After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

This week Nick Averwater talks with Jacob Abbott, Performing Arts Director at Dresden High School in Dresden, TN , which is a town of around 3,000 people in Northwest Tennessee, and is just over 100 miles from both Memphis and Nashville. Jacob has been named to the 2025 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of music educators, and in this conversation he'll tell us about restarting the school's band p...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Alice Hammel , a music educator who has dedicated her 40-year career to making music programs more supportive, productive, and enjoyable for students with differences and disabilities. Dr. Hammel has written four books about this subject, and we have links to them below. Our conversation was recorded in February 2025. Dr. Hammel's books include: Teachin...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Kim Webb, High School Band Director at Greene County Tech in Paragould, Arkansas. Paragould is a city of around 30,000 people located 65 miles northwest of Memphis. In 2024 The Greene County Tech marching band won the state championship in Class 5A.  In the last episode, Kim told us about building and maintaining a culture of success in the...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Kim Webb, High School Band Director at Greene County Tech in Paragould, Arkansas. Paragould is a city of around 30,000 people located 65 miles northwest of Memphis. In 2024 The Greene County Tech marching band won the state championship in Class 5A.   In this episode we'll learn about the ways that the band program has grown under Kim's leadership, and...

In this episode Nick Averwater continues his conversation with John Easley, Middle Tennessee Educational Representative for Amro Music, and Andrew Demolat , Band Director at Rockvale Middle School, which is part of the Rutherford County School District, located southeast of Nashville. They're discussing the importance of having a successful instrument rental meeting Our conversation was recor...

This week we're talking about how to make the most of the instrument rental meeting as Nick Averwater talks with John Easley, Middle Tennessee Educational Representative for Amro Music, and Andrew Demolat , Band Director at Rockvale Middle School, which is part of the Rutherford County School District. It's the fourth largest district in Tennessee with over 52,000 students, and is locate...

We're posting this on Thursday, July 17, 2025, and it's the fourth in a series of six episodes designed to help you get ready for the new school year. We'll also have new episodes in this back to school series next Monday and Thursday, July 21st and 24th.  This week we're discussing placing beginner band students with the right instrument as Nick Averwater continues his convers...

We're posting this on Monday, July 14, 2025. It's the third in a series of six episodes designed to help you get ready for the new school year. We'll have new episodes in this back to school series this Thursday, July 17th, as well as next Monday and Thursday, July 21st and 24th.  This week we're discussing placing beginner students with the right instrument as Nick Averwater t...

We're posting this on Thursday, July 10, 2025, and it's the second of six episodes designed to help you get ready for the new school year. We'll have new episodes Monday and Thursday for the next two weeks, so we hope you'll keep an eye out for those conversations on July 14th, 17th, 21st, and 24th.  On the 14th and 17th we'll be discussing instrument placement, and the fo...

This week we kick off a series of six episodes designed to get you ready for the upcoming school year.  We're posting this episode on Monday, July 7, 2025, and we'll have new episodes this Thursday, July 10th, as well as on Monday and Thursday for the next two weeks, so that will be July 14th, 17th, 21st, and 24th.  The episodes that post on the 14th and 17th will be all about instrument...

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 202...

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 p...

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 secon...

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 stu...

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...

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...

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 Ban...

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 Fo...

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 i...

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 wil...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...