Oswego band teacher conveys love of music to her students

When she was in junior high school, Julianna Karvelius knew that she wanted to make music the center of her life.

“I always found music to be something interesting to do,” said Karvelius, who is the director of Murphy Junior High School Bands. Most of my closest friends were in music. And I had some amazing teachers along the way also.”

Being a music teacher runs in her family. One of her aunts is a retired music teacher.

Karvelius has been at Oswego School District 308‘s Murphy Junior High School since it first opened in 2012. Before that, she worked at Traughber Junior High School for a year.

“It was really cool getting the opportunity to open a school in an already established community that really supports music and band,” she said. “Getting the chance in the beginning of my career to kind of make my own version of what I wanted the band program to be here at Murphy within the context of a great band tradition in District 308 was really, really cool.”

Karvelius also is the school’s webmaster. As Murphy Junior High School webmaster, she enjoys being able to celebrate the achievements of the students.

She is a musician herself. The saxophone is her main instrument.

As the school’s band director, she has been trying to make sure all of the students that want to be in the music program know of the opportunities that exist.

“Money and scheduling are not objects in someone’s way to being a part of our classes,” Karvelius said. “I’ve been building a stock of used instruments, so that way if any student who is interested in being in band but they can’t afford the rental cost, I’m able to give them an instrument. That way, they can still participate.”

She also tries to teach her students about more than just how to play their instruments. They learn the stories behind the music.

“They learn about the composers and the historical context of pieces,” Karvelius said.

With her students, she has tried to carry on in the vein of her musical mentor, who passed away about 10 years ago.

“He always said, ‘We teach people, not music,‘‘’ she said. ”I still firmly believe that."

Her music students also are learning how to work together as a team.

“We’re only as strong as our weakest link and we don’t leave anyone behind in band,” Karvelius said. “We all just try to do our best. And we recognize it’s live performance and it might not be perfect, but we’re going to try our best to get there.”

As she noted, music can teach many things.

“It teaches you how to focus,” Karvelius said. “It teaches you responsibility, teamwork and companionship in terms of being a part of a community, not only in the full band, but within your section – the person sitting directly next to you."

Following in her vein, some of her former students are music teachers or studying to be music teachers.

“One of my students who was in the first seventh grade class at Murphy teaches some general music classes in the Chicago suburbs and is the Spanish teacher,” Karvelius said. “She’s a great clarinet player.”

Murphy Junior High School Principal Laura Bingham said Karvelius has been a leader in developing the school’s band program.

“She completely built it from scratch,” she said. “In this district, kids don’t come here with a lot of knowledge in music in general because they don’t have band in elementary school. And so she does a lot of work outside of the school day. During the summer, they have summer band and kids get private lessons. She’s building the program and the kids are learning.”