ROCK VALLEY—A trio of tuneful teachers are new this academic year in the Rock Valley School District’s music department.

Drew Paulsen is the new band director for grades 5 and 9-12, while married couple Tyson and Kalli Lund oversee band for grades 5-8 and choir for grades 6-8, respectively.

Drew Paulsen

Paulsen originally went to Morningside College in Sioux City to major in nursing but eventually realized he wanted to make a career out of teaching music.

The 30-year-old grew up in Carroll and participated in all things music: band, choir, youth orchestra and jazz band. He continued playing instrumental music in college.

“With music people, you find that music is super important to you, and you find that it helps people. So, just being able to help people through music is the biggest reason why I chose music,” Paulsen said.

He previously worked three years as the assistant band director at Sioux City East High School and was the 5-12 band director at West Sioux High School in Hawarden before that.

Paulsen is friends with Rock Valley’s 6-12 choir director, Clay Ackerman, with whom he plays in a rock band. Through that connection, Paulsen previously came to Rock Valley to play in musicals and community pep band shows.

“I just noticed that it was a really good community and a really good program. When this position came open, I decided that I wanted to apply,” Paulsen said.

He has enjoyed getting to know the students and staff at the high school and working on music with his pupils. Besides teaching high school band, he co-teaches band at the middle school with its new director, Tyson Lund.

“I couldn’t ask for a nicer set of administrators, co-workers and students. Honestly, they’re super nice, and you can tell it’s a close community,” Paulsen said.

He and the pep band started rehearsing music at the start of the athletic year for fall athletic season. More recently, he and the concert band students began practicing too.

“I’m throwing some literature at them, and they’re doing pretty well. I’m really excited for the concert band season to be upon us,” Paulsen said, adding the first concert will be Dec. 1.

Tyson and Kalli Lund

The Lunds were a package deal when they applied to work at Rock Valley Middle School.

The couple were teaching music in eastern Iowa school districts when they saw two positions become available in Rock Valley.

“We saw two music teaching jobs at a school that’s closer to family than we were, so we were excited to apply,” Tyson said.

Tyson hails from Montevideo, MN, while Kalli’s family is from Holstein.

The Lunds met at their alma mater, Luther College in Decorah, from which they graduated in 2016 with bachelor’s degrees in music education.

The duo then taught for three years in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, before returning to Iowa.

Tyson later taught music in the HLV School District in Victor. Kalli meanwhile enrolled at the University of Iowa in Iowa City to earn her master’s degree in trumpet performance, which she obtained in 2021. She spent the past year teaching K-12 music in the Lone Tree School District.

The Lunds were involved in music well before college, which influenced their decisions to teach the subject.

Kalli comes from a family of musicians, since her mother teaches choir at Ridge View High School in Holstein. Kalli’s parents also run the music services at the family’s church.

“Coming up through high school and college and participating in all of the different extra musical stuff — jazz band and select choir and everything that was in school — made me realize that it was a good way to kind of help people figure out what they were passionate about, even if that thing wasn’t music,” Kalli said. “Because being in a musical environment kind of allows you to open yourself up to new ideas and experience new things.”

The Lunds have enjoyed settling into Rock Valley Middle School and making music with their respective students.

The middle school choir’s first concert of the season will take place Tuesday, Oct. 18, while the middle school band’s first performance is Tuesday, Nov. 15.