Paul Gerlach Announces Retirement as Director of the Kiltie Band

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Carnegie Mellon University band director Paul Gerlach has announced his retirement as director of the Kiltie Band after 38 years as the leader of the high spirited and entertaining musical ensemble. The band, which plays at home football and basketball games, also hosts three concerts during the academic calendar, including a performance at Carnegie Mellon’s Spring Carnival.

“For parts of the last five decades, Paul has made an immeasurable impact on the lives of hundreds of students,” said Director of Athletics Josh Centor. “There is no finer band than the Kiltie Band, and that is a tribute to Paul’s leadership. He is a wonderful educator, mentor and friend, and truly a Carnegie Mellon legend.”

Gerlach, who most recently was a recipient of the 2020 Alumni Service Award for his dedication and impactful service to the university and its alumni, holds four degrees from Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts. His love for music began as a child, flourished through secondary school and led him to enroll as a dual major in the university’s School of Music. In 1967, he earned bachelor’s degrees in music education and applied music/trumpet. He later obtained a pair of master’s degrees, one in applied music/trumpet in 1968 and another in musicology in 1972. Gerlach’s dedication to the Kiltie Band goes back to his own days as a student performer and graduate assistant in the famous “Band Without Pants.”

Following graduation, Gerlach became the band director at Bellevue Jr.-Sr. High School, after which he held the same position for the newly merged Northgate School District. Upon returning to his alma mater as director of the Kiltie Band, Gerlach helped revamp the program following a stoppage of activities in the mid-1970s.

Just a few years after Gerlach’s appointment as director, the Kilties returned to their former glory. After receiving official student organization status, the band began to appear at football games, then a pep band was developed to support the men’s and women’s basketball teams. With input from the students, a constitution was adopted, establishing elected officers responsible for many logistical aspects of running an efficient ensemble. The Spring Carnival concert was later added, making the Kilties the official opening act of Carnival for 36 years. Two more performances complete their concert season, one before the holidays and another in mid-February.

"The success of the Kiltie Band is a testament to the power of music, its ability to uplift and sooth, a never ending source of fulfillment to those who participate as performers,” commented Gerlach. “It has been my honor to serve as director these past many years, to have the opportunity to walk among and interact with some of the brightest minds anywhere. What a ride it's been. I'll miss it dearly but my sentence as 'Director for Life, without the possibility of parole' has been commuted! Go Tartans!"

Gerlach will continue his role as an artist-lecturer in music education in the College of Fine Arts where he has taught methods courses in brass, woodwind, percussion, and marching band techniques. Concurrently, he worked 32 years in the public schools, teaching instrumental music at the elementary, junior and senior high levels, along with general music grades K-8.

Gerlach devotes considerable time to conducting. His conducting experiences include substitute, rehearsal and guest assignments with the Pennsylvania Music Educators' Honors Band, Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble, Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Wind Ensemble and Trumpet Ensembles, River City Youth Brass Band, Carnegie Mellon Youth Brass Band, Susquehanna University Honors Band, and the Lock Haven University Symphonic Band. He is music director emeritus of the Allegheny Brass Band and former instructor of trumpet and director of the brass ensemble at Westminster College.