Skip Vandelicht will drop the baton for the final time Sunday afternoon at Linn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Central Methodist University campus. The renowned band director will retire at the conclusion of this semester after 46 years of directing bands.

Vandelicht, known to thousands as Mr. V. and now Prof. V., is one of the premier band directors in Missouri. A Fulton native and 1977 graduate of Central Methodist, he taught for 31 years in the Fayette school district. For the last 15 years, he has been the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at his alma mater.

Vandelicht became Fayette’s band director in 1977 straight out of college. For the seniors that year, he was their seventh director in eight years in the band program. That revolving door closed for more than three decades as Vandelicht cemented Fayette as one of the top band programs in the state.

“It’s gotten a little more real the closer to the end it gets,” Vandelicht said last week about his looming retirement. “I’m not sick or too old to do the job. It just felt like the right time.”

Over his career, Vandelicht took what he considered a good band program, and made Fayette synonymous with excellence, as displayed by the packed trophy cases outside the band room. From high-stepping marching bands to top-rated concert bands, ensembles, and soloists, Fayette has ever since been a school with a revered music program.

“Prof. Vandelicht has been an incredibly important person in my life for sure but has also been an extremely important person in the development of bands in the town of Fayette and the state of Missouri,” said Keith Ruether, a student of Vandelicht’s at Fayette who later became the band director in Fulton and Lebanon. “He’s positively influenced hundreds of young musicians at both Fayette High School and CMU, trained dozens of successful band directors, held every important local and state music education office, and brought the Central band back to prominence after a very rough stretch. To me, he’s the MVP of music education in our state and a legend in our profession.”

The number of students impacted by Vandelicht’s musical education is immeasurable. Not only did he teach public school here for more than three decades, but he also ran the marching band program at Central from 1982 to 1995. And for the last 15 years, he has taught the next generation of band directors. 

Career highlights for Vandelicht include directing six performances at the Missouri Music Educators Association’s annual conference, four times with Fayette High School, and twice with Central Methodist. An invitation to perform at the prestigious event is one of the highest honors in the state for bands.

“I look back on those fondly because the students had the opportunity to perform,” Vandelicht said. “It’s not about me, it’s about those kids. To see them perform on that stage, and to see them when they’re done…I wanted that for those kids.”

In 2008, he retired from Fayette to become band director at Central, working under another former student. Dr. Dori Waggoner first picked up the flute in beginning band as a fifth-grader at Fayette. She now serves as Dean of the Swinney Conservatory of Music.

Vandelicht directs Central’s concert band and University band, which he recently developed as a secondary band at the university. He also teaches classes on conducting, woodwind techniques, and music education. He directed the university’s jazz band for several years and still teaches saxophone lessons.

“It’s been a great second career for me,” Vandelicht said about joining the CMU faculty.

Since joining the Swinney Conservatory of Music, Vandelicht’s focus has expanded from directing bands to teaching the next generation of band directors. “I wanted to teach kids to teach. I take that very seriously,” he said. “I want them to be ready when they go out. I don’t know all the answers, but I’ve seen most of the questions. I love sharing my experience.”

One recent graduate of Central is now the assistant band director at Boonville. Alec Fields graduated in 2021 and said he looked up to Vandelicht from day one, not only as a band director, but as a person. “He set his expectations high, but he gave you the belief that you can reach and surpass them. Now, as I start my career as a band director, I use him as an example in my own classroom on how I should be and how I should act. Thank you, Prof., for providing that example to me and lifting me up to the person and band director I am today.”

Even in retirement, Vandelicht will still supervise two student teachers next fall. “I want to continue to mentor young teachers,” he said. He will also run CMU’s upcoming summer music camp and teach the university’s master’s program.

“I’ll slowly wind down,” Vandelicht said. He may also teach one or two classes next year at Central. “We’re still not sure exactly what [retirement] is going to look like.”

Regardless, Vandelicht will maintain a relatively busy schedule. He will continue to judge music contests, serve as a clinician, and remains the instrumental adjudicator trainer for Missouri. Next year he will run the annual CMU Band Day.

“I’m not tired of doing this. I just feel that it’s the right time for me,” he said. “My goal was to leave this place better than when I got here.”

One thing is for sure, whatever Vandelicht does after he walks out of the Central band room on the third floor of Classic Hall, he will never stop helping his former students.

Many of his students have turned to him for professional advice since entering the teaching profession. One of those is Kelsy Whitacre. She was a senior when Vandelicht took over as Director of Bands at CMU in 2008. She spent 10 years as the band director in Glasgow before becoming assistant band director at School of the Osage.

“Since my senior year of college at CMU, Prof. Vandelicht has always been the person that I have turned to for advice about band, and those conversations have shaped me as a band director and as a human,” she said. “I trust his opinion wholeheartedly, not only because he has a successful band program, but because he genuinely cares about the future of education and mentoring teachers. During my master’s classes and throughout my time in Glasgow, I appreciated how one question could turn into an hour-long conversation that always prodded me to think past my opinion and consider multiple perspectives. Even now that I am two hours away, he has always taken time to pick up the phone or answer an email, and the answer is always carefully thought out and laced with wisdom.”

At last week’s state music contest, Vandelicht had the pleasure of seeing several of his former CMU students with their players competing. “It’s been fun to see my kids out there teaching,” he said.

Next year, Vandelicht will take over hiring judges for state music contest.

During his career, Vandelicht has been a force in music education throughout the state of Missouri. From 1992-1994 he served as Chairman of the Missouri All-State Band for the Missouri Bandmasters Association, and from 1994-1996 he was President of the Missouri Bandmasters Association. From 2008-2009 he served as Band Vice-President for MMEA, and from 2014-2016 he served as College/University Vice-President. Skip is an instrumental music adjudicator trainer for the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) and a member of the MSHSAA Prescribed Graded Music List Committee and Sight Reading Committee. 

Vandelicht received the Music Teacher of the Year Award from the Missouri Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1982, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Central Methodist in 1990, the Orpheus Award from the Beta Mu Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 1991, the prestigious Bandworld Legion of Honor Award in 2004, and the National Federation of High School Activities Music Educator of the Year Award for Missouri 2008. In 2013, he was inducted into the Missouri Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame, and in 2020 he was inducted into the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame.

Vandelicht’s memberships include the National Association for Music Education, the Missouri Music Educators Association, Missouri Bandmasters Association, Phi Beta Mu, the National Band Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the Central States Judges Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He is an active clinician, performer, and adjudicator in Missouri and surrounding states.

Even after decades of leading bands in top performances and earning just about every honor a band director can receive, Vandelicht recalled that many of his favorite moments never occurred in front of an audience. He reminisced about the times when his bands performed emotional pieces to such perfection during rehearsal that he set down the baton, and the students packed up early because no more improvement could be made that day.

“Some of the best moments are ones nobody knows about. They happened in the rehearsal hall when you have one of those magical moments,” he said.

He also fondly recalled teaching incoming fifth-graders their new instruments. “I loved working with the little guys. They come in so excited.”

One of the unique things Vandelicht established during his time at Fayette was the Washington D.C. trip that the band takes every four years. He was interested in travel as a component of education and initially asked the school board to approve a trip for the high school band to march at Disney World. The board turned down the idea but later approved a chance to march in the Washington D.C. National Independence Day parade as long as the funds could be raised in time. The trip was announced in December and, by March, was entirely funded through donations. 

On July 3, 1985, Vandelicht celebrated his 30th birthday by leading the marching band through the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The next day the Falcons marched in National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C.

“Traveling and taking trips with your band was starting to take off,” he explained. “We ended up being Missouri’s official representative in the parade.”

Vandelicht recalled seeing kids plastered to the bus windows driving through St. Louis because they had never seen the Arch. “I was amazed, that first year we went, how many kids had not been on a trip like that.”

Those D.C. trips are now a part of Vandelicht’s legacy at Fayette. The trip is still made every four years, giving high school band students a chance to experience travel to our nation’s capital. Last year the band made its ninth trip to D.C. with its current director, Elizabeth Betts.

Vandelicht hopes his legacy is an appreciation of the arts in our school and our community. “If you can have a pie auction that raises $36,000; if you can take a band to Washington D.C. every four years; if you can see crowds at concerts like we get; it’s not that way everywhere. You have kids who stay in the band all through high school and sacrifice things in order to do that.

“I don’t feel like I’ve ever worked a day in my life. I feel extremely lucky to feel that way. I was lucky to find a place where I belonged in my very first year of teaching.”

Vandelicht is reluctant to take all the credit for his success as a band director and insists those achievements would not have been made without the support of the community and, more importantly, the support of his family.

Vandelicht’s wife, Melody, retired after a career as a Fayette first-grade teacher. They have two children, one of whom now teaches at Fayette, and five grandchildren.

“I haven’t done this alone by any stretch,” he said. “It really helps to have a very supportive spouse. She has been with me every step of the way. She is a rock star. And she was an amazing teacher. She has been a blessing.”

In addition to his myriad professional duties around the state, Vandelicht also serves on the Fayette R-III Board of Education, where he has been elected board president three times. He also serves as an elder at First Christian Church in Fayette and coaches his grandsons’ baseball team with his son, Matthew. “I love giving back to the community that gave me so much. I truly feel this community accepted me as this long-haired guy coming in out of college. The community was just so good to me and my bands.”

On Sunday, Vandelicht will lead the CMU band for the final time. But despite the incredible career that is leading up to this performance, Vandelicht said Sunday’s concert will be very typical of the CMU concert band’s Spring performance. The program will include “The Soaring Eagle,” by Karl King and arranged by Central Methodist alumnus Andrew Glover; “Chorale and Shaker Dance,” by John Zdechlik; and, of course, “Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite,” by Karl King. The concert will also feature two student soloists.

But one piece will stand above all others for Vandelicht. “Amidst the Angels” was composed by Joe Pappas for the Northeast Missouri All-District Band in memory of longtime Moberly band director Paul Copenhaver, who passed away in 2020. 

“Paul was one of my best friends,” Vandelicht said. “I’m looking forward to playing that piece. That one’s personal to me.”

Another one of those magical and emotional moments happened again when he and the band were rehearsing that piece. “We were working on that piece last week, and I almost didn’t make it through. They played it so well.”

Sunday’s concert begins at 3 p.m. in the Linn Memorial UMC sanctuary. A reception for Vandelicht will follow in the university’s Assembly Hall below the church.

Dr. Dori Waggoner contributed to this article.