading band. I don’t remember<br />
any auditions for selection to the All-State Band, but when<br />
we got to Fort Worth, we had chair placement tryouts, which<br />
didn’t take long for me because there were only two of us playing<br />
E-flat clarinet. As far as I can remember, the same procedure was<br />
used until I graduated from high school in 1941. No, it didn’t take<br />
me additional years to graduate high school. My participation in<br />
1936 was as a junior high student. When I started taking band<br />
the year before, Mr. Reitz taught me fingering and tone production<br />
and quickly put me in the high school band because I could<br />
sightread most anything he put in front of me (I was a pianist)<br />
and he needed an accompanist for solos, etc. Both of my high<br />
school directors selected good music (marches, semi-classical,<br />
and classical) for us to play—always challenging, attainable, and<br />
soul-satisfying.<br />
Tell us about your time playing in your high school<br />
band.<br />
It seems like I spent a good portion of my high school career<br />
on a bus traveling to and from football games, parades, contests,<br />
and concerts. I was also in the choir. We were coming out of the<br />
Great Depression, so going on band and choir trips was exciting<br />
and wonderful even though it required a lot of hard work and<br />
practice. We got our class assignments for the time during which<br />
we would be gone. We did our homework on the bus, slept on the<br />
bus, and ate on the bus. (We did stop for restroom breaks.) There<br />
was a boys’ bus and a girls’ bus. These were school buses with<br />
no air conditioning. Can you imagine traveling on a school bus<br />
from Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley all the way to Abilene for<br />
marching competition? We did it, we loved it, and we were proud<br />
when we won. When we got those trophies it was all worth it.<br />
What was your path to becoming a music educator?<br />
My motivation to start playing music was to continue my family<br />
heritage. My father sang and played violin, marimbaphone,<br />
and musical glasses with his five brothers who performed up and<br />
down the Rio Grande Valley. My mother sang and played the<br />
18 Southwestern <strong>Music</strong>ian | May 2010<br />
piano. I started piano lessons at age six and won my first piano<br />
contest at age seven, so I was hooked on music and competition.<br />
In 1941, I was a freshman in college. It was also the year of the<br />
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I was majoring in piano, voice,<br />
and music education. Female music majors were advised to train<br />
to become band directors because all the men were going off to<br />
war and there would be a shortage of directors until the war was<br />
over. When we graduated in 1945, we were certified to teach public<br />
school music, choir, band, and orchestra. Thank goodness the<br />
war ended in 1945 and I was offered a choir job in Deer Park, but<br />
I wanted to get closer to home so I accepted a job with the high<br />
school choirs in Mission.<br />
Sometime during my college years, an All-State Choir program<br />
started and when I got to Mission, I was told to take my<br />
best 11 singers to Waco to sing in the 1946 All-State Choir, which<br />
I did. After taking some time off to start a family and after a move<br />
to Katy, I was asked to fill in for the rest of the year for a thirdgrade<br />
teacher who was pregnant. That year, I put on a musical<br />
Christmas program. The day after the program, the superintendent<br />
visited to ask about that program. They did not have public<br />
school music in the system, so I proposed we start one and he<br />
agreed to begin it in 1948. Starting in 1957, we lived in Louisiana<br />
for a few years and then moved back to Kingsville. The rest of<br />
my years teaching until my retirement in 1980 was with choirs,<br />
bands, and orchestras, and I dearly loved and enjoyed it all.<br />
What advice would you offer students who are in<br />
music programs today?<br />
My advice to students who have performed with an All-State<br />
Choir, Band, or Orchestra is to come back every five years to<br />
perform with the alumni organization that you are qualified for.<br />
The experience will bless your heart and enrich your soul, so<br />
start filling your piggy bank for expenses in 2015!<br />
Rather than waiting five years, maybe you should major in<br />
music in college—you are certainly qualified if you are performing<br />
in an All-State organization. I promise you, working in the<br />
music field is a very rewarding career. Fellowship with your<br />
teacher/director friends is great, but hugs from your ex-students<br />
are fantastic! 0<br />
I think it was in 1971 when the TMEA convention<br />
was held in Houston, Dr. Revelli was the clinician for<br />
the All-State Symphonic Band. After the grand concert<br />
on Saturday night, I went down to speak to him. I<br />
almost gave up since the line was so long, but I waited.<br />
When my turn arrived, he looked at me and before I<br />
said a word, he said, “Weslaco band.” I asked, “How<br />
did you know?” and he answered, “Your eyes.” Then<br />
he started talking about our outstanding trumpet trio<br />
and our great band. What a fantastic memory!