Andrews Music has been in Samuel Kolodski’s life since an early age.
The Bryson City native and director of Andrews High School’s Pride of the Valley Band said he began his career in a regional children’s choir called Voices in the Laurel in Waynesville in second grade. Band made its way into his life when a saxophone made its way into his hand in sixth grade, and he kept on playing through middle and high schools in Swain County.
Kolodski went on to
study music education at University of North Carolina in Greensboro, then extended his passion into teaching in his hometown. COVID-19 threw the first months after his December 2019 graduation into flux, working at an auto parts store rather than a classroom, but soon after he found out about an opening at Andrews Middle School from his former band director in Swain.
“I had to get my feet wet somewhere and, knowing the Andrews program from having competed against them before, I knew it would be a good fit. Too, knowing Joslyn [Parker-Booth, former director and principal today] from high school, I knew I had to get out here.”
That fit led to teaching music at Peachtree Elementary School, then two years at Andrews Middle and a move to this area for him and his wife.
2 competitions, 7 awards
In his fourth year at Andrews High, Kolodski has led the band to various competitions and, although the band’s numbers are sometimes smaller each year, he said the group is “small but powerful.” That was proven with earning first- and third-place honors at the class 1A Cedar Cliffs Classic Tournament of Bands on Oct. 11 at AC Reynolds High School in Buncombe County.
In total for the year, the band has won seven awards at two competitions. The others were won on Oct. 4 at the Blue Ridge (Ga.) Mountain Marching Festival at Fannin County High School. The band took third in class in the 1A competition.
The band’s practice room is lined with a staggering amount of trophies of varying heights and colors, gold and silver glinting in the afternoon sun. While many of these were won under Parker-Booth’s tenure, Kolodski said winning isn’t the end game for his students – excellence is.
“When Joslyn became principal at the middle school, I took over here at the high school,” he said.
“We started band camp at the end of July, and these kids go five days a week, six hours a day. Then we move into after school rehearsals. These kids work well together, and we even have to share a few girls this year who are playing volleyball.”
‘It’s all about commitment’
Kolodski knows all too well about sharing time with extracurricular activities. He also serves as head coach of girls varsity soccer in the spring as well as assistant coach of the boys soccer team at Andrews High.
“If it weren’t for their determination and their pushing through, we wouldn’t have such a successful program. It’s all about their commitment. Without them there’s not a program,” he said.
“It takes a lot to go two months of every day practice playing the same 10 minutes of music. It can get tedious, but these kids always make sure they’re available in here. It means a lot that they’re willing to fight for it.”
That fight is admirable, especially considering this year’s band is comprised of only one dozen students, one of whom is in eighth grade at Andrews Middle. And those 10 minutes of music were purposely orchestrated to be “enlightening.”
The winning program, titled “All of the Lights,” featured an array of songs from Kanye West to Journey to Taylor Swift to The Weeknd, with each having some variation of “light” in the title, because “our focus this year is stepping up to the show, to be in the spotlights,” he said.
“It’s also a play on a program from a few years ago, where we played with ‘shadows and things lurking’ so this time we wanted to let the songs shine and make the songs a bit more relevant for the kids. We wanted it to feel like basking in the light. Taking in the warmth of the performance.”
‘We’ll be successful’
Since his fall 2020 start in the Andrews program Kolodski has also been able to work with his former middle school students and see them through their senior year of high school. While retention is sometimes harder at the high school level, where students’ interests broaden and change, he said they always have a number interested in marching band.
He also remembers when Parker-Booth marched with only eight kids. To that he said, “However many we have, we’ll march. And we’ll be successful.”
That success is also due to playing in the off season. The band performed during the annual Celebration of Veterans program on Nov. 10, playing a variety of both military branch hymns along with the National Anthem.
The band also performed Saturday during the town’s annual Christmas on Main. There will be more performances for the Andrews Middle Christmas concert, and the jazz band will perform throughout the spring. The musicians will also work in small groups as well as performing solo and in small ensembles.
These ensembles are made up of either duets, quartets or trios. They perform for grading through the Music Performance Adjudication program, which Kolodski said each year they tend to receive ratings of “superior, which is the highest they can earn.” Those performances happen at Cane Creek Middle School in Buncombe County.
“Last year, I took 11 kids to MPA, and they were surprised, but they all earned ‘Excellent,’ ” he said. “We fight for everything we win.”
‘Our legacy is solid’
As a music educator, Kolodski sees the importance of band and music programs to offer students a board range of experience. He also touts its effects on learning as well as the nationwide and local trend toward paring down arts curricula.
“We see most of our support come from everyone knowing who we are. Our legacy is solid as Pride of the Valley Band but we, like so many others, need support,” he said.
“What keeps us kicking and moving is people showing up, our community performances, our showing up. We need parents and students and our town to keep showing up. We’ve got a generationally strong bond. Our kids’ parents are always ready to show up with home support, coming to games, concerts – they’re always there, even financially.”
Kolodski added that the band will hold a fundraiser in the spring to help offset costs.
While the band’s legacy is strong and community support is solid, he said the best thing about this year’s band is “good things come in small packages. Ultimately, it’s all about these kids. It’s nothing to do with me. They’re the ones who show up and fight for it. I’m just along for the ride.”
Kolodski’s modesty demurs to the new motto for this year: “I will give my all for the Valley.” The motto was born of what Kolodski also tries to instill in “that special breed of band kids by “learning problem-solving and communication skills, fighting challenges, camaraderie and teamwork – making the best human beings possible.”
“We’ve still got Joslyn’s theme of ‘we are what we repeatedly do’ and ‘perfection becomes a habit,’ but our new motto is on our shirts with our Valley outlined. This is all about giving all that you have for the day every day that you have,” he said.
Kolodski and his students could easily rest on the band’s laurels, since winning is a legacy and admittedly “trophies are cool. But,” he said, “trophies are in the moment; character lasts a lifetime.”