The band always wins: Meet Notre Dame’s newest director

The original article, written and published by Josh Weinhold, was shared by the College of Arts & Letters.

“I feel like the band always wins,” says Paul Popiel, the new Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands. “If we support the team, we entertain the crowd, and we represent the University well, it’s a good day. And I’m looking forward to doing that several times this fall.”

Popiel—an acclaimed conductor, music scholar and teacher, and higher education administrator—became the Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands at the University of Notre Dame in July, a role that oversees athletic, concert, and jazz bands and their performances at dozens of athletic, academic, and liturgical events every year.

For right now, and in the days and weeks ahead, Popiel’s focus is on the 181^st iteration of the Band of the Fighting Irish. While the season is long, the preparation period is short. Students arrived to begin tryouts and rehearsals the Wednesday before the fall semester started, and by the following Sunday, Popiel and his team determined which 350 musicians made the cut.

It’s a number driven by necessity—namely, the logistics and cost of travel to road games—but it’s also a number of significance for each student who comprises it.

“A family bond is built really quickly,” Popiel said. “By Sunday, I would very much hope that every single student feels like they have 350 family members they could reach out to. That sounds pie in the sky, but it’s almost a guarantee that they’re all going to feel that.”

Heart and soul

Popiel began playing the trumpet in fifth grade, and it didn’t take long for his life to become all about music.

Yet, for as much time as he had devoted as a child and teen to rehearsals, performances, and camps, he at first resisted the pull of becoming a music major as an undergraduate at Truman State University. He was a pre-med and math student while playing in the marching, concert, and jazz bands—but eventually, the choice for his academic future became clear.

“Music was the heart and soul of every day for me,” he said. “When I came to the realization that I had to be doing music to be happy, the rest came pretty easily.”

After graduating, Popiel came to Notre Dame in 1993 for a master’s degree in trumpet performance and to work as a teaching assistant with the Band of the Fighting Irish.

There were many more stops along the way for Popiel after that—a doctorate in musical arts in wind conducting from Michigan State University and faculty positions at Indiana University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Kansas.

But those two years at Notre Dame were formative, in ways he didn’t fully appreciate until he considered coming back.

“That program really set the tone for my music teaching career—this place had formed me, taught me values,” he said. “I just didn’t realize what was happening, or I had forgotten. The commitment to students here is just so appealing. And everyone wants the same thing—to make the world a better place through whatever it is they’re doing at Notre Dame.”

When the search for the next director of bands at Notre Dame began, Popiel was in his third year as dean of the KU School of Music, where he had been a faculty member since 2010. He felt called to consider the role, while at the same time coming up with all sorts of reasons to resist it.

Even when he arrived on campus for his final interview, he was apprehensive—but every conversation made him more and more certain that Notre Dame was where he needed to be. The singular focus on student formation resonated with him—and while he valued the experience of leading a school, he yearned to be in a position where he could engage with students on a daily basis again.

“Our research is every day in the classroom, creating and performing together,” he said. “That’s a unique situation in the academy—maybe the closest thing is athletics, where you have a coach working with players every day on the field. Creating with students is hard to describe, but even harder to live without.”

Trite but true

Popiel is very much aware that he has big shoes to fill—and a big legacy to uphold. He finds the challenge more encouraging than daunting.

A joint appointment in the College of Arts & Letters Department of Music and the Division of Student Affairs, the Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands is a position that involves leadership, teaching, and attention to the student experience. Popiel succeeds Kenneth Dye, who held the position for 28 years, and he is just the sixth full-time director in the band’s 181-year history.

The band was already in its 41^st year when the first Notre Dame football game was played, and music and football have been entwined ever since. For Popiel, that compels him to act as the steward of an institution, not someone seeking to redefine it.

“You’re not driving it where you want it to go; you’re driving it where its legacy needs it to go,” he said. “That history is a remarkable thing. To be the custodian of that, to care and nurture the organization, then pass it on to the next generation—all of those things that sound a little bit trite are all true.”

If nothing else, Popiel hopes his time at the helm will offer even more opportunity for students to encounter that musical legacy. All told, more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College will participate in a band this year.

For Popiel, though, that’s not enough—the benefits of participation are simply too great.

“I jokingly say I’ll quit recruiting when every single student at Notre Dame is playing in a band,” he said. “Making music together builds friendships quickly. It’s good for student retention. It’s good for their GPA. People who play music together are happier and healthier and more socially connected.”

Playing music, Popiel says, goes beyond connecting with an audience—it’s a powerful means of connecting with each other and building community in a way that can’t be done through mere conversation.

It’s what happens when his musicians play the “Notre Dame Victory March” for the first time at Notre Dame Stadium. It’s what happens when they’re in a rehearsal hall preparing for the winter University Band concert. It’s what happens when an ensemble plays at Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Whether the music is heard by 80,000 or eight people, the act of students creating it together has changed them—and Popiel believes he’s now where the most change can be made.

“Notre Dame challenges its students to transform their passions into meaningful contributions to the world, and that vision has been a defining influence throughout my career,” he said. “To be back in this place and to help guide that toward inspiring yet another generation of people that want to make the world better through music has been a really strong call for me.”

Read the full article at al.nd.edu ›

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