Causing Treble: Getting to know UMD’s new athletic bands teacher, Sean Phelan

Photo by Kara Metzger

For the first time in over four years, UMD has hired a new band teacher, Mr. Sean Phelan. 

Phelan is not like any other band teacher that has ever worked at UMD due to the many out of the ordinary band experiences he has been a part of throughout his life. 

Phelan got his undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin Madison with a double major in Music Education and Mathematics. He taught high school band and orchestra before returning for a master’s degree in conducting at Jacobs School of Music: Indiana University Bloomington, one of the largest music schools in the country. 

Right after getting his master’s, Phelan applied for jobs all over the country and was sent to Pflugerville Texas where he worked as a high school band teacher for two years; his next job was to be at UMD. 

Because of the Coronavirus, the Fine Arts department wasn’t able to conduct normal procedures used when hiring a new band teacher due to the high amount of interaction that normally would have taken place. 

"When everything shut down it was kinda like hey let’s find...whatever we can for like an interim position type deal,” explained one of the band’s graduate assistants, Kara Metzger. “He ended up being the guy and it worked out!”

“It’s an exciting opportunity to get offered,” Phelan said. He had worked with college students during his master’s program which helped craft his interest in teaching post-secondary. For him,  getting an opportunity to teach at a university was a dream come true. 

Phelan may have had experience with college students from his master’s program in Indiana, but he has also worked closely alongside people of all ages while playing with and intrusting for Drum Corps International; Marching Music’s Major League. 

Drum Corps International, or DCI’s, mission statement is “to bring the life-enriching benefits and enjoyment of marching music performing arts to more people worldwide”(dci.org). 

DCI has been accomplishing this mission for almost half a century by traveling to perform floorshows for people all over the country and is considered to be the ‘major league’ of athletic band. 

With an age cap for performers, Phelan aged out of the performing portion of the DCI after six years but was then brought to the instructional team for his Corps. 

After a while, he ended up becoming The Captain Head of his Corps and later a different Crops which he is still a part of today.

Phelan’s job as a Captain Head was not only to help his regular group of brass players bring their best foot forward but lead the whole band in tasks that needed to be accomplished each day that would help them better their performance. 

“It’s like a traveling circus,” said Phelan. “Every day is [like] band camp... you wake up in the morning, you rehearse, you eat lunch, you rehearse, you eat dinner, you rehearse, you go to bed.” 

No matter what type of band program you are involved in, Phelan describes playing in a band with others and the creation of music as something that is much bigger than ourselves; something that creates the best moments that at the end of the day, dissipate and only exist in our memories. “I think that’s special,” Phelan states with a bright smile. 

UMD might not be as exciting as the big shot DCI, but Phelan has big dreams for the bands that he has been working with here at the university. 

With the main goal of creating a welcoming environment for all of his students, he believes that “if we're not providing a good experience to the people who are part of the band, then we're not doing our job.” 

Phelan is grateful for the position that he now holds up here at UMD and is enjoying the people, the community, and can not wait to attend his first Duluth hockey game.