Meet Loudoun's 'Outstanding' Teacher: Stone Bridge Band Director David Keller

Many high school band directors may cringe at the notion of taking on a sophomore student who has never played an instrument, but Stone Bridge High School’s David Keller is more than willing to work with such fledglings along with more experienced students.

“The biggest thing for me is that there is a willingness to work and to achieve a goal,” he explained during a recent interview. Instead of demanding an elite music department that strives only to win top honors in competition, the community supports Keller’s open policy.

“There are points where I have had some pressure but for the most part, people appreciate that it is open and accepting,” he said.

The success Keller has achieved with that type of inclusion earned him the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award by the Washington Post. His supporters have persisted, nominating him three times.

Keller has been teaching for 15 years and has been at Stone Bridge since it opened in 2000. His openness to listen and work with students, irrelevant of their past musical experiences, has earned him glowing reviews from students, fellow faculty and teachers alike.

In an age when music departments are struggling throughout the United States, Stone Bridge’s department thrives, with more than 200 students participating in five choirs, three guitar ensembles, an orchestra, the marching band, two jazz labs, a jazz ensemble, two percussion ensembles, a clarinet choir, a trumpet ensemble, a trombone choir and a saxophone choir. 

“Loudoun County has tremendous support for the arts,” Keller said. “We are very fortunate for the administration that we have on the county level and I am even more fortunate because I am at an incredible school with a very supportive administration.”

Keller said the Ashburn area makes his job easy, producing a steady supply of musically skilled students, who are very intelligent and disciplined.

“I am really fortunate because the kids want to be there,” he said. “It makes my job easier because they want to be successful.”

While a band director focuses on the music department, Keller views his role as much bigger. Terms like bullying have become synonymous with the high school environment, but Keller said he tries to educate students to respect everyone else, regardless of cliques. He aims to teach his students about integrity and value, and to have them understand that they have a responsibility as role models. 

“Music is a unique subject,” Keller said. “Because I work with students as a group, I have a chance to teach on a different level. It isn’t about the success of the individual, it is about the success of the group." 

For example, Keller offers training for students who are interested in becoming a leader in the marching band, but he extends this training to all students.

“I try to gear it to teaching how to be successful leading your peers,” he said. “Student leadership isn’t about control; it is about how to make everyone in the group successful.”