This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Dr. John Zastoupil, Director of Bands at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In this episode we'll learn more about the responsibilities of the job away from the podium. He'll also tell us what he does to try to achieve a healthy work-life balance in a demanding job such as this. Our conversation was recorded in December 2024. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part two.

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. John Zastoupil, Director of Bands at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In this episode we'll learn about the musical path that brought Dr. Zastoupil to UT three years ago, and some of the exciting ways the program is continuing to grow. He'll also share his thoughts on how high school band directors can prepare students who want to be a part of a college band program. Our conversation was recorded in December 2024. We've broken it up into ...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Faith Serna, Assistant Band Director and Color Guard Coordinator at Highland High School in Highland, Arkansas. The Highland School District serves several small towns in north central Arkansas, and Faith grew up in the district. In the last episode, Faith talked about starting, or improving, color guard in a marching band, but in this second part of the conversation we'll switch directions and learn more about her first job in music ed...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Faith Serna, Assistant Band Director and Color Guard Coordinator at Highland High School in Highland, AR. The Highland School District serves several small towns in north central Arkansas. Faith grew up in the district, and studied with two band directors who are now her colleagues, Hope and Greg Bruner. In this episode Faith will tell us more about getting students interested in color guard, the equipment needed, and more. Our conversation was recorded in ...

This week we wrap up our six-part series looking at recruiting students for your band program as Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Brent Hopper, Nathan Anderson, and Brandan Bakkala. Brent is Middle School Band Director at Lakeland Preparatory School in Lakeland, TN, which is a town of around 14,000 located just northeast of Memphis. Nathan is a band director at Greene County Tech in Paragould, a city of 30,000 in northeast Arkansas. Brandan is Band Director at Valley View High S...

This week we continue with episode five of our six-part series looking at recruiting students for your band program as Nick Averwater talks with Brent Hopper, Nathan Anderson, and Brandan Bakkala. Brent is Middle School Band Director at Lakeland Preparatory School in Lakeland, TN, which is a town of around 14,000 located just northeast of Memphis. Nathan is a band director at Greene County Tech in Paragould, a city of 30,000 in northeast Arkansas. Brandan is Band Director at Valley View High ...

This week we continue with episode four of our six-part series looking at recruiting students for your band program as Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Joe Quinnelly, Reggie Coleman, and Daniel Ritch. Joe Quinnelly is Director of Bands at Hernando Middle School, which is part of the largest school district in Mississippi, and is located just south of Memphis. Reggie Coleman is Band Director at Rocky Fork Middle School in Smyrna, TN, which is a town of 53,000 located a half hour ...

This week we continue with episode three of our six-part series looking at recruiting students for your band program as Nick Averwater talks with Joe Quinnelly, Reggie Coleman, and Daniel Ritch. Joe Quinnelly is Director of Bands at Hernando Middle School, which is part of the largest school district in Mississippi, and is located just south of Memphis, Reggie Coleman is Band Director at Rocky Fork Middle School in Smyrna, TN, which is a town of 53,000 located a half hour southeast of Nashvil...

This week we continue our series taking a closer look at recruiting students for your band program, and we'll hear the second part of a conversation Nick Averwater had with Brittany Jerrell and Emma Lang. Brittany is Co-Director of Bands at Stewarts Creek Middle School in Smyrna, TN, a city of just over 50,000, 20 miles southeast of Nashville. Emma teaches at Trenton-Rosenwald Middle School in Trenton, TN, which is a town of 4,200 in West Tennessee, 75 miles northeast of Memphis. In this epis...

This week we're kicking off a series taking a closer look at recruiting students for your band program, a topic that seems to come up in nearly every episode of the podcast, and one that you have asked us to address even further. In the next six episodes we'll be learning a lot from eight educators in three different conversations. So, in this episode and the next one, Nick Averwater will be talking with Brittany Jerrell and Emma Lang. Brittany is Co-Director of Bands at Stewarts Creek Middle...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Michael Parsons, Director of Instrumental and Popular Music at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, TN. Michael is also Director of Sound Fuzion, a pop vocal ensemble at the University of Memphis. In this episode we'll learn more about how Michael uses pop music ensembles like Soundscape, which is a group of 16 instrumentalists and vocalists, to recruit students for Briarcrest's many music ensembles. We'll also get his perspective on...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Michael Parsons, Director of Instrumental and Popular Music at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, TN. Michael is also Director of Sound Fuzion, a pop vocal ensemble at the University of Memphis. In this episode we'll learn about how Michael has incorporated pop music groups and commercial music studies into the music department at Briarcrest, but in a way that enhances the traditional music ensembles. Our conversation was recorded August, 2024. We've b...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Gillian Desmarais, who teaches Music Production and Engineering at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, MN. Gillian is the founder of Sound Tech Ed, a website that provides resources for music programs that allow students to learn and grow with music technology. She has also been named to the 2024 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of music educators, and was named 2024 Teacher Of The Year by TI:ME. In this episode Gillian will tell us more about...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Gillian Desmarais, who teaches Music Production and Engineering at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, MN. Gillian is the founder of Sound Tech Ed, a website that provides resources for music programs that allow students to learn and grow with music technology. She has also been named to the 2024 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of music educators, and was named 2024 Teacher Of The Year by TI:ME. In this episode Gillian will share some ideas f...

This week we continue our look at using technology in music education, as Nick Averwater talks with Gillian Desmarais, who teaches Music Production and Engineering at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, MN. Gillian is the founder of Sound Tech Ed, a website that provides resources for music programs that allow students to learn and grow with music technology. She has also been named to the 2024 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of music educators, and was named 2024 Teacher Of The Year by TI:ME. In ...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Theresa Hoover, a music educator, clinician, author, and podcast host. In the last episode, we learned about how technology, particularly AI, can benefit music educators with things like writing lesson plans and recruitment. This week Theresa will talk about other AI resources that are useful to music educators. We'll also find out more about the concepts behind her book, Empowering Ensembles with Technology, which can be downloaded at...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Theresa Hoover, a music educator, clinician, author, and podcast host. In this episode, we'll be learning about how technology, particularly AI, can benefit music educators with things like writing lesson plans, recruitment, and more. Theresa is the author of the book, Empowering Ensembles with Technology, which can be downloaded at the website for F-Flat Books. Our conversation was recorded August 5, 2024. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this i...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Matthew Arau, Chair of the Music Education department at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and author of the book, Upbeat! Mindset, Mindfulness and Leadership in Music Education And Beyond, published by GIA Publications. Dr. Arau is also the founder of Upbeat Global. As the 2024-2025 school year gets underway, Dr. Arau will share his ideas for starting the year off right, including ways of defining success, setting realistic goals for yourself...

We've been away for a few weeks while we finished up a two-year renovation project here at Amro Music. We're thrilled with the results, and excited to serve our education partners more effectively than ever. We've posted a video on our YouTube channel that shows some of the improvements that we've made to the store, our repair shop, and our Director Services department, but there's nothing like seeing it all in person, so if you're ever in Memphis, we hope you'll take some time to stop by. We...

This week Nick Averwater talks with David Davis, Music Teacher at Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School in St. Louis Park, MN, a city of around 50,000 people just west of Minneapolis. David was named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators. In this episode we'll learn about the people and experiences that inspired him to become a music educator, and we'll find out about some non-traditional approaches to keep students interested, and increase enrollment and retention in his ...