Music teachers usually have many music jobs aside from working for a school district or private school. In my career I've been a bell choir director for my church, the vocal coach for a musical at Penn State's Harrisburg campus, private lesson teacher for both flute and tuba students, and a performer at weddings, among many other things!
Aside from my work with the Elizabethtown Area School District music department, I have also been on staff as the assistant director of Donegal's Marching Band for the past 10 years. As a Donegal alumnae, I was excited to help this group grow as musicians and performers. When I was in the marching band at Donegal, I played piccolo for two years and then drum majored and played the tuba for my final two years in the band. After High School, I was in the marching band at West Chester University where I played the Tuba for 3 years and drum majored my senior year.
The DHS Marching Band is a competitive marching band that currently competes in two circuits: Tournament of Bands and Cavalcade of Bands. I have watched this group grow placing about 15th my 1st year on staff to 2nd overall last year and 3rd overall this year. I am very proud of their work to say the least!
As the Assistant Director, my job mainly focuses around the visual aspect of what the band is performing. I've integrated many musical movement strategies while we are working on different parts of our show. In particular, by using Laban movement principles and strategies that are based on Dalcroze movement, I've been able to help the students feel comfortable with expressive movement and moving to odd meters. Being able to move expressively also makes the marchers more expressive in their playing! These are ideas that I use in my elementary classes as well.
Here is the 2015 DHS Marching Band Show, Jack and Beanstalk. Music is arranged by John Bugosh and Dale Sellers and based on Everest by Rob Romeyn, Heaven's Light by Steven Reineke and Pursuit, by Matt Conaway.
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