It takes a special talent to take lines on a page and turn them into music that moves a listener. It takes another skillset altogether to teach students how to elevate those individual talents and work as an ensemble. When it is done well, that group of musicians can transport their audience to another time and place, inspire joy or sorrow, and gather in communal wonder at the beauty of music.
“That’s the challenge, and that is the emotional lift,” said Travis Smith, an adjunct music professor and director of the symphonic wind ensemble at Collin College. “I enjoy teaching. I enjoy the challenge of recreating the abstract – bringing those things that are on paper to life. I like to know the students get it and that the audience really gets it, especially when it is done well.”
Smith’s peers believe he has done his job well. In July, Smith was inducted into the Phi Beta Mu Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame, honoring his 41 years as a band director in Ashdown, Arkansas, and later at Williams High School in Plano.
Smith said he was awestruck that his fellow bandleaders would recognize his body of work. He said everyone has been gracious, from past inductees to the current generation of band directors.
“It was a special feeling,” he said. “It was humbling. It was stunning.”
Although he does not recall the first time he picked up an instrument, music has always been an integral part of Smith’s life. Growing up in a home with a piano and an older brother who played saxophone in the school band, Smith first played the trombone, then the euphonium. Over the years, he’s picked up other instruments, including the bass guitar.
Over his career, Smith said he’s grown to respect the qualities of music that bring people together.
“It has so many intrinsic values,” he said. “It transcends cultures, race, and so many other barriers.”
Smith experienced that firsthand growing up in the segregated society of Mississippi in the 1960s and 1970s. When he transferred from Alcorn State University, a historically black college, to Delta State University, a primarily white school, he said music made the interaction and acceptance so much easier.
“It helps people to work together, to find that you have so much in common,” he said.
Smith was in all the major instrumental and vocal music ensembles at Delta State and performed across the country with two stops in England. He was also a dean’s scholar and was selected for membership into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity and Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society.
After beginning his teaching career in Ashdown in 1977, he moved to Plano in 1985, where he was director of bands and fine arts chair for Williams High School. In 33 years at that school, bands under his direction consistently rated superior in University Interscholastic League (UIL) marching, concert, and sight-reading contests. In addition to receiving numerous sweepstakes awards, his bands were awarded many “Best in Class” and outstanding music performance awards at festivals in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. His Williams High School Symphonic Band was the 1990 Texas Honor Band for the Four States Bandmasters Association Convention.
Smith has served on regional and state-level music committees in Arkansas and Texas and served as regional band chair in both states. He also served at the national level as a member of the executive board of the American School Band Directors Association and is currently the Texas state chair.
Around 2010, while still at Williams, Smith began teaching brass instrumentation at Collin College. He taught at the college for three years but took a break when the college decided to expand its brass instrument group.
“I had a day job,” he said.
He was asked to come back to the college when he retired from Williams High School in 2018.
“I felt like I could do it and would have something to offer the students,” he said.
David Tercero, an associate dean at the Plano Campus, said Smith offers much to his students. Tercero praised Smith’s ability to work with students of varying experience levels and select repertoire appropriate to challenge and develop their skills.
“Travis Smith is a consummate band director who is happy to share his knowledge and passion for band with students interested in participating in the Collin College Symphonic Wind Ensemble,” Tercero said. “Professor Smith has worked tirelessly to maintain performing ensembles throughout the pandemic and continues to engage students in the art of symphonic wind ensembles.”
Allison Venuto, associate dean when Smith came back to Collin, said his coworkers appreciate him.
“As a colleague, he is quick to assist with department activities,” she said. “His connection to musicians in and around Collin County brings opportunities for our students and our department.
The move to Collin College kept Smith in front of a performing group regularly, which he enjoys.
In addition to his work for Collin College and serving as an adjudicator in high school band competitions, he also serves as a field supervisor of student music teachers for Texas A&M University-Commerce.
“It is a way to give back to young teachers,” he said. “I try to help them on the ‘what, the how and the why’ – teaching them the best ways to get the message through to their students.”
In a way, Smith is still helping students create the abstract.