Ron Sutherland inspires Galway’s musicians and student leaders

By: Robin Kline

Galway hosted a leadership workshop with leadership speaker and well-known band conductor, Mr. Ron Sutherland, Friday, October 29. Members of the high school Student Senate, concert band, chorus, and members involved in leadership roles in other clubs and school activities were invited to attend. The Corinth and Stillwater bands also attended.

In the morning, the entire group attended Mr. Sutherland’s workshop in the auditorium where he talked about his experiences and, of course, the topic of leadership. He encouraged everyone at the conference to step up and be leaders, whether by standing up and organizing others or just setting an example by actions. After lunch, the group split up into two separate groups. The band members went back to the auditorium and the members of the Galway clubs went to the library for leadership activities led by the Student Senate.

In the library, students started by doing “the human knot” activity as an icebreaker, which was supposed to promote teamwork. Then, the students all discussed leadership qualities and reflected on how they thought the workshop in the morning went and what they learned from it. They also participated in a final activity in the cafeteria which involved one person taking a leadership role a group of people who all had to work together and each had to complete their individual tasks.

In the auditorium, juniors and seniors from the three bands combined to work together on a piece conducted by Mr. Sutherland, then each band got a small amount of time to work with Mr. Sutherland on their own music. I think the combined band went well in some ways, and not so well in others. Some students from the Corinth and Stillwater bands didn’t seem to have prepared as much as most of the students in the Galway band had, but it was very interesting to get to work with other people on the same piece of music and see how it all came together in the end.

I emailed Mr. Sutherland after the conference to ask him how he thought it went, and he responded with some very positive comments on how receptive he thought the group was.

“I was absolutely, unequivocally amazed at the maturity, focus, concentration, and blend of over 250 teenagers,” said Mr. Sutherland in his email. “I told Mr. Barrow that it was in the top five, or was quite possibly THE best focused and receptive group I have EVER done one of those with.” Mr. Sutherland has been doing these workshops since 1997 and has spoken to well over 50,000 high school students in that time, so that’s a big compliment to the group who attended the conference on Friday.

When I asked him what he thought of working with the bands, he replied, “I also VERY much enjoyed working with ALL the bands. Again, the focus, maturity, reception, and flexibility were all OUTSTANDING!”

Congratulations to all who attended the conference and made it a very successful day!

Also, any of the band or chorus members interested in the trip to Europe can contact Mr. Sutherland at [email protected].