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After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators is a music education podcast from Amro Music Stores, Inc. Our After Hours podcast host, Nick Averwater, facilitates engaging conversations each week with band directors, private music teachers, general music educators, orchestra directors, and other music industry professionals just like you. Each podcast guest shares practical advice on things like classroom management in your band program, placing beginners on instruments, band and orchestra recruitment strategies, band boosters, fundraising, and more. The goal of After Hours is to provide a podcast for band directors, orchestra directors, and music educators with strategies for both "on-podium" and “off-podium” skills that can help create a school music program that you can be proud of. If you can't find what you're looking for in our current episodes, we'd love to hear from you! Send us an email with questions or topics you'd like to see addressed in the podcast.

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After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

Setting Schedules Early And Communicating With Everyone In The School Makes Recruiting Easier.

April 09, 2025 • Amro Music • Season 6 • Episode 14

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 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 find out how these educators successfully work with school administration, fellow teachers, and especially counselors, to make sure deadlines are met and schedules are set. They'll also tell us how they communicate with parents and students directly, to let them know more about the band program.

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