An honor and an opportunity: Alex Wimmer ’14, ’17 to serve as K-State’s next director of bands
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
After 13 years at K-State, associate director of bands Alex Wimmer ’14, ’17 has witnessed
many game days at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. He's heard the deafening cheers of the
fans in the stands, and watched the marching band students pour their heart and energy
into every performance.
It’s an experience like no other, and one that Wimmer never takes for granted. Yet
this fall, these familiar moments will inspire a fresh rush of emotion, as he takes
over the role of director of bands from the legendary Frank Tracz, his friend and
mentor.
“I’m all in with whatever I do, from the daily emails and planning and rehearsing,
and working with staff, students and people across the university,” Wimmer said. “I'm
looking forward to all of it. It’s an incredible honor and opportunity to be able
to do; I never thought in my career that it would happen this early.
“I left public school teaching to come and pursue this dream to be a college band
director, and that involves climbing the ranks, from being a graduate student and
getting the degrees, and starting at a low level position. I never thought it would
happen like it has for me, and I'm very grateful and just thankful for all of those
opportunities, and just to be able to do it in a storied, in a historic program. That's
something that I don't take for granted. I hope that I can maintain and continue to
move the program forward in the way that Frank has for the last 33 years; he built
it from scratch and got it to where it is now.”
Discovering the magic of music
Wimmer jokes that as a child he was “forced to take piano lessons” — a requirement
from his mom for which he is now very grateful. He joined the school band in seventh
grade, under a director who would later become a friend and mentor. The eighth grade
band was in need of a tuba player, and Wimmer was recruited, even though he was a
year younger.
He recalls attending a concert band performance as a seventh grader, and listening
to the high school age musicians play. He was enchanted by the experience, and realized
the power that music could have.
“I was like, wow, that's really cool, and I wanted to be a part of that,” he said.
“So that's what pulled me into music.
“It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from — music, to me, is the only activity,
the only thing that can bring people together, to create something that is nothing
but good for everyone. I really believe that music is the only thing in life that
can do that, regardless of where you're from and what you bring to the table.”
He stayed in the band through the end of high school, and by then, he knew he wanted
to be a teacher and band director.
He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Nebraska at
Omaha in 2007, then returned to his hometown in Gretna, Nebraska, and team-taught
with his childhood mentor at the middle school and high school.
Wimmer said he loved the experience of teaching middle and high schoolers, and having
the opportunity to watch them and the program grow. When he started, the band had
90 members; that total climbed to 170 by the time he left.
Although leaving his position as a public school teacher was a challenging and emotional
decision, Wimmer knew the time had come to continue his dream and pursue a master’s
degree.
K-State had popped up on his radar during his second year of teaching, when he went
to an honor band performance with some of his students and watched Frank Tracz conducting.
He also attended a workshop taught by Tracz.
“Wow, this guy is phenomenal," Wimmer remembers thinking. “This guy is energetic.
He’s a great teacher, and he has great pacing. Everyone’s engaged. He is really a
master at his craft.”
Whenever Wimmer’s students attended camps at K-State, he was always impressed by their
reports.
“They would come back fired up,” he said. “They came back so enthused and charged
by that experience.”
So it’s no surprise that Wimmer eventually ended up at K-State as a student himself,
to pursue both his master’s and doctoral degrees. Although he’d looked into other
schools, he was drawn to the opportunity offered by K-State to work with both athletic
and concert ensembles, and to simultaneously serve as a performer and a teacher.
‘In the thick of it’
During his 13 years with K-State’s band program, Wimmer has collected a number of
memories that he treasures: from performing with the wind ensemble at Carnegie Hall
as a grad student, to K-State’s Big 12 Championship football game in 2022 and the
men’s basketball Elite Eight runs in 2018 and 2023.
And of course, there’s nothing else like playing the Fight Song and Wabash Cannonball for a fired up crowd in a packed house.
“Whether it's a bowl game or a tense basketball game, regardless of the venue, and
regardless of the type of ensemble that's on the field or in the arena or on stage,
just seeing students succeed, seeing the joy and the happiness on their face for doing
a good job,” he said. “Those are some of my best memories being in the thick of it.
“That's the great thing about music, similar to sports. You get one shot to play that
one note in this precise moment in time, and you can't go back. There's a high level
of preparation and work that goes into that singular moment.”
He doesn’t even mind what might seem like tedious details to some: sending emails,
managing spreadsheets and organizing rehearsals.
“I love the work, I love the grind,” he said. “That's all part of it. When you invest
so much time into something on the front end, and you see success in the moment, that
just drives me to work harder.”
He says he has a similar teaching philosophy as Frank Tracz, putting student success
and well-being at the heart of everything he does. He also doesn’t want his students
to fear failure, which he believes is a key part of the learning process.
“That's something that I'm really interested in, and something that I think has probably
driven me from a young kid to where I am now, is that, ‘OK, yeah, failure is going
to happen.’ You're going to fall flat on your face, but it's not about the fall,
it's about how you pick yourself up.”
While a student’s time at K-State is limited, Wimmer hopes that the lessons they learn
here will set them up for a lifetime of success.
“Whether they're in the music field, they're an engineering major, they're an architecture
major, no matter what the major is, hopefully through the band program we can provide
them with the necessary skills, competence, and therefore, because they're competent
in their craft, they will become confident, through whatever they're going to do,”
he said. “Then they're going to go out and turn the world purple and excel. And be
able to look back and say, ‘Hey, I learned that from being a member in the marching
band. I learned that from being a member in one of the concert ensembles.’ Hopefully
they can walk away with those types of things.”
Bringing people together
To Wimmer, the spirit of togetherness at K-State — connection, camaraderie and family
— isn’t just a saying. It’s the real deal, and as the next director of bands, he’s
committed to maintaining the same traditions and rigorous standards that students
and fans are accustomed to.
“Hopefully, what they see from the outside looking in is the same quality, the same
expectations, the same energy, the same drive, the same excellence that has been built
by Frank for the last 33 years,” Wimmer said. “No matter what, the standards, the
integrity, the character, the values that we have here in the program, those expectations
are going to remain the same.
“I'm grateful for the opportunity, appreciative of all of the support. I wouldn't
have the opportunity to be in this position without Frank taking a chance on me. I
wanted to make sure I thank him. His impact and his reach to people is very profound.”
