After the Wy’east Middle School bands played Tuesday night, the crowd played back.
In a flash mob-style takeover of the band’s year-end concert, former and current students of band teachers Mark Neshyba and Pete Boulé performed “Let’s Go Band” from their seats in the audience.
It’s an old standard of school-age musicians, one many students likely learned from the two men who have 56 years of teaching at the Evergreen Public Schools middle school and elementary schools between them. So it was a fitting tribute, as both teachers will hang up their batons and retire at the end of this school year.
Neshyba has been teaching at Wy’east for 37 years. His teaching partner, Boulé, joined the program 19 years ago in 1998. In that time, they estimate they’ve collectively taught more than 3,000 students, some of whom have gone on to professional careers in music.
“There’s definitely a sense of sadness and loss,” Neshyba told the packed audience at Tuesday’s farewell concert. “There’s never a dull moment.”
It’s a bittersweet goodbye for careers that have overcome barriers to music education created with an increasing rate of students in poverty, decreasing financial support for performing arts and increasing academic demands on students. But through the years, the pair’s passion for music — as well as their friendship — has endured.
“This whole team teaching thing is why I was able to stay in it,” said Neshyba, who quit a job in 1980 after becoming overwhelmed by the demands on band teachers.
Evergreen’s middle school band programs are unique in that the classes are co-taught by two teachers. That allows teachers to provide individual attention to classrooms that can have upward of 100 students. While one teacher is directing the band, the other can pull students aside to work on parts, fix instruments or discuss their future in band. That’s been critical as the school’s rate of students in poverty has increased, meaning students have more barriers to practicing or can’t afford to take their instruments to the shop if they’re broken.
“We just have to work that much harder during the school day,” Boulé said. “You have to keep an eye on kids.”
And to hear students speak about their teachers, the hands-on role both have taken to encourage students has been life-changing.
Claire Foltz, a bassoon player with the school’s concert band, said at this week’s concert that she would always be grateful for her teachers’ support.
“All they want is for us to progress and get better at everything,” Claire said. “Thank you for your never-ending love, encouragement and support.”
Sarah Beacock, a percussion player in the concert band, called the way her teachers work together “flawless.”
Both teachers will remain active musicians in the community, continuing lifelong passions for music. Neshyba, like many of his students, began playing in fifth grade, choosing the trombone. He performs with the Vancouver show band Five Guys Named Moe. Boulé, a woodwind player, has been an extra for the Oregon Symphony and has performed with several musicians, including Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and The Temptations.
Both decided to retire this year rather than put students through an awkward transition of having one teacher stay behind with a new instructor. It will make the transition easier for all of them, they said.
But that won’t make it any easier to leave behind the moments students mastered difficult melodies, playing in perfect harmony and overcoming challenges to strive for musical excellence.
“Kids come in here in 2017 and they want to play the clarinet. Why?” Boulé said. “That’s always been magic to me.”
