Students, alumni surprise retiring Slippery Rock band director
SLIPPERY ROCK — After 20 years of teaching band in the Slippery Rock Area School District, Les Fine is retiring at the end of this year.
Fine attended the high school band’s spring concert and was greeted with an intricately planned musical surprise by students, alumni and former colleagues on Thursday, April 25.
Some had traveled from as far as Michigan and Washington, D.C., to help play fight songs from Fine’s alma maters and schools where he had taught as a music educator.
The turnout was a testament to the teacher’s influence as a mentor to students long after they graduated, said his wife, Terry Fine.
“He wasn’t just a teacher,” she said. “Actually, he was a lifetime influence. There are some kids that have said, ‘If it weren’t for you, I don’t know how I would have gone through with being in high school.’”
Other students have gone on to pursue music in college, she said, becoming music educators themselves.
Fine, who directs the high school’s concert, marching and jazz bands, and seventh- and eighth-grade middle school band, was reunited with his friend from Southfield-Lathrup High School in Michigan, Dave Morgan, who traveled from D.C. to conduct their high school fight song.
Matt Bishop, a colleague of Fine’s from Central Michigan University, drove from Michigan to conduct their college fight song.
Fine’s former student Amanda Loosing, an alumna from the Tawas Area School District, traveled to Butler County to conduct the fight song from the school where he had once taught in Michigan.
The evening ended with Slippery Rock’s fight song.
Terry Fine, who spearheaded the event, said choral teacher Heather Groves-Edwards helped students practice in secret.
“I’ve known Les since high school,” said Morgan, a computer scientist who plays the drums. “And he’s the reason why I developed a passion for playing percussion and playing music. That lasted throughout seven-and-a-half seasons of marching band at college. I’ve been a volunteer drum line instructor at my local high school since 2008.”
“I think he inspires people,” Morgan continued. “Music is one of those classes that is fundamental, not just for academics but also socially. And Les embodies inclusivity and embodies just creating a family — he was like that in high school.”
Bishop, who is an alumnus of Central Michigan University, like Fine, and was a band director at a neighboring school district, said the two often got together to talk about their shared interest in music.
A good band director, Bishop said, is somebody who can capture students’ attention.
“With some of these kids, they started band in sixth grade,” he said. “You’re with them from sixth grade until they graduate their senior year. It’s almost you’re teaching in a one-room schoolhouse because you have them throughout all that time. So you get to know them, you get to develop their skills and push them to do their best and have fun.”
He scanned the middle school cafeteria, where band students and a few alumni sat taking a break before the high school concert.
“There’s nobody really sitting by themselves,” Bishop said. “They’re sitting in groups. Their friends are in band. It’s teamwork, camaraderie.”
He noted that some alumni and former students of Fine’s were joining the concert after much time had passed since they last played their instrument.
“That takes a special someone (to play for),” he said. “Nobody goes back to see their math teacher when they graduate from high school to go back and do more math problems for him.”
Madison Hey, a 2016 alumna of Slippery Rock Area School District, said Fine was the most influential teacher throughout her four years in high school.
“I was kind of a weird kid,” she said. “And he always made us all feel accepted and he always made you feel like you were his favorite.”
Hey, who returned to her alma mater to play the trumpet, said she joined band in sixth grade. After graduating high school and attending Slippery Rock University, she said she continued to play trumpet in college, and has since occasionally helped assist with the school district’s marching and jazz bands.
“It was really a place where you felt like you belonged,” Hey said. “All my friends I made in band. (Fine) made it really fun, like a place you wanted to go. My favorite part of the day was 10th and 11th periods, when I had jazz band and concert band.”
Hey, who lives in Portersville, said Fine made sure students understood the different assignments and worked with them patiently.
“I have dyslexia,” she said. “I couldn’t read rhythm, really, so he would always play it for me to make sure I could play it.”
“I’ve had a lot of different (music) teachers and lesson instructors, and I think he really likes to bond with his students and connect with them, and help them work through the music,” said Isabella Crawford, a senior in the high school’s concert, jazz and marching bands. “To a lot of people, music is like therapy ... a lot of (band) teachers — they want to look good when they’re with their band. He just wants us to look good.”
Adah Whiteside, a senior saxophone player, described Fine as a welcoming presence. Encouraged by Crawford, she joined Slippery Rock’s concert and marching bands in her final year of high school.
Along with Crawford, Whiteside said she plans to continue her passion for band in college.
“I fell in love with the band atmosphere,” Whiteside said.
