When Dr. Benjamin Hawkins retired as Transylvania University’s band director after the 2023-2024 school year, many students were curious to see how a new instructor would stack up against Dr. Hawkins’ impressive legacy. So far, Dr. Larry Spell has made an excellent impression on Transylvania University’s music students, directing the Concert Band and Orchestra as we near Transylvania’s Spooktacular Fall Concert on October 26th.
Dr. Spell has a doctorate in orchestra conducting, plays trombone, and looks forward to spending more time making music with Transylvania students and faculty.
Sam: Starting off, how did you end up in Kentucky?
Dr. Spell: Well, I was in North Carolina. I had a job down there and I really liked my position. I wasn’t particularly looking for a new job, but I saw this come by and I’m like, well, that would be a job to be really fulfilling to do. I did teach at a small liberal arts college briefly in Utah and I really like the environment. I knew I wanted to get back to that at some point. I have an extensive background playing in band, I like the location in downtown Lexington, I like the school’s environment and I like the size of the city. It felt like I would have a really good quality of life here.
When I came to interview, everything was really run so well and they took a lot of time to make sure I sort of felt comfortable here. Like I understood what the school was about. I kind of got a sense of the environment. So it made me feel very comfortable in saying yes to the job because I already had a full-time job.
The longer I live, the more I realize the environment where I’m working is very important to how satisfying my job is, the people I see, and the places I’m at… that really makes a big difference.
Sam: And your office definitely reflects that.
Dr. Spell’s office is eclectically decorated. Many lamps cast variegated light across the room, illuminating books of music, Mystery Science Theater 3000 figurines, a marble bust, a Persian rug, and a sundry of other items in a soft glow.
Dr. Spell: I’m going to be in this place. I want to have things around me that are personal and make me feel at home. It’s not just sort of a sterile environment where I pop in, do my e-mail, and then leave. I don’t like to work from home. I want to come to work and do my work and then I want to go home and be off the clock, you know. I like to have everything I need to do my job here in one place. I’ve always decorated like I live in the 19th century, I think, or
maybe early 20th century.
Sam: I see you have a Real Book (a collection of transcribed Jazz standards) on your music stand. Do you play a lot of jazz or is it a burgeoning interest?
Dr. Spell: I would say it’s a burgeoning interest. I didn’t study jazz in school. I don’t have, like, jazz credentials, but in North Carolina, I did play in a big band and really enjoyed that. And I was the co-director for the jazz band at my last job, me and one of the other faculty were both coached the jazz band. It’s not a big band, but sort of combo-sized, you know. And so we would have to get creative with arrangements. I really got into making arrangements for a jazz band. I would take tunes out of the real book and make arrangements for whatever instrumentation that we had and stuff like that. I’m hoping to get back into playing a little bit of jazz, like a big band kind of stuff. I was an orchestral trombone player for 10 years, you know, so counting measures of rest and then playing really, really loud for a while and then counting measures of rest, you know?
Sam: The life of the trombone.
Dr. Spell: Exactly
Sam: Was there a moment in your life when you knew you wanted to pursue music as a profession?
Dr. Spell: Well, I started playing piano when I was very young. I think I was six when I started. I don’t remember this, but I went to my parents and said, “I want to learn the piano” I wasn’t one of the kids that was forced to take piano lessons. I want to learn the piano and I love the piano.
I realized as I was getting closer to middle school, and high school, that I wanted to be part of the band. I wanted to play music with other people. I love that collaborative effort of working together with people. So I didn’t give up the piano, but I focused more on the trombone. And, you know, my piano skills are not great. They’re OK, you know, I get by.
As soon as I got to high school and I was in that band, I really realized that I liked the idea of being the person, kind of coordinating the band. And I tried out for drum major every year for three years, right? Freshman year, sophomore, junior year, and I never got drum major and I was very sad about that. And my band director said I didn’t have good “onfield leadership” or something like that.
I don’t know, maybe I didn’t yell loud enough, but he said I was a good conductor and he said I should conduct a piece in the senior year concert. So the next year I got to conduct a
piece and I was hooked. I went to school to get my Music Education degree and to be a band director. Then I got my master’s and doctorate in conducting and here I am.
So that’s a very long-winded way of saying I’ve always wanted to be a musician. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a musician, but I do remember when I sort of made that switch to trombone and discovered the collaborative part of music.
I’m kind of glad I didn’t make drum major because maybe I would never have gotten a
chance to conduct that concert, and you never know where I could be now.
Sam: This upcoming concert on the 26th is a huge undertaking, combining the choir, band, and orchestra as well as including guests from across Kentucky.
Dr. Spell: We were planning on doing a combined concert anyway, and I think what’s new is having this Halloween theme to it. It’s the same weekend as Pumpkinmania. It’s Transylvania University.
When I was at the University of Utah, we had a very, very successful annual Halloween concert. I just saw how much the students loved it and the community loved it. There are just tons of fun ways you can make a Halloween concert work. You know, the orchestra and the choir and the band are going to be dressed in costumes. We’re just going to do a regular concert right now, with Halloween-y themed music. But at the University of Utah, we would kind of do a whole – not really like a play – but we’d have skits throughout and it would have dance numbers and all that. It kind of became a big production. And that may not be the right fit for us, but it has the potential to grow into kind of a bigger thing.
There’s so much music that you can do that would sort of fit with a Halloween theme and have a really interesting musical experience for the students while still having this holiday concert.
Sam: I can’t wait! So do you teach classes other than band and orchestra or do you just direct right now?
Dr. Spell: Right, so I teach music theory for university students. Basically theory for non-music
majors, like beginning theory. In other schools I’ve taught at, it’s called fundamentals. I’ll teach conducting right now. That’s all I have planned for this year.
I mean, I love music history. When you get a doctorate, you get your main degree and then you have a related field. And mine is music history. I’m particularly interested in American Music history. I taught a class at a former job, American Music history class, taught jazz history. So yeah, I would love to teach something like that, but I’ll teach what they tell me to teach.
Sam: Just for fun, I was wondering if you had a favorite movie?
Dr. Spell: That’s a great question because it’s like, ask me who my favorite composer is. It’s sort of like whatever’s intriguing me at the moment, whatever piece I’m working on at the moment. I got to think about this for a second. Well, I mean, I just happened to watch the old Family Guy versions of Star Wars on TV and it reminded me of how much I love the original three Star Wars movies.
The only thing that comes close to a movie that I just feel super connected with is The Blues Brothers.
Sam: That’s been my favorite movie since I was, like, 12!
We ended up talking about The Blues Brothers for several minutes.
Sam: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions.
Dr. Spell: Absolutely. I appreciate it and I appreciate you writing an article. I want people to know more about the music programs that we’ve got here. And to join band, join orchestra. We can always use more musicians.
