Thomas Tyra - Bandmaster and Music Educator

Bandmaster and Music Educator

Following graduation from Northwestern in 1955, Tyra began his career as a high school band director in Des Moines, Iowa, leaving the following year to fulfill his military service obligations. In the summer of 1958, following completion of his military service with the U.S. Navy Band in the Washington DC area, Tyra arrived at Louisiana State University to serve as assistant to the Director of Bands L. Bruce Jones. In 1959, LSU elevated Tyra to become the 14th Bandmaster of the Tiger Marching Band, making him at age 26 the nation's youngest director of a major university marching band. That same year, Tyra formed the LSU Ballet Corps Dance Line, launching what would later evolve into the LSU Golden Girls Dance Squad. Satisfying the constant demand for new musical content on the LSU gridiron was a small cadre of aspiring student composers including a young Bill Conti, who would later gain first fame by penning Gonna Fly Now, the theme song popularized by the 1976 hit film Rocky. During his tenure, Tyra also introduced Hey, Fightin' Tigers, an adaptation of Hey, Look Me Over from the 1960 musical Wildcat by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. This team spirit song - later adopted by the LSU Golden Girls as an introductory theme - continues to be used at LSU athletic events today.

In 1964, Tyra was appointed Director of Bands at Eastern Michigan University. In 1968, he hired a young Max Plank to be his assistant. Together they forged a life-long collaboration and friendship that would result in significant growth of the EMU Bands program and its traditions. In 2002, Plank passed the EMU Bands leadership baton to Scott Boerma, ending an era that spanned over 38 years of EMU Bands history. After leaving EMU in 1977 and until 1985, Tyra headed the Department of Music at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, strengthening its Music Education curriculum and planting the seeds of growth for its instrumental performance programs, including marching band. From 1985 until his retirement in 1989, he served as Professor and Dean of the Crane School of Music at SUNY-Potsdam.

Tyra was a member of the Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Northwestern University, the Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma band service organization and served as ΚΚΨ's National President from 1973 to 1975. He was also a member of ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians.