As a thunderous ovation boomed off the cavernous walls of Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium, band director Tim Libby led the Creek marching band on to the football field for their state finals performance, the last of the season on Oct. 25, 2025. Atop his conductor’s chair, he directed the pit orchestra for closing night of the spring musical, Sweet Charity, on March 7. On April 28, that same FA theater, packed to capacity, cheered him on for concert bands’ spring concert. Snapping his fingers, with a quiet countoff, he conducted the jazz bands in their last concert on May 1.

But something was different about this year’s finale performances. Libby had a special sentimental energy about him. For the first time in his 30 year career in music education, he wouldn’t be returning to these moments.

Libby announced his retirement in Oct. 2025, making this school year the last of his distinguished tenure.

“It’s been a privilege, and it’s been a pleasure, and it’s been the greatest thing I could ever think of in my life to be doing, to be leading all these amazing people,” Libby said.

Libby has been at Creek for 26 of his 30 years teaching. He started out at Gateway, a high school in Aurora, in 1996. He took over as band director there as Jack Yonce left.

“I was just impressed with, as a first-year teacher, how ready he was,” Yonce said. “That certainly just speaks to the kind of respect he has amongst all the band directors…not only as just a really genuine person, but as a really good band director from the get-go.”

When he arrived at Creek in 2000, the band program looked completely different. Many students would take marching band as a class for a semester, then switch to a concert band class in the spring. Libby transitioned it to a setup where any one student could take a concert band class, a jazz band class, and participate in marching band extracurricularly while having space for a full schedule of academics, along with other opportunities to play outside of school hours.

“Those kids would finish their last May concert and wouldn’t play again until January,” Libby said. “It just really got everybody on their instruments every day, all year round, and really increased the quality.”

He’s also brought measurable success to the program, as Wind Ensemble makes state with Superior rankings each year, and the marching band has been a state finalist every year since 2018.

Students like senior Ava Kamis have taken advantage of the system Libby built. She has been in concert band all four years, played in the pit orchestra in 2026, and marched for two years before becoming a drum major as an upperclassman, one of three student leaders of the band.

“The band program would not be a band program without Libby,” Kamis said. “Creek was not known for their music here at all until he got here and made the program way better than it was.”

Libby’s an accomplished trumpet player—he’s played in concert with Earth, Wind & Fire, Arturo Sandoval, The Four Tops, among others. He uses his experience to coach students one-on-one, like 2024 alumnus Kyle Scheerer, who played in the marching band, jazz band, concert band, and the pit. Now he’s at Montana State University, studying in their trumpet studio and marching in the “Spirit of the West” band.

“The influence and what he had me practice through the wind ensemble and the symphonic bands definitely helped set a foundation for me to continue to grow,” Scheerer said. “The way Libby taught me and how much influence and inspiration he gave me for wanting to keep doing trumpet has also led me to go to this university and to always pursue it as a main career.”

Many students especially like Libby for his ability to form a personal connection.

“You can be the most outstanding musician, but if you’re not genuine and you don’t have a relationship and you’re not open, then why would anybody reciprocate?” Libby said.

He does this through all the extra time spent around his students, during field trips to CSU, Disney World, Europe, and beyond. But he also does it on the daily, by telling anecdotes while teaching music.

“His personal stories open you up and make you feel more in tune to what you’re doing yourself, and to feel confident in yourself,” Kamis said. “He’s honestly the best motivational speaker.”

Junior flutist Claire Wang, who was also a drum major in marching band, has seen Libby’s leadership and teaching help students regardless of age or skill level.

“He has this really welcoming culture, and you can tell within all of the band classes, he really pushes everyone to grow,” Wang said. “And he goes out of his way to make sure that kids are doing okay.”

As Fine Arts Coordinator for five years, he had a wider influence than just the bands at Creek.

“He’s probably one of the most important people for this program,” Scheerer said. “He genuinely cares about not just the concert band side of things, but making sure that every single form of the Fine Arts is supported, including orchestra, theater, the painting arts, or anything in general.”

And as an important piece of thespian productions, he worked yearly with directors and students from choir, theater, and orchestra.

“He’s made awesome musicians, but I think he’s also helped create really amazing people,” choir director Adam Cave said. “At a place like Cherry Creek that is so big, and the…fine arts have so many just things going on, you need that rock-steady presence within the department. And I think that’s been Tim.”

With so many students passing through his ensembles and classrooms, he also works with parents all the time. Emily Rissmiller, a parent of three marching band students, is the president-elect of the Band Parents Association, who works with Libby to organize events and fundraisers.

“He sees stuff in you guys that you don’t see yet, that your parents can see,” Rissmiller said. “He’s just really good at identifying things to pull out in you that make you a better person.”

The BPA has involved the community in efforts to show appreciation to their director for his years of service. At the spring concert bands conference, they gathered videos from many people in the community, from students to alums to directors from other schools.

Libby also used that last concert as an opportunity to play some important, sentimental pieces with the Wind Ensemble. One piece was Leonard Bernstein’s “Suite From Mass,” a grand, diverse piece mixing styles, solos, and distinctive rhythms. Another was called “With Quiet Courage,” a piece his Gateway students played at his wedding.

“Clearly those pieces meant a lot to him, and I was just glad to be able to help give him a good, enjoyable last concert experience,” Wang said. “It was really good. I got pretty emotional.”

The spring band concerts were also an opportunity to introduce the new band director, Austin Jankowski, who Creek hired from Lakewood High School. Current band director Sam Hesch, alongside Jankowski, will lead Creek into a new era.

Hesch went to Campus, and though he looked forward to being taught by Libby in high school, he was zoned out of Creek and lost the opportunity. He finally fulfilled the goal of working with Libby when he was hired in 2023.

“He’s just been such an incredible mentor to myself as a teacher and a person for really my entire life… since middle school,” Hesch said. “It’s a big honor to be able to teach with him now, especially in his last year here and his last year teaching high school.”

Hesch feels prepared for his leading role because of Libby’s mentorship.

“I definitely want to continue the excellence that Mr. Libby has worked so hard to build,” he said. “We continue the trajectory of excellence, but also adapt to new times and try new things…because we are continuously evolving.”

Libby was excited to bring Hesch here and looks forward to seeing what he can accomplish.

“His story is awesome, I’m so glad it worked out for him to come here when we needed an assistant band director,” Libby said. “Watching him develop his teaching skills over the last three years has been really cool, and he’s going to do phenomenal things.

And while Hesch recognizes the success of Libby’s legacy, he plans on making his own mark. While Libby had the clear leading role in the past, he plans on sharing an equal role with Jankowski.

“I think we’re both very capable,” Hesch said. “I’m excited about being able to work alongside [Jankowski] and collaborate on a lot of ensembles.”

Over his career, Laura Libby, Tim’s wife, has seen him grow as a person and forge a closer and closer bond to his job and his students.

“I have always admired that he has found work that fulfills him on so many levels. Through Cherry Creek, he has built a community that wholeheartedly supports students and families, the performing arts, and education,” Laura Libby said. “It has been a joy to watch him grow as an educator and leader, celebrate meaningful successes, and form lasting relationships with colleagues who have become dear friends.”

Now, as the school year comes to a close and Libby prepares to conduct his final Creek ensemble of his career, the concert band on graduation day, he reflects with gratitude.

“It’s 30 years of my life dedicated to this craft and being very proud of the end result, but at the same time I’m sad to leave the community, sad to leave the school, sad to leave the students,” Libby said. “I couldn’t thank everybody enough for allowing me to be part of this whole process, for trusting me, for giving me the opportunities, for supporting me personally and supporting the program.”

Additional contributions by Izzy Krauss.