“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
Victor Hugo’s quote is just one example of the many ways music touches people. Las Cruces is lucky to have in residence the recipient of the first Music Educator of the Year Award, an honor in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of music education.
Gregg Randall, 67, was the band director at Las Cruces High School for 24 years. Retired since 1977, he now gives private lessons on the oboe, bassoon, clarinet and saxophone, all woodwind instruments.
Randall also directed bands in Kismet, Kan., Truth or Consequences, and his hometown high school in Dawson, N.M.
Born on a farm in Abbott, N.M., Randall graduated from high school in Dawson, an old mining town in northern New Mexico. Both Abbott and Dawson are ghost towns now.
“Dawson was a mining town of 7,000 people that had 32 different nationalities,” the gray-haired Randall said.
He said he became interested in music in high school when he was in the band.
“When I got out of high school, I was interested in three areas: archaeology, journalism, and music. I really wanted to be an archaeologist, but figured I couldn’t make much money doing that,” Randall joked.
He decided to try music. Randall went and received his bachelor of music degree from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan. He directed the high school band in Kismet, Kan., for four years.
He received his master’s degree in music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and obtained further graduate study at the Iowa State University, Vandercook School of Music in Chicago, Chicago Musical College, the University of Southern California, the University of New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico University, and New Mexico State University.
Randall moved back to New Mexico in 1942 and became the band director in Dawson where he taught for four years before serving in World War II.
“In World War II, I was in the 81st Infantry Division, and was in the Philippines and Japan. I was also in several Army ground force bands. I specialized in woodwinds,” Randall said.
Japan, he said, was great. “We went in after the surrender at the extreme north end of the island. It snowed 27 days in December — it was quite cold.
“Japan is a beautiful country. I would like to go back sometime.”
Randall returned to Dawson after the war and was the band director for one year. He then moved to Truth or Consequences and was the band director there for six years before moving to Las Cruces, where he spent 24 years as the Las Cruces High director of bands.
“I think — in fact I know — we (Las Cruces) have one of the best band programs in the state, and (one of the best) overall music programs in the state. We have two outstanding high school bands — one at Mayfield and one at (Las) Cruces (High), creditable orchestras at both schools, and good choruses.”
Randall said he believes that the music programs at the junior high schools “are excellent,” with the music faculty being a major reason for the good programs in the schools.
“Total faculty, throughout the system, cannot be equaled anywhere in the state,” he said.
Recently, Randall was the guest conductor for the 1984 New Mexico Music Educator’s Association All-State Concert Band in Albuquerque.
“The All-State Band is a 118-piece band with students from 36 high schools and junior high school bands,” he explained. “It’s part of an annual All-State Bands conference. It’s the 40th annual.”
To add to the honor, Randall was the first native New Mexican and also the first high school band director, to direct the All-State band.
“The kids get into (the All-State band) through auditions,” he explained. “And so it’s the best kids in the state that take part in it.”
In addition to directing bands, Randall has served as an adjudicator of both marching and concert band contests in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and has had frequent experience as a clinician and guest conductor.
He is a past president and vice president of the New Mexico Music Educators Association. His professional affiliations include membership in the Rotary Club, the Masonic Lodge, the Do–a Ana Arts Council, New Mexico Music Educators Association, the Music Educators National Conference, Kappa Kappa Psi band fraternity, the American School Band Director’s Association, and is one of two New Mexicans honored with membership in the American Bandmasters Association, a “very prestigious organization” consisting of only 200 members.
Randall also enjoys gardening and swimming.
“I try to swim every day.” He said that his swimming habit began as therapy after a knee operation. He liked it so much that he continued.
Randall and his wife, Anna Fern, escape the summer heat in Las Cruces every year in Alpine, Ariz., a small town in the western part of the state. They have a home there, in the White Mountains, which is about 8,000 feet above sea level. He said they enjoy walking in the mountains, collecting interesting items. Randall enjoys fishing and takes advantage of the 400 miles of streams and 60 small lakes in the White Mountains. “It’s really beautiful up there,” Randall said.
The Randalls have two children, each involved in music as a career. Their daughter, Carolyn Dove, for a time, was a professional bassoonist in Los Angeles. She has been in numerous orchestras in Los Angeles, in symphonies in Albuquerque and Tucson, and recently began in the Mid-Columbia symphony in Washington.
Darrel, their son, has played professionally in Los Angeles, with the West Point band, various orchestras in New York, and is now with the New Mexico Symphony and teaches oboe theory at the University of New Mexico.
Although the Randalls leave Las Cruces every summer, he says they love it here. “It’s the best place in the world.”
Currently, Randall teaches privately in Las Cruces about five months a year. He gives lessons in oboe, bassoon, clarinet, and saxophone techniques. In the spring he also judges contests, teaches clinics, and serves a guest conductor to several bands.
Of his plans for the future, Randall said he intends to continue as he is now — giving private lessons five months per year and spending summers in Alpine. He and his wife are tentatively planning a trip to Alaska, a place he said he has always wanted to visit.
“I want to keep on doing what I’ve been doing,” Randall said, giving the impression of a happy and contented man.
