Alex Whitehead’s visionary teaching helps his students thrive as musicians and be confident, disciplined young people. “I do this by being 100% genuine and constantly striving for my students to be the very best version of themselves that they can be,” he says. “I think my students are comfortable with my high standards because they know I care about them as people, not just musicians.”
This positivity has led to Whitehead’s band program at Jefferson Middle School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, growing by mor than 50%. “Our entire music department recruits as one unit to our four elementary schools. We view any student involvement in band, orchestra or choir as a win for all our programs,” he says.
In total, the band, orchestra and choir programs have a combined enrollment of more than 350 students. The elementary schools are visited several times each year by the middle school directors and students for performances, Q&A sessions, instrument petting zoos and final fittings.
Whitehead’s innovative rehearsal structures and repertoire choices help students broaden their music educational experiences. “Repertoire choice is the most time-consuming part of the job. I constantly choose literature that expands my students’ understanding of the world, appropriately fits the ability level of my ensembles and stretches them as musicians,” he explains.
Most importantly, the music must be fun and always engaging for the students. “Once the literature has been selected, I try to have an intimate knowledge of each piece and know exactly how each part should sound so I can always be engaged in the literature in front of my students. If I have not fully bought into the literature that I’m programming, I cannot bring out the best in my students,” Whitehead says.
Last year, Whitehead was able to get the 8th-grade Jazz Band to be a curricular class. “This finally allowed our students to have band twice in a school day. In class, we are able to discuss the oral tradition of jazz and develop students’ jazz language skills through an improvisation-first approach,” Whitehead says.
This jazz ensemble is one of the few middle school bands that compete in Fort Wayne’s jazz festival scene, and students have won several improvisation awards at these festivals.
On top of all the ensembles he oversees at Jefferson Middle School, Whitehead also helps with the Northrop High School marching band and jazz band. A recent highlight for Whitehead was seeing the jazz band from the middle school and high school perform at Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Music in Our Schools Month festival. “The performance was a combination of all 7-12 students involved in jazz performing together. It was incredible to see my current and past students working and performing together! Plus, it showcased the culture-building the team at Jefferson and Northrop have been doing,” Whitehead says with pride.
