Dr. Sean Kelley, the new director of the Symphony Band and the Cardinal Athletic Band, has been working at North Central with the students for less than a term, but already has big plans in helping grow the band program and give it a bigger presence on campus.
His background in music started at a young age. Dr. Kelley’s first memory being when he was going through First Communion at the age of 6.
“I remember when I was really young and I was going through first communion and we had these responsorial psalms and all the young kids going through communion had to sing. I remember singing in the church and people saying ‘oh wow, he has a really nice voice’…apparently it was some indication I had some kind of talent,” says Kelley.
When it comes to deciding to be a band director, he has his high school band program to thank for that.
“We had a really good program in high school. We had a lot of exposure, we were very proud and honestly, when the time came to graduate I didn’t want to give it up. I was good at music, I was always first chair, I was teaching lessons to little kids in the district, and it was something that just became such a part of me that I knew it would be crazy to let it go. So, I decided to major in music ed. and the rest is history I guess,” said Dr. Kelley.
His biggest challenge as a band director came when he was first starting out after college and took on his first job as a band director at a small, rural high school.
Kelley states that, “my expectations of what a high school band should be were very different than what they’d ever known or experienced. So those first couple years, my biggest problem was my perspective. I think I tried to put my perspective onto that community and it wasn’t right for them at that time. So, getting my expectations to line up with where the community was, in terms of their band program and what they knew, that was really tough for a 21-year-old to figure out. So thank goodness you grow and you learn, and then you can say ‘we can do this but it’s going to take time.’”
Currently, his biggest goal is growing the band programs, especially the Athletic Band. “The Athletic Band is very young and very new and has had several directors in the last couple of years, and I think there are big things possible with that group and just figuring out what the right balance is for the college and what I’d like to do with it. Of course, I’d like to grow the band, but more importantly increase its presence on campus, and increase the quality, and make sure the students in there love it and have fun and are proud of the product they turn out. So, I think we’ve made some big steps in terms of the pride and the ownership and turning out a better product. I think the next step is to see how much we can do with it in its current setup.”
When asked what his favorite part about working at North Central so far, it took him no time to say, “the students, by far, like not even a question. Everyone has days where they don’t really want to come to school or work or they just don’t feel it and having rehearsal 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. when you really just want to crash on the couch or something. But then you get there, within five minutes of being around the students, it’s awesome, how could I want to be anywhere else right now and that changes your whole mood.”
Dr. Kelley is also really happy with how the students in both of the bands he directs have taken to the change. “In each band [the students]are wonderful, hard-working, dedicated, willing to give anything a shot, willing to try something new. So, the attitude and the acceptance of change has been really great for both groups.”
When it comes to what makes North Central students different, he said, “there is no entitlement among our students. They come, they expect to work. They don’t expect to be told how wonderful they are all the time. There’s no ego.
“When you get into large flagship universities…some of the students they expect the world and one thing I like about North Central students is that they expect to work for it, and they expect to be pushed and to learn and they thrive off of that.”
