Since Tom Smith took over Pfeiffer University’s instrumental music program several years ago, the Misenheimer school has become a music mecca, boasting an excellent wind symphony and jazz ensemble.
With a drum and bugle corps being added to the Pfeiffer campus this fall, there will be even more reason for high school musicians from around North Carolina to take a closer look at what this small school has to offer.
Smith assumed his role at a chaotic time. In the fall of 1997, Pfeiffer instrumental music director Kevin Mobbes had just left to take a job in Florida, and the school’s choral director was in the hospital. The department had only six music majors.
In the four and a half years since Smith has been at Pfeiffer, the number of music majors has risen to almost 40 — an increase of almost 600 per cent. The school’s jazz ensemble concerts have become so popular that people are often turned away at the door.
Smith says that the growth in the area of recruiting has been the result of a team effort.
“I had a reputation for fixing things and I suppose that was one of the reasons I was hired,” he says. “But, in total fairness, only an organized group effort would have made our turnaround possible. Everyone pitched in; colleagues, students, administration, you name it. Everyone knew what they had to do, and they got the job done.”
Smith calls Pfeiffer choral director Steve Harrill “a great musician and fantastic to work with,” and says that Pfeiffer President Chuck Ambrose is an accessible administrator who has a reputation for reaching out to students and remembering their names.
One area of growth at Pfeiffer over the past several years has been the morphing of Pfeiffer’s jazz ensemble into a serious contender. Smith, himself a jazz trombonist, had high expectations for the group when he took it over in 1997.
“In October, we had an organizational meeting. I said, ‘Welcome; you have a concert in one week. But don’t worry; I’ll get the horn section from the Temptations to help.’”
Smith laughs as he remembers the program’s beginnings.
“We practiced and practiced, and on the eighth or ninth day they had that first concert, and the horn players from the Temptations were there to play with them,” Smith said.
“The students were flipping out, but they survived, and everyone thought it was wonderful.”
The program continued to improve and gain converts.
“Last year, we went to the UNC Wilmington jazz contest. They scored the high scores and bested a lot of well-known larger schools,” he says. “That experience really got their confidence up. Now they’re real believers.”
Smith is a believer, too.
“I think we’re the best group in North Carolina this year,” he says.
The group is in the process of raising money for an important jazz competition in Reno, Nevada in April, which will feature the biggest names in school jazz.
“It’s a David and Goliath deal,” Smith says. “I’m hoping we can hang tough with them. That alone would be a victory.”
These days, says Smith, the jazz band literally has to turn people away from its concerts. “People get there 45 minutes early for the concert if they want a seat.”
Since coming to Pfeiffer, Smith has also revived a faltering wind ensemble, which has since been reborn as a wind symphony, a group which plays orchestral works. Pfeiffer’s wind symphony is composed of 30 Pfeiffer students and 20 community members or Pfeiffer alumni.
Smith is justifiably proud of the group’s challenging repertoire.
“We’ve played Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition,’ Strauss’s ‘Don Juan,’ and Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird,’” Smith says. “They think I’m the mad scientist.
“I know they’re saying to themselves, ‘What absurdly impossible thing are we going to try to play now?’ But it keeps them on their toes. They’re afraid to miss a rehearsal.”
The crowds have grown steadily for the wind symphony performances, says Smith, who now expects audiences of 200.
Skeptics might say, OK, the wind symphony and the jazz ensemble are impressive. But what about a marching band? Isn’t Pfeiffer’s nonexistent marching band a huge obstacle to providing a quality college instrumental music program?
Smith might answer the question with another one: Who needs a football team and a marching band when you can attract a drum and bugle corps to your campus?
In a groundbreaking accomplishment, Pfeiffer will soon become only the second college or university in the world to sponsor a drum and bugle corps sanctioned by the highly respected Drum Corps International.
The Piedmont Mission Corps, which is currently based in Winston-Salem, will move to Pfeiffer in November. Pfeiffer is presently building a field for them, Smith says, which will also be used for local band camps.
“We’ll start as a division III corps. There will be 65-90 members, among them Pfeiffer students,” Smith says.
One factor distinguishing the corps at Pfeiffer is that it will be Christian-based, in keeping with Pfeiffer’s mission. This aspect of the corps at Pfeiffer, Smith feels, will attract even more young people interested in the drum corps experience.
“Drum Corps has gotten huge in the past 20 years. It’s a way of life, really,” Smith says.
The drum corps will be a big recruiting tool for Pfeiffer.
Smith anticipates incorporating the drum corps into the curriculum, and he feels that graduates looking for employment as middle-school or high-school band directors will have a leg up on the competition if they have drum corps experience.
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