As Ernest Righetti High School plows into the school year, a new face is helping students perfect their instrument playing.
Nicholas Burdick is taking over the school’s music program, which has more than 50 students involved in marching, jazz, and beginning band. He also instructs a music history course designed to capture the interplay between culture, arts, and history, as well as provide a deep feeling for what the past was like.
Burdick believes the special sensation of sounds that instruments make can teach students life skills such as focus, balance, responsibility, and teamwork, according to a press release.
“I want them to discover and recognize the beauty of music,” Burdick said in a press release. “If they learn form and balance in a piece of music, they can apply that to design, structuring an essay, and other tasks. Music is one of those things that makes life worth living.”
In order to strengthen the Warrior’s instrument-playing ranks, Burdick is zeroing in on building up beginning band. The band is for students who have never played an instrument before or for those who haven’t played in a while.
As for the other sections of the music program: The marching band will participate in field shows, parades, community events, and perform in various competitions. Jazz band musicians are headed into the community, where they can strengthen their confidence and skills by performing at nearby restaurants and public events to promote the program and help with fundraising efforts.
Burdick graduated from Irvine High School in Orange County, where he played the trumpet in the marching band. Before heading to the Central Coast, he taught choir at a school in Indiana, was a band director at a San Jose middle school and was a high school band director in Arizona. He has a bachelor’s degree in music from Luther College in Iowa and a master’s degree in instrumental conducting.
This article appears in Aug 21-28, 2014.