Recruiting Begins On The First Day Of School And Goes All Year

After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

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 School in Jonesboro, which is the fifth largest city in the Arkansas, with a population of just over 80,000, and is also located in the northeastern part of the state.

In this episode we'll learn about the similar ways in which these directors begin thinking about recruiting for next year on the first day of school in the current year. They'll also tell us about the ways they use short videos and social media to reach out to potential band members.

Our conversation was recorded January 3, 2025. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part one.