Teacher uses polka stardom to connect with students

Kevin Koopmann has played with nearly 60 different polka bands throughout Nebraska and the country, including gigs in Chicago, New York City and Las Vegas. The Goodrich Middle School music teacher has released his own CDs. He plays with one polka group - the Mark Vyhlidal Band - that was featured in the New York Times and performed on the NPR radio show “Prairie Home Companion.”

To top it off, he recently was inducted into the Sokol Omaha Polka Hall of Fame, the highest honor for Nebraska polka musicians.

But perhaps his greatest musical accomplishment came last year during one of the Goodrich orchestra concerts. The 7th-grade grade orchestra played a polka-style version of “There is No Place Like Nebraska,” the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s fight song. And Koopmann made the 8th-grade boys dance the waltz with their female classmates.

“Oh they were horrified!” Koopmann said.

It’s just one example of how Koopmann has introduced his lifelong passion for polka music to his band and orchestra classes - groups that include students of Vietnamese, Sudanese and Japanese descent. His band students occasionally play polka songs, including the popular “Jingle Bell Polka.” For that song, so many students volunteered to play the button accordion that he had to hold tryouts.

“It’s two different worlds,” he said, comparing his musical background to his students’. “We’re just connecting in the middle.”

Koopmann has taught band and orchestra for more than 20 years and currently serves as the middle school state director for the Nebraska Music Educators Association. He’s won numerous teaching awards along the way, but his students didn’t pay much attention until a local TV station visited the school for an interview about his hall of fame honor.

“Now a lot of kids ask me if I’m famous,” Koopmann said.

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