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The teacher behind Cape Henlopen High School’s acclaimed bands is stepping down after 23 years at the school. As Barry Eli leaves his post as Cape Henlopen High School’s band director, the trumpets will be sounding as the bands play their spring concerts.
“It’s time,” Eli said.
The West Chester University grad has been keeping the beat in Sussex County for 30 years.
Under his direction, the music program has blossomed.
When he arrived, the school’s band numbered just 30 students. While the numbers have fluctuated, hitting 140 students one year, Eli says his standard of expectation has not wavered. “Numbers aren’t indicative of quality,” said the high school’s 2009 Teacher of the Year.
“It’s been consistent. With one person leading the program for all these years, the expectation is the same,” said Eli. He said he set a goal of what he wanted the band to be and what the community expected the band to be and reached for it.
Under Eli’s tutelage, the high school marching band has participated in festivals and parades all over the United States – in Florida, Atlanta, Boston and Charleston – as well as in Canada. His final band trip is this spring, to Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“London was the highlight of my career,” Eli said, of the trip the band took to march in a New Year’s Day parade in 1999. The marching band was recommended to parade organizers who met with Eli and reviewed tapes of the band marching prior to the event.
“There were 30 kids in band when I started. It existed, but it was not a big deal. The band was needed for football games and local parades. It was not a big thing,” Eli said.
It has certainly become a big thing.
“I’ve tried to impress upon people that band is an important part of school activities and I’ve tried to motivate kids to become good at music. It’s infectious,” said Eli, who speaks to the district’s middle school students each year to encourage them to stick with music so they can join the ninth grade and high school bands.
Now that the band has become a big deal, Eli said students want to play and parents want to encourage their children to participate, which serves to strengthen the program.
He’s most proud of the jazz band. It began with just five or six students and has blossomed into one of the school’s more popular music programs. A self-described rock’n’roller when he came to the high school, Eli said that little group of jazz players led him to explore the genre more himself. He listened to jazz and started playing it and then pushed the program, which he says just took off.
This year’s 25-member jazz band is made up mostly of seniors, two in All State Jazz Band and one who will attend the Shenandoah Music Conservatory.
He is the first student from Cape’s music program to go into a conservatory, although Eli says several have gone to college for music and are now teaching.
The jazz ensemble’s last performance of the year will be at Baywood Greens. “That will be my swan song,” said Eli with a smile.
Eli is obviously proud of his students, but he’s fine with letting go. “The new person will mold the program in his or her own image. It’s a personality thing,” he explained. Building rapport with students and creating excitement is what teaching is all about, Eli said.
District Superintendent George Stone said Eli is an irreplaceable educator and artist. “His contributions to Cape, his time and dedication are unrivaled by any employee I know,” Stone said.
Heading the music program alone has created some difficulties, but it also has some benefits. “I have the luxury of having kids for four years,” he said. “Over that time, real mentoring relationships can be formed that may be missed in classes that span just one year. “
With such a big program, Eli said it has become difficult for one person to manage it alone. And with the extra requirements put on teachers, he said, “It’s not just teaching music anymore.”
Fewer students are driven to achieve greatness in any one area because they are involved in so many academic and extracurricular activities, he said.
But he said he is confident that the active music boosters group won’t let the program be taken for granted or slide into obscurity.
“I hope the district doesn’t start cutting back,” he said. “An assistant for the program would be nice. If I had one, we wouldn’t be talking about me retiring,” he said.
“My college professors told me, ‘You’ll know when it’s time to retire,’ and I knew as soon as this school year started,” Eli said. He will keep playing with the area bands he performs with but has no set plans for what he’ll get into next. He said he is out to discover who he is without what he calls the stigma of band director attached to his name.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said. “I’m not in a hurry.”
Upcoming concerts this month
Band concert, 7 p.m., Monday, May 12 at the Little Theatre to feature:
• The Ninth Grade Campus Concert Band playing a medley of songs from “Grease,” “The Alamo,” “Songs from ‘Danny Boy’” and the contemporary piece, “Repercussions” by Michael Smit.
• The drum line playing cadences
• TheHigh School Concert Band playing songs from Jersey Boys, selections from “The Lion King,” “Let Us Rejoice” and “The Boys of Wexford”
• Both bands will play the marching song “Da Le Yaleo” by Santana
Choir concert, 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 20, at the Little Theatre
Jazz Ensemble will play at 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 27, at the Lewes Public Library and at Baywood Greens Clubhouse, 6 p.m., Wednesday May 28.
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