22.03.2013 Views

PDF Version Available - Texas Music Educators Association

PDF Version Available - Texas Music Educators Association

PDF Version Available - Texas Music Educators Association

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

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!

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!