“Imagine being in your own personal paradise, where everything that you ever wanted in life exists. To me, being in music is that,” Eric Brewer, the new band director for the Waynesburg University Symphonic Band, said.

Brewer loves his job as a band director but prefers to be called a “musician.”

His primary instrument is the trumpet. He was originally going to play the saxophone, but after playing the trumpet in front of his fifth-grade band director, he was told that he would be a trumpet player instead.

“The reason why I keep playing trumpet is because it is an awesome instrument,” Brewer said. “I [also] play a little bit of piano, and in the privacy of my own practice room, I sing a little bit.”

Before coming to Waynesburg University, Brewer directed the band and choir at the University of Wisconsin. 

“[Brewer] literally got here the day that all the band officers moved in, so he was like off the plane just ready to go,” Tricia Sarada, junior flute player and secretary for the symphonic band, said.

The students and the campus were what drew Brewer to Waynesburg University.

“I really was attracted to the community,” Brewer said. “There’s the community in Christ, but there’s also the community in being a school… The students make the campus really special.”

According to Brewer, he has found his own personal paradise in music.

“Music is important to me because it takes me to a place that I can only go in my mind… [It] is a place that is my own little oasis… and it’s a great place to hang out,” Brewer said. “There’s nothing I like better than just sitting at the piano or practicing the trumpet for hours on end and then feeling like I’ve been somewhere even though I haven’t left my chair.”

According to Brewer, the Waynesburg University Symphonic Band is a small ensemble with only 20 to 25 members. The band members are not all music majors, however.

“It’s a good place for [both music majors and non-music majors] to come in and work with great art,” Brewer said. “So far, what I’ve seen from the students is exemplary… There’s a lot of good musicianship in the band.”

The first concert of the semester will be held on Oct. 12 at 5:15 p.m., according to Brewer.

“It’ll be a good representation of the music,” Brewer said.

He also believes that the students performing will feel proud of their work.

“We do a lot of work with sounding like a group,” Sarada said. “I really like Professor Brewer. He brings a lot of expertise.”

Being able to create music is “essential” to Brewer.

“He is eager to exhibit our gifted musicians on campus and around our community,” Andrew Heisey, the Fine Arts department chair, wrote in an email. “Getting our students to play in public helps inform the local region of the quality of music produced here on campus.”

Brewer loves making music, but he also loves the community that the band provides.

“The music is great, but the people are what makes it fun,” Brewer said.