Longtime Hampton-Dumont High School Band Director Leon Kuehner was recognized with the Band Master Award during the North Iowa Band Festival last week in Mason City.
Kuehner has served as the Executive Director of the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education since 2013 and tells RadioOnTheGo News his career in instrumental music got started as a freshman while attending Turkey Valley High School.
“I remember I played in the band for the first time and I got goosebumps. I just thought, this is it. So I was a 14-year-old farm kid and at that time I just knew I wanted to be a band director. So I went to the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and got both my bachelor’s and then later on got my master’s degrees in music education at UNI. I student taught in Mason City. That was 50 years ago, so that’s kind of crazy, which was kind of a circle of life type thing being back at the band festival. And so I taught in Britt, which is now West Hancock from 1975 to 1978, and then came to Hampton in 1978. That’s kind of my teaching experience. So it kind of extends from 1975 to the current.”
Kuehner retired from Hampton-Dumont in 2010 and since then has taught music classes at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City and served as band director at Wartburg College in Waverly on an interim basis from 2020-2022. Kuehner says his favorite part of teaching instrumental music has always been the students.
“One of the things I remember when I first was student teaching, my supervising teacher’s name was Bob Dean, and he was like this incredible band director in Mason City. And I remember I was all of like 20, 21 years old when I was student teaching. And one day he sat down, he said, ‘Leon, I just want you to remember everything’s about the kids.’ I think that really, really struck me. And the favorite part over all the years is just watching students. When I first came to Hampton, I taught fifth grade as well. So I started them and I finished them. Watching student growth is the best part of all of it, and then see the students connect with music and making sure when they become parents that they want their students to have that experience in music that they have and help perpetuate, just the appreciation of music across the generations.”
According to the Mason City Chamber of Commerce, the Band Master Award originated in 1990 to honor a retiring band master in recognition of outstanding work in the field of music with area youth.
Photo, courtesy of Leon Kuehner, during the North Iowa Band Festival in Mason City last week
