A few days ago, I received an email from Mrs. Jennifer Schoener; she was replying to a question that I sent to her husband last month. In her email, I learned that Mr. Schoener passed away on March 19, after a lengthy battle with cancer. She is a band director as well, and from her short email, I have to say how much I admire her and her dedication.
To be honest, I did not know very much about Schoener before this week. I knew he was a fellow Pennsylvanian and an elementary band teacher. Mostly, I knew that he wrote band music that my kids loved. In fact, his website was bandmusickidslove.com, which was no exaggeration. He had a way with picking tunes and voicing parts that were fun for students to play and were tremendous crowd-pleasers. You could tell, from his work, that he knew young players. He knew how to write for them, and to challenge them, and how to make them sound COOL! He also wrote works that were flexible and very user-friendly in an elementary school. One of his best techniques was his “all-inclusive” arrangments, which were written for kids with a year or more experience AND for beginners. The set included regular parts and “easy” parts.
After reading Mrs. Schoener’s email, I did some googling and my goodness, her husband must have been a truly amazing man.
He would take only a half day off, or even go on a Boy Scout trip (assistant scoutmaster in his son’s troop) on a chemo day. He obviously inspired and motivated many, many students over the years, and I am sure he is very much missed. Like I said, I did not know him, but I am very saddened to hear of the passing of such a great man, husband and father.
Rest in Peace, Brad Schoener.
1 Comment
June 14, 2009 at 4:55 am
Please check out my site. I started a program with Brad a month before he passed called the Brad Schoener Music Marathon. Please spread the word.