Professional Title: Orchestra Director

Class Year: 2010

Major: Music Education

Location: Graham, NC

Education Experience:  10 years

Please share your experience working with students during the pandemic?

For the past eight years, I was a high school band director, and I wanted to make a transition to a smaller program to be closer to my kids. Unfortunately, that transition came at the onset of the COVID epidemic. Since the beginning of the school year, we’ve been online, and recruiting a brand new orchestra program is NOT easy when it’s online. Where normally students would be able to see and hear instruments and even try them out as they decide to join the orchestra, they’ve had to see the instruments on a computer screen. While the program is up and running and has about 60+ students in it, they can’t play any instruments, as they cannot be shared and all reside at the school where students can’t currently go. My students have been awesome, but in addition to their lack of playing time, I’ve also had to cancel performances, as well as clinics and competitions as well. As a musician and music teacher, this pandemic has destroyed much of our industry and opportunities to practice and perform.

What advice would you give to people during this pandemic?

Stay inside and wear your masks. Everyone wants to go back to school, and we teachers want to be back, too! But we need to be smart and make informed decisions. Believe me, it’s easy to make up for the time and experiences our students have lost, but it’s impossible to make up those experiences if our students pass away from this pandemic.