Lisa Park music teacher honored for 35 years of instruction

Karen Dusenbery’s entire life has been surrounded by music.

As a child, she played the piano and the saxophone in school bands. As an adult, she has been a professional singer and has taught music to students in the public schools and through private lessons.

After 35 years as a music educator in Terrebonne and Lafourche parish schools, Dusenbery was recently named Band Director of the Year for the 2009-10 school year by the District VII Band Directors Association.

She had been nominated several times previously, but this was her first time receiving the honor.

“I was happy and ecstatic,” Dusenbery said. “It was awesome just to be nominated by your peers and colleagues.”

Dusenbery, who has been Lisa Park Elementary School’s band director for the past 18 years, will conduct the District Junior High Honor Band at its Jan. 16 concert at H.L. Bourgeois High School.

The District Honor Band is composed of the best school band members from eight parishes – Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, Assumption, St. James, St. Charles, St. John and Ascension.

Earning the distinction is special to Dusenbery because she will be retiring from the school system in the near future.

“I know I’m going to cry, and I know my kids are going to cry because they don’t know anything about this,” she said.

According to those who know her, Dusenbery is the perfect choice for director of the year.

“Karen is very dedicated to the children,” said her husband Tim Dusenbery, a member of the legendary local Cajun group the Dusenbery Family Singers.

“I’ve never seen her turn a child away. That’s a virtue that’s rare. She gives her time when a child is in need, especially musically.”

“She goes above and beyond. She is just willing to help those children reach their potential in music,” said Stacy Solet, Lisa Park Elementary principal.

“When our sixth and seventh grade band performs, they are outstanding,” she added. “They sound like a high school band. She pushes the kids to do their very best. She encourages them to continue pursuing music because they could earn a college scholarship.”

Born in New Orleans and raised in Houma, Karen Dusenbery said she got into band directing because of her love of music.

After graduating from Terrebonne High School in 1970 and earning her bachelor’s and master’s in instrumental music education from Nicholls State University, she got her first band director job at St. Genevieve Elementary School in 1974.

After a short stint, Dusenbery became the assistant band director and color guard coordinator at Vandebilt Catholic High School. She then became the first female band director at her alma mater Terrebonne High School.

“That was a wild ride. Teaching there was awesome. I had to clean up the band,” Dusenbery said. “I was proud of Terrebonne. I had a great time there.”

Although she prefers the more challenging musical arrangements a high school band can perform, Dusenbery really enjoys developing the love of music in younger students. Since Terrebonne High, she had been band director at Evergreen Junior High, Oakshire Elementary, and Legion Park, Lacache and Montegut middle schools before coming to Lisa Park.

“It’s fun teaching the kids,” Dusenbery explained. “It’s an immense joy to see their faces light up when they finally get all this music together and make a beautiful sound come out of those instruments.

“In elementary, that’s where you form them,” she continued. “You have to teach them all the fundamentals, the theory, how to play their instruments correctly, how to take care and maintain them properly because that’s a big price tag they’re holding in their hand.”

But Dusenbery doesn’t limit herself to the 112 fifth, sixth and seventh graders at Lisa Park daily.

Her husband recalled how far she is willing to go to help a child in need of musical instruction.

“About a year ago, this little girl called the music store (Dusenbery’s Music) looking for some help,” Tim Dusenbery remembered. “She had a concert in one week and she couldn’t get with her band director. I asked Karen, and it was about 8 on a Sunday night, and she said, ‘Sure come over.’ She helped that little girl with her music for an hour and a half, two hours.”

While teaching is her passion, Karen Dusenbery has also sung professionally with local bands.

In the early 1990s, she spent four or five years as the main female singer and saxophone player for a local swing cover band called Moonglow.

In 2008, she joined the Dusenbery Family Singers on their first album in 35 years, “Love is the Song We Sing,” to cover the Jackie Wilson classic “Higher and Higher.”

Although she would love to perform more with the Dusenbery Family Singers (they will do so again on Nov. 7 at First United Methodist Church in Houma), she said it is difficult to get everybody together.

“Of course, we’re not into it full-time right now because we’re both teaching,” Dusenbery said. “With all the schoolwork I have, it’s hard to do a gig sometimes. My husband, Tim, does private lessons teaching bass and guitar and runs Dusenbery’s Music. I also give private lessons with any school instrument and the piano.”

With her retirement on the horizon, the Dusenberys have begun to think of what comes next in their golden years. One thought that has come to mind is reopening La Trouvaille, the famous Cajun restaurant Tim’s parents – Wilma and Eugene “Papa Gene” – ran in Chauvin from 1980 to 2003.

“We wouldn’t necessarily open it down there, just wherever we can find an old house,” Karen Dusenbery said. “I’d want to do it the same way, serving whatever the meal is that day with the Cajun entertainment on the porch, if we can find a house with a porch. Of course, if we do open another one, Mama (Wilma) is going to be head chef there.”

Band director Karen Dusenbery leads Lisa Park Elementary students during music class. After 35 years as a music educator in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, she was named Band Director of the Year for the 2009-10 school year. * Staff photo / Tri-Parish Times