Dr. Dan Brown — the only band director Rye High School has known for nearly four decades — will retire at the end of this academic year.
At his final spring band concert recently, Brown received his last Garnet standing ovation. A round of applause hardly compensates this unforgettable teacher for the impression he left on generations of Rye musicians and their families.
“I was pretty lucky to get this job,” recalled Brown, with his standard wry smile. “They figured if I was young and hungry for work — which I was — I wouldn’t leave. Little did they know.”
Brown is a private, dedicated, and quick-witted educator. In the somewhat sports-obsessed town of Rye, he is the embodiment of what we’ve all known forever: the coolest kids in the building are in the band.
Like in the rock ’n’ roll movie “Almost Famous,” one can learn a lot about Brown from his nuanced answer to a simple question: What do you love about music?
“Two things,” Brown said. “First, like any of the arts, music has the power to act on you as you involve yourself with it so that things look and feel different when you come to the end of it. Music stimulates your entire emotional being, colors, sounds, etc.
“The second is that you can have all of that happen in collaboration with other people in time. Painters, sculptors, poets, they do the work, and then they put it out there. It’s different in music. You have to bring the music to life every time you play for people to experience it.
“Some believe that notes on a page of music have no real inherent emotional content. But when those notes are presented and performed in just the right way at the right time with the right people, music stays with you for a lifetime.”
The same can be said of a great teacher.
“Throughout his time here at Rye,” said Rye High School Principal Andrew Hara, “Dr. Brown has done it all: teaching across grade levels, expanding offerings to include digital music, creating the percussion ensemble and drumline, and leading jazz bands and pit orchestras. Dan was Rye’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ in 2010. He has shaped the musical lives of countless students and families over his incredible career.”
Brown discovered an appreciation for music as a young child himself.
“I was a noisy baby, so my mother used records to calm me down,” he said. “Some of those records are my earliest music memories. I vividly remember the soundtrack to the movie ‘The Jungle Book.’ I still have that record in my collection at home. My first instrument was piano, then I became a trumpeter.”
The youngest of five, Brown grew up in Suffern, N.Y., and graduated from Briarcliff High School. From time to time, he would be paid “a few bucks” to play the trumpet around town. He attended Gettysburg College, where he majored in music education.
In late August 1989 — a week and a half before the start of school — the music director job opened at Rye. He took the position, and stayed for 36 years.
From the beginning, Brown understood his charge at RHS.
“I was hired to grow the music program, and that’s what we did,” he said. “At first, there were only about 50 kids in the middle school and high school music program combined. Years ago, when the AP program started roaring, we used to have quite a few scheduling conflicts with band and orchestra kids. Once or twice over the years, I may have tried to talk a kid or two out of taking an AP class because it conflicted with band — and I needed a good trombone. ‘Just take regular chemistry. It’ll be fine.’”
As Brown’s reputation grew, so did the number of kids in the program. Over time and with the support of administrators over multiple decades, the program began to resemble what it is today. Music programs now thrive at all levels of Rye City Schools.
“You love music so much that the idea of a kid staying with their instrument, staying in the band … it just comes off you,” Brown said. “I particularly enjoyed our pull-out lesson program. In those small groups, I was able to connect with just three or four kids at a time, in a way you can’t as part of a large band. Learning to be a musician is hard and takes a lot of time.”
Known affectionately around campus simply as “Doc,” that title is not just a nickname. Years ago, Brown earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University’s Teachers College. For the last 13 years, in addition to his long days and nights at Rye High School, Brown has moonlighted as an adjunct professor at Columbia, helping graduate students prepare to become music teachers themselves.
“I’ve always tried to be patient with students,” he said. “My instincts as an educator were to work in cooperation with the kids as opposed to trying to establish authority. I said — and still say to my students today — it’s got to be a two-way street. If you guys don’t want to play today, I can’t make you play. I don’t want to be pushing uphill here all class long by myself.”
Dozens of Brown’s former students have gone on to make careers out of music or remain deeply involved with music.
“There are too many to name,” Brown said. “But they were all great kids and tremendous musicians. Some still perform, some compose, others just found a way to be connected to music because they can’t live without it. I know that feeling quite well.”
One of his former students is Meave Cox, a 1997 RHS graduate and a professional oboist in San Francisco. After earning her master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory, Cox now performs in regional orchestras all over the Bay Area.
“In my time at Rye, if you weren’t involved in sports, school could be challenging culturally and socially,” Cox said. “Dan’s office — and the band room — were my refuge. He supported and encouraged me every day with my oboe. He instilled the belief in me that I actually could become a musician, and I did.
“Unfortunately, he had to endure a lot of oboe honking in the early days. But more than anything, Dan Brown made me feel seen. He is a huge part of why I was up until 11 p.m. last night rehearsing Tosca, and I’m honored to have the chance to tell him that.”
Brown’s retirement doesn’t mean he’s walking away from music entirely — he’ll continue working part-time at Teachers College of Columbia — but he will miss walking the hallways of Rye High School.
“I’ve been so fortunate to have been given a great deal of latitude over the years from various administrators to grow the music program,” Brown said. “It’s afforded me the opportunity to experiment with the kids as to how to find the best way to rehearse, to make practice time really matter, and how to get the most out of our brief time together.
“For me, the process has always been a shared one with the students, and I’ll miss that deeply. Working with young people collaboratively toward a musical goal is exciting stuff for me, and I can’t do that without a room full of students. I won’t be able to do that on my own. But I promise, I’ll be listening.”
