Winds are changing at UPIKE
0Written By Corbin Bentley
This year, the University of Pikeville’s Music department is undergoing a vast renovation.
Michael Phillips, Ph.D., is the new director of bands at UPIKE. Phillips has more than 20 years of teaching experience and directed and performed in multiple orchestras.
“What brought me to UPIKE was opportunity and intrigue. I was very intrigued with the opportunity of starting a band program. I fell in love with the town when I visited, and after three or four phone calls, I really enjoyed the people! You can have the best job in the world, but if you don’t like the people it can be the worst job in the world. I really enjoyed talking to and working with the people,” Phillips said.
Phillips is heading a new wind band program on campus and is offering it to anyone that wants to come learn.
“Nearly everything that we do is open to the community as well as obviously for the students. We also use it as a mechanism for high school students who want to do more than what they might have at their respective high schools. […] The key to a successful band is a community that embraces it, because without people in the band we have nothing to perform for the audience. It’s really important to me to tell everybody, ‘We’re not building a band. We’re building a community.’ The community will support it financially; they’ll show up. Coach Wells is building a community with sports. I’m building it with a common thread of music. That community is professors, UPIKE students, high school students, and community members.”
Mike Bell is the assistant director of bands and director of percussion studies at UPIKE. Bell boasts more than 20 years as a teacher, instructor, and musician. Both he and Phillips look to accomplish a lot of goals with the program.
“We are basically starting from the ground up. Our goal this year is to bring in new people here on campus as well as recruit from our local community to really grow our program over the next year,” Bell said.
Wind Band is crucial to the new program.
“The Wind Band is the crux, the base, the foundation of this entire program,” Phillips said. “If we don’t have the Wind Band, everything else suffers because in the program it’s where everything starts as far as creating a sound, creating music. Wind band is where you learn the expertise of your instrument. That’s why this is so important.”
“Right now, we have open spots everywhere,” Bell said about recruitment options. “We would love for anybody that has any music experience whatsoever, if they’re in any aspect of the college; we would love for them to join us.”