Ashby Goldstein is a rare Floridian: He did not move here from somewhere else. Not only is he a genuine Florida Cracker, he is also a native Conch, born and raised in Key West (a.k.a. the Conch Republic).
Today Goldstein and his family – wife, Brandi, and children Rebecca, 7, Jacob, 6, Caroline 3, and Nathan, 7 months – live in Sebastian, where he has just begun what he calls “my dream job.” Goldstein is the new Director of Bands at Sebastian River High School as well as the North Indian River County Coordinator of Bands.
In his extremely tidy office, with a background of various instruments tuning up, preparing for rehearsal, Goldstein talks about his music and what he brings to SRHS.
As a little kid in Key West, only 2 or 3 years old, Goldstein remembers, “I’d get my babysitter’s husband to take me over to the high school. He’d pull me in a little red wagon and we’d stand outside the fence and watch the band practice. I’d wave my arms around just like the director. I have always been very affected by music. I sang in church, was in a lot of school plays, the choir, did a lot of community theater.”
After graduating high school in Key West, he headed for FSU where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Instrumental Music Education. He then earned a Master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting from Southern Oregon University. Returning to his home town, he served as Director of Bands at Key West High School, where he led the band to a Grand Championship in the Crown Jewel Marching Band Competition (hosted by VBHS since 1981). Under his baton, the band performed in London, England, and in Rome, Italy, and earned the school’s first Otto J. Kraushaar Award in more than 30 years. Goldstein also served as Monroe County Music Teacher Leader. (Interestingly, as a band teacher in Key West, he had taught three of his future wife’s five younger siblings.)
Goldstein has been awarded two Citations of Excellence from the National Band Association and is a former member of the Florida Music Educators Association Emerging Leaders Committee. He is an active Florida Bandmasters Association adjudicator for Concert and Marching Band Music Performance Assessments and has conducted honor bands in Florida and Georgia.
He was selected to attend the prestigious Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, which he describes as “the best of the best, worldwide – the premier place to see this program at its height. I tried to model my program after them – the maneuvers, the marching function, the way they operate, the rehearsals.”
In his final year at Key West High School, competing in the Crown Jewel Festival, Sebastian took the Diamond award, and Key West earned the Emerald.
As much as he loved his hometown, his job and his students, “there were not a lot of resources.” He and his wife did as much as they could, working together, he teaching the musicians and she teaching the guard. “Key West was a highly supportive community which we both loved, but living expenses were high and we wanted to buy a house.”
Seeking to expand his career opportunities, he began exploring other Florida band options. He had been aware of Indian River County’s band program for years. As a student at FSU, he was part of the band camp staff, and met then-SRHS band director Eric Allen (now a professor at Texas Tech.)
“I wanted to be in Indian River County and teach music. I appreciated the District’s values, and the District as well as the County are historically strong“ in their support of music and the arts. This led Goldstein to take a position as Director of Bands at Gifford Middle School, where he was chosen the school’s Teacher of the Year in 2014 and was a School District Teacher of the Year finalist.
He had become friends with another former SRHS band director, Joel Pagan. “Our sons are on the same T-Ball team and we coached together.” Through that friendship, he learned a lot about the band program and its history, and so was no stranger when he officially came on board at SRHS.
“These students have done wonderfully well,” he says. “They are really welcoming. A lot of the kids have seen me or know of me, so there’s not that fear of the unknown. There is some familiarity, which has eased the transition.’”
That’s a good thing, because it was a rapid turnaround. Goldstein interviewed, was offered the job on a Wednesday, and started work on Friday, teaching the freshman band camp, then rehearsing all summer, preparing for the busy fall. The band has already marched – in the Sebastian July 4 parade – and Goldstein has been working with the band’s student leadership, a vital component of its success.
They are all looking forward to the band’s biggest fundraiser, the highly popular Prism Concert, which will take place in December.
