News Center

Published July 30, 2020

The ULM Sound of Today (SOT) Marching Band practices for days preparing for the fall football season. It’s August in Louisiana and feels like you’re wrapped in a hot, wet, wool blanket –  a sweltering mix of high humidity and even higher temps.

Sean O’Pry remembers those hours of SOT practice and will soon be back on the field. Instead of leading the band as drum major, he’ll be leading it as the director.

 

 As the newly named new Interim Director of Athletic Bands and Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, O’Pry is preparing to welcome “enthusiastic, music-making Warhawks” to upcoming band camps.

“Our pre-band camp is in two short weeks, and there is much to be done. I am currently choosing and sorting music to pass out to the students upon their return. I am also arranging and transcribing some pep tunes that will be sure to get the student section on their feet at the games!” he said.

O’Pry graduated from the School of Visual and Performing Arts, College of Arts, Education, and Sciences with a B.A. of Music in 2018 and an M.A. of Music Education in 2018.

 

He was an adjunct instructor and athletic pep band director at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., when he received the offer to join the faculty at his alma mater.

“Returning was a no-brainer. I am happy to be here at an institution that I love surrounded by colleagues that I admire and respect,” O’Pry said.

In high school, the saxophone player from Pineville auditioned for music programs at universities throughout the state. When he came to ULM, something clicked.

“I vividly remember the first time I walked into the band building on ULM’s campus. I had never been on this campus before, much less in the band building, but it already felt like home,” O’Pry said. “All of the music faculty that I met were kind and welcoming. It was the best audition experience I had by far.”

As an undergraduate, O’Pry studied saxophone with VAPA Associate Professor of Music Scot Humes, D.M.A. O’Pry was the principal saxophonist in the Louisiana Intercollegiate Band. With SOT, he played the tuba.

O’Pry immersed himself “in all of the musical opportunities that the music department had to offer.”

“I played in all three concert bands, jazz band, marching band, basketball pep band, the tuba-euphonium ensemble, the clarinet choir, several musical productions, the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, and the saxophone quartet. I also sang in the choir for several years,” he said.

As a graduate assistant while pursuing his master’s, O’Pry worked with marching band development and implementation, conducted wind bands, oversaw SOT drum majors, and tutored music theory.

 

O’Pry has a full schedule in VAPA’s music program. He will teach an elementary conducting course for third-year music education majors and a band history and literature course. At Warhawk basketball games, O’Pry will direct the Technical Fowls Basketball Pep Band. A couple of spring concerts are planned, too.

He hopes the music students will enjoy their experience at ULM as much as he did.

“I hold the memories of making music with the lifelong friends I made at ULM very close to my heart. I am looking forward to contributing to a student-focused, collegial atmosphere in which the college students enrolled at ULM can grow, learn, and earn experiences,” O’Pry said.

 

O’Pry described one encounter as “the best thing that happened to me in Sound of Today” when a pretty brunette playing the French horn caught his eye. Now his fiancé, Emiley Bryant graduated from ULM with a B.S. in Biology in May 2019. She’s now in medical school at Lincoln Memorial University.

Their June wedding was postponed by coronavirus, and the couple hopes to marry in the spring. Until then, O’Pry will focus on the music students at ULM.

“I am so excited to be back at ULM. I hope to provide for my students the same types of opportunities that I had here to learn and grow.”

Story by Hope Young, Photos by Sid Gaulee