LINN  — First-year Linn Band Director Kevin Pierce, in his 14th year overall, believes in his students and inspires them to be the best musicians possible. As a result, band members have enjoyed their time thus far as they have played during halftime of this fall’s home football games, and Pierce said they’re excited about the rest of the year.

“My experience here has been the kids just want to be good and have a good band,” said Pierce. “They want to sound good and feel good about their performances. They see that I’m investing myself in them. They’ve had many different directors over the last several years, and the students want someone who’s going to invest in them — to make them want to invest in the music. I think that’s the biggest thing here. Once they saw that I’m not just here to get a paycheck and move on to the next job — that I’m here to build a program, I’m here to grow, and see where we can take it — they started really falling in line and working with me.”

Pierce takes pride in being a team player and strives to work with students to make it as easy as possible to participate. “The only way at a small school like this that we’re going to be able to make a band work is if I work with the other coaches to make sure we can all be flexible and everybody gets chances to do things,” he added.

During senior night’s halftime show, Pierce directed band members involved in other activities, clubs, or sports to wear a t-shirt from that other team. “The biggest reason for that is I wanted the community to see if you are in band, you can also be in other things,” he explained. “I had a basketball player on track. I had archery kids and others in football uniforms. I just want to make sure the community sees that if students do band, it doesn’t mean they can’t do football. That doesn’t mean they can’t do cheer. That’s, that’s my biggest message to all the kids: no matter what you want to be a part of, I will make sure there is a spot for you if you want to be in band.”

An example of that flexibility occurred recently when a band member marched in a parade, then changed into his cross country uniform and departed for a meet. “After he changed on the bus, he ran out and asked me to take his band uniform back to the school,” said Pierce. “That’s what’s so cool to me because that tells me that kid wants to be good at everything because he wanted to be there. He could have very easily said, ‘Hey, Mr. Pierce, this is important. I’ve got to make sure I’m at this cross country thing so I can’t come,’ and I would be like, ‘I get it. Thanks for letting me know.’ But he wanted to make it work between both. He told the cross country coach and me what was going on. I love the fact that they’re communicating about it.”

Pierce was born in Everett, Wash., just north of Seattle, and moved to Chicago, Ill. He attended school between Fort Worth and Dallas from kindergarten through high school and went to college in Arkansas.

Pierce’s family is spread out across the country. His mom lives in the Austin, Texas, area, and her family is in Los Angeles, Calif. Pierce’s father lives in Jefferson City, and his family hails from the Buffalo, NY, area.

Growing up, Pierce said, there wasn’t much of a musical influence, though his uncle played bass for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and did gigs in L.A.

While attending Creek View High School in Carrollton, Texas, two musical teachers showed a lot of energy in pushing him to improve. “They also showed me what it means to lead,” Pierce said of music teacher Keith Umbach and Rich Davis, who taught percussion. “Mr. Umbach drew me into music when I was in sixth grade. It kind of called to me. It spoke my language. I was already tapping on stuff, and when I got sticks, I was a little more dangerous.”

Another teacher, Mr. Henning, provided a model for how to be a teacher and band director. “If a kid needed anything, he was there,” said Pierce. “If a kid had an audition, Mr. Henning was at the school to make sure they had their equipment, their music, everything they needed. That’s what I try to do for my students. I try to talk to them and make sure they have what they need. I tell them I’ll be at the school at this time on this day, just in case they forgot something, so they can come back and get it. Mr. Henning was that way for me. I tell the kids they’re going to do it a certain way because it’s the correct way to do it, but also being the support they need to get better and grow.”

Pierce entered Ouachita Baptist University, in Arkadelphia, Ark., with a straightforward plan to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and teach college. “I saw that most people teaching percussion at the college level were professionals in major symphony orchestras or other performing groups like that,” he said. “Most of them were in their late 20s to maybe 40s. I figured they would be in those positions for at least another 30 or 40 years.”

Pierce estimated he wouldn’t have an opportunity until he reached his 50s. “I didn’t want to try to fill space from my 20s to my 50s, so I decided to check out what’s going on with the high school gig,” he explained. “I started learning more about that. And once I got into my student teaching, I was sold on high school band. Once I got into the actual classroom as a job, I realized how much I enjoyed middle school and beginning band kids. I feel like I can communicate with them on a level that really gets them excited about playing. It’s the sixth-grade kids just starting I try to reach. It’s almost like they’re learning how to walk. They’ve never used these instruments before, so there’s a challenge, but it’s an exciting opportunity.”

While completing his graduate school studies at the University of Central Arkansas, Pierce was a graduate assistant in charge of the drum line and the steel pan band. “I got my opportunities when I was first beginning to teach,” he said.

After graduation, Pierce played drums for musicals at Arrow Rock Lyceum Theater, the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater, and several other theater companies during the summer through the University of Missouri.

Pierce began his teaching career in Milan, west of Kirksville, about 45 miles south of Iowa. “We had football and basketball,” he said, noting that early in his career, he knew it was important to keep band separate from other pursuits. “During basketball season, we played one game a week just because they’re kids. I want to make sure they can still be students first. We did the same thing during football season. We came up with a whole show for our marching. We used the first part of it in the first game and tried to add a little bit so it wasn’t the same show every game.”

From there, Pierce went to Moberly, where the band performed a big rock show. “We had almost 100 kids, and we just stood on the field, made our formation, and then played loud and proud. We play like three rock songs and the fight song at the end.”

Pierce saw the experience in high school as a football and basketball player and band member.

“When I was a junior, I had to decide between athletics and music, and I made the decision to go straight into music,” he added.

After Moberly, Pierce moved to Thomas Jefferson Middle School, where he taught music for five years while also serving as an assistant director at Jefferson City High School. He later taught percussion at JCHS for all middle schools (grades 6-12) for nine years before coming to Linn.

Pierce recently began scheduling performances for home basketball games, including three double-headers, one boys’ game, and one girls’ game. “Outside of that, the biggest thing is making sure the kids are still able to be students, in addition to their musical roles,” he added. “We’re trying to get it to where they’re only doing one basketball game a week.”

Kevin and his wife, Melissa, have two daughters, Jada Graham, and Haven Pierce.