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New Leader Of The Band

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: February 22, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - The new band leader was impressed by the progress.

Kerry Nichols stood on the podium in front of his new charges in Nature Coast Technical High School's orchestral group Thursday - his second day on the job - and tried to gauge their proficiency in scales.

"So, you've worked into four flats," Nichols said, referring to a scale with four flat notes. "Wow, I bet that sounds interesting."

"Interesting enough where you might not want to hear it," cracked a cellist, prompting laughter from musicians and band director alike.

It's a time for ice breaking in the school's band room as Nichols, a 56-year-old veteran music teacher with a 30-year career that includes more than two decades in Japan, tries to pick up where his predecessor Timothy Brightbill left off.
Brightbill resigned last month after he was arrested on charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The mother of a 17-year-old female student caught Brightbill on top of the girl in her room on New Year's Eve. Both were clad only in their underwear.

Both Brightbill and the girl admitted to performing sex acts on one another that day and another last November at Brightbill's home in Spring Hill. His pretrial hearing is slated for Feb. 27.

The students are clearly eager to move on from that painful chapter, Nichols said during a break in classes Thursday.

Nichols said he briefly talked to the students about his predecessor, asking them not to consider him "better or worse" as a band director, "just different."

"It's like the elephant in the room," he said. "You acknowledge the elephant and you move on."

"They're ready to move forward," he said.

Nichols was clearly the best candidate of the three who applied to do that, said Tizzy Schoelles, Nature Coast's principal.

Schoelles formed a committee with band students and parents to interview the applicants. The committee members rated the applicants in the same order, she said.

"I felt like I was bringing in someone who was distinctly different and would move the band forward," Schoelles said.

The other two candidates were recent college graduates with short resumes. One graduated from University of South Florida, the other from Southeastern University in Lakeland.

Nichols' experience reaches back to 1977, when he graduated with a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

He worked for eight years as a music teacher for the public school system in the rural town of Algoma, Wis. He earned a master of arts in the humanities from University of Wisconsin during that time.

After two years as music teacher at a high school outside of Milwaukee, Nichols in 1987 took a job at The American School in Japan. He taught students in grades 4-12, mostly the children of U.S. expats living in the Tokyo area.

He and his wife Lynn, a former social worker who ran a computer lab at the school, stayed for 21 years. While there, Nichols earned a master's degree in educational administration through the distance learning program at California State University.

Nichols called his time in Japan "enlightening" and a little humbling as he adjusted to the new culture. Now he's back trying to reintegrate to a different America, one with the likes of American Idol, which wasn't broadcast in Japan, he said.

The couple decided to move back to be closer to their aging parents, Nichols said. Lynn is currently staying in the couple's home in Wisconsin. They also have a house in The Villages that is currently occupied by renters. Kerry Nichols himself is renting a place in The Villages for now.

Virginia Collins, a junior and multi-instrumentalist who plays piano in the concert band and bass in the jazz ensemble, was one of the students on the interview committee. Collins said she's already impressed by Nichols.

"He truly is amazing," Collins said. "He looked at the scores for a minute and a half and had all the key changes, all the cues."

And, Collins added, "He's very funny."

Nichols described his teaching style as "lighthearted but still focused."

"It's not that I accept less than their best, but in my career I've played under or seen the dictator approach," Nichols said. "Students in that environment are sometimes afraid to take risks or put a little of themselves into the music."

Schoelles said she's taking a hands-off approach to let Nichols get acclimated, but with one directive: "Let's get them back into the music," she said.

The band has twice postponed its winter show, once by Brightbill and once by Schoelles after he resigned. Nichols said he plans to arrange some in-school performances in the coming weeks to get the students in front of an audience again.

The band also is working toward a performance assessment event slated for March 13 in Wesley Chapel. Bands don't compete against one another, but rather are rated on the merits of their performance.

That's a big deal, but Nichols said he has one overarching goal.

"I want to make their music experience a good one," he said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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