After the departure of director Ms. Dandeneau, Jason Alfidi started his first year teaching at Danbury High School this year. He started working during the summer to make the transition between directors as seamless as possible for the students. Especially with the marching band season starting in August, he took every new obstacle in stride and worked with the band parents to kick off the season. Though it was his first time as a director, Alfidi wasn’t a stranger to the school or program, as he graduated from DHS in 2019. Five students joined the program early enough that they marched with him in his graduating year. Now, at 22 years old, he has taken every opportunity to connect with every student and build his new reputation, this time as director. Though it took time for everyone to adjust to the new leadership and the obstacles the team had to overcome (for example, freezing practices), by hard work and delivering motivational speeches, Alfidi led them to an 82.8/100 at the State Championships. When asked how he is enjoying the new role, Alfidi expressed his love for the job stating, “I think that it’s fun because I get to see high schoolers grow every single day. At the collegiate level, there is a lot of rehearsing, there is a lot of practicing but there’s not a lot of growth. At the high school level, you come in every single day and you watch the students in front of you grow as people… I think that’s a really cool thing to watch and a really cool thing to be a part of.”
Throughout the year he has several performances and after-school activities to run. During school, Alfidi teaches concert band, symphonic band, piano, and percussion ensemble. On top of those, marching band started in August and ran through October, consisting of three-hour practices two days a week and 9-14 hour competition days or full-day practices every Saturday. After a small break, winter guard and percussion start in December and run through the end of March with a similar schedule to the fall season. Throughout January, he will help his students who made it into the Western Regionals Music Festival prepare before going to supervise the group and watch their performance. Then, around the spring, he is performing alongside his students in Hairspray’s live pit on the drumset, his main instrument. From there, Alfidi will start running rehearsals and conducting the final songs for his first class at DHS in the Spring Music Festival. Finally, he will end the year by sending off the 14 seniors graduating out of his band with “Pomp and Circumstance” and a few entrance and exit songs for graduation.
Alfidi was required to learn every instrument to complete his teaching degree, but his primary instruments are “percussion and jazz drums.” His main inspiration to teach was from his teacher at Western Connecticut State University here in Danbury. “There were a lot of people down the line that inspired me to teach and that inspired me in different ways. One of those people, his name is Dr. D. He is very wholesome in his approach to teaching but he holds very high standards for his students, and I liked that balance between ‘I’m going to make you the best version of yourself but I’m also going to make this a place you love to come to every single day.’ In his teaching, Alfidi took that philosophy to heart and ended every speech and post to his students with the phrase “here we grow.” He is excited to grow the program in the years to come, revealing that he plans to connect middle schoolers and high schoolers “through events, though fundamental camps, through going to the middle schools and teaching at them and making sure those students have a familiar face for when they come up here” which he believes will help the Danbury band’s retention rates through the transition to high school.
After the concert was postponed due to city-wide water safety, the band was grateful for the few extra days. A few pieces out of their program included the ballad “Risk Everything For A Dream,” a fun and challenging piece “To The Summit,” a Christmas medley of songs from the movie Polar Express, and “Sleigh Ride” among others between all of his classes. “We’ve been rehearsing those all year, making them as strong and fun as we can… We have a lot of pieces, a lot to show everyone and a lot of prep has gone into preparing those.”
Alfidi has taken on the year with endless enthusiasm and an open mind. He is excited to find new ways to grow the program and showcase his band to the community. He will continue to work on improving the band’s community internally and showcasing a place where kids are pushed every day to be “the best versions of themselves,” ultimately creating a welcoming environment for newcomers in the next few years.
