HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) - Are you a sage on the stage or a guide on the side?
Those are the two opposing options Ben Veilleux heard a dozen times while working at a summer camp for aspiring teachers.
Now finishing his fifth year as the choral and music teacher at St. Cecilia Junior/Senior High, Veilleux believes he is more of a collaborator.
“The idea is we’re working together because if I’m just telling them what to do, I don’t feel like that is going to be a good approach,” Veilleux told the Hastings Tribune (https://bit.ly/2o3QAaX ).
Veilleux was recently honored for his teaching experience by the Nebraska Bandmasters Association as a recipient of the Jack Snider Young Band Director Award for 2017.
Music was a part of Veilleux’s life from almost the very beginning.
“We always had music laying in the house when I was a kid,” he said. “My dad really had an eclectic style of music and he fostered that in me.”
By the time Veilleux reached sixth grade, he couldn’t wait to try his hand at a musical instrument.
Veilleux decided that he wanted to be a band director when he was a sophomore in high school. From that point on, his goals all centered on that dream.
Veilleux often questioned his own band director, thinking that Veilleux needed more rigor and push from his director.
“I had it in my head that I knew everything and I wanted to prove my way was going to work,” he said. “In college, I took a 180-degree approach and decided I needed to be a different kind of director to approach kids a different way.”
That’s why Veilleux describes his way of working with students as a collaboration.
“Going into college, I thought, ’I’m going to be an authoritarian.’ I slowly learned through college you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.”
That was the advice he got from his band director Daniel Laing at Hastings College when Veilleux was applying for drum major his senior year.
“I took that to heart coming here,” Veilleux said.
When he joined the staff at St. Cecilia in the fall of 2012, his goal was to build the band program by getting more students involved.
“I had to convince people it could still be fun to make music,” Veilleux said.
In five years, his program has almost doubled in size and he has gone from six students in the jazz band four years ago to having try-outs this year because of the increased interest.
“It’s been a nice transformation that way,” he said. “People know what they get when they come into band. They get a good environment, a program committed to musical excellence but also good people.”
Veilleux said his band students can spend a lot of time together on the bus to different events and fortunately those students have built close relationships.
“We get to spend a lot of time with each other so it’s good that we’ve got a good community and I really credit the kids with that,” Veilleux said. “I try to be an approachable and enjoyable person but I want it to be their program. I really enable my student leaders to do that.”
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Information from: Hastings Tribune, https://www.hastingstribune.com
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