William Baar, the orchestra director of EGHS for five years, officially left the podium and went into retirement at the end of last year. He was replaced by Maura Brown this school year. Although it was sad to see Baar go, especially for the students who knew him well, Brown was welcomed from day one. She didn’t just take on the job of being the orchestra teacher of all the orchestras including concert, symphonic and honors at EGHS. She also took on what the post-director taught, including guitar class and music theory.  She is excited to be part of the hardworking staff and wants to be supportive of all her students to make sure they are successful.

In order to accomplish that, specifically for orchestra, she plans to expand the types of music played and the number of performance opportunities. She also wants to see what is available for students to experience such as festivals so they can observe different musical styles. Any teacher can agree on the most important goal  in orchestra, to have her students improve; in this case in the level of playing.

As for guitar class, it is her first time teaching it, but that won’t stop her with the goals she has for it. She wants everyone walking out with a fundamental knowledge that they can take going into further guitar lessons or starting a band- just skills that the students can take and apply out into the world.

And for the final class she teaches, music theory is different for her students because they are working on an AP curriculum even though it is not officially an AP class, her main goal is to get them ready to take the AP test at the end of the year,

Maybe it’s because she’s been playing violin for 25 years or maybe something about orchestra itself that is so great, but orchestra will always be Brown’s favorite class. Connecting with this, her favorite style of music is classical. Calling herself a “big classical nerd,” she adds, “I say nerd in like a positive way, cause I really like that.” She also enjoys music such as different kinds of jazz and certain kinds of pop.

If she could give advice to music students or students in general, she would say that teachers, with very few exceptions, want the most to help students learn and that students shouldn’t feel afraid to get help when they need it. There are “so many supports built in.” She says to “be bold,” and if you need some information that you don’t have, then ask.

“Music, no matter what style of what you play or how you’re involved in it, is such a cool art form, and [it] is a cool way to be involved with a big group of people and bond with them,” Brown says.

“That love, that drive, of creating something that’s really awesome,” is what she wants to bring to the school here through the students.

She also wants to add that whether it’s playing an instrument or singing, there is a lot of hard work involved.

“Hard work has to be specifically done like repetition it has to be your jam so you can express yourself on different levels,” Brown said.