Everything's roses for Broughton band director

RALEIGH -- The Broughton High School band will play on, but its brassy, booming, marching music is coming to an end for the leader of the band.

After 30 years of Friday night football shows, Raleigh Christmas parades and band competitions around the world, Jeffery "JR" Richardson has reached his last year as band director. But before he puts down the baton, he will direct his troops through a fitting finale -- an appearance in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.

In front of tens of thousands spectators in Southern California and a worldwide television audience, Richardson will lead his plumed and white-and-purple-suited band on a triumphant 5.5-mile march through Pasadena. Broughton is one of only 21 bands at the parade and the first from North Carolina since East Carteret High went in 1990.

Among the songs the band expects to play while on TV will be "Grand Old Flag" and the bandleader's favorite, "Stars and Stripes Forever."

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Richardson says. "Hopefully, when they watch the parade in a few years, they'll remember being out there in front of all those people."

It is the culmination of a career to which Richardson has devoted his life since graduating from college nearly 30 years ago.

"Broughton band is synonymous with JR," says Alex Chin, 15, a sophomore and alto saxophonist in the band.

It is rare for a band director to last for so long at a high school, says David Albert, band director at Leesville Road High in Raleigh and past president of the N.C. Bandmasters Association. Between burnout and issues with principals, he says, band directors often leave after a few years.

"He's a legend in the band world," Albert says.

It has been a long journey for Richardson since he was a 23-year-old with a music education degree looking for his first job. He was hired in 1978 to rebuild a band program that had shrunk to 60 students.

"Here I was, this kid fresh out of college who was only five years older than his first class," says Richardson, 52. "It wasn't easy. I made mistakes. That's why I tell the kids to learn from their mistakes."

There have been far more successes than mistakes. Broughton now has 185 band students and a long list of awards.

Broughton Principal Roy Teel was an assistant principal when Richardson was hired. Teel says the band director hasn't lost any of his drive.

"He's still so energetic, so focused about his job," Teel says. "There's hardly a weekend when he's not here."

Richardson brings a no-nonsense attitude that requires his students to perform. Some say he is a perfectionist. Others say an autocrat.

"I want them to give 110 percent," Richardson says. "I want to push them to the next level so they can realize they can achieve their goals."

During band class last week, he took away 11 minutes from lunch for more practice because he was not satisfied with their work.

"He'll yell at you," Chin says. "He's not doing it to be mean. He's doing it because he wants to help you."

Charlie Johnson says she has learned not to get intimidated during her four years in the band.

"Other people will say he's hard-core, but he just wants to make us better," says Johnson, 17, a member of the color guard.

Despite his demanding style, Richardson says that nearly every band member returns each year.

Teaching moments

What the band members might not appreciate now is the life lessons that Richardson is teaching them, says Mike Barnes, president of the Broughton band boosters. His son Matthew is on the band and his older son Joshua played there for four years.