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Last night Don Crews, long-time band director at Hadley, conducted his last concert. (I believe they still have state competition upcoming).
Just wanted to express my appreciation for Don. He has been a tremendous asset to our community. Anyone who has enjoyed the bands at West owes him thanks.
Band was probably the highlight of Hadley for all of my kids, and went a long way towards instilling in them a lifelong love of music. And I can't imagine any other program in our schools enjoyed the level of continued success Don brought to Hadley's bands.
Thank you, Don. Whoever is selected to succeed you has some mighty large shoes to fill.
I think another gem in the local schools at the same level as Don Crews is Georgia Alemis and her Hadley orchestras. When my musician kid was at Hadley, Georgia was a wonderful teacher and a wonderful influence on my kid. The Hadley orchestra has also had an impressive string of success. I think they've been named an Honor Orchestra by the Illinois Grade School Music Association every year since something like 2003. I think the last time any other orchestra was named an honor orchestra was something like 2004.
The orchestra competitions were interesting. The kids would perform before a panel of judges and then one of the judges would lead them in a short class. I'll never forget the time when one of the judges, a music professor from Northwestern, started his class with the kids by saying he had been waiting for 3 years for the chance to work with them.
Never had a chance to meet the man. I am just impressed that I had Jerry Wolfe for music back in the day. He had been with Hadley for 20 or so years before he retired, and now Don. Only 2 Music teachers in the last 40 plus years. That is quite an accomplishment.
“just like in real life there's still rules on this team. Unlike real life? Nobody's above the rules on this field." – Coach Eric Taylor
I've long thought that if your kid is attending Hadley you really ought to try getting them interested in one of the music programs. If you don't, you are missing out on some of the best that our schools have to offer.
Mr. Crews was definitely the most influential teacher my son had at Hadley. My son had some pretty bad teachers there, and unfortunately, more than one who did not support the music program and did not make it easy for him to miss the class time necessary in order to be in band. (For those who don't know, at Hadley, music is not a regular period; kids who want to participate have to come in early several times a week, and miss some class time, as well.)
Anyway, my son absolutely loved Mr. Crews, and I think he experienced the best musicianship he ever would at Hadley. They won SuperState his eighth grade year, which was a highlight.
Mr. Crews worked miracles given the obstacles in his way; he will be missed.
Edited to add - I agree with Dinsdale. The best music experience your children will experience in this town is at Hadley. Unfortunately, the high school just is not up to the same quality, although the directors there are all very nice. They're fairly new, as well, so perhaps that will change. But Hadley's music program - in our case, the band program - was simply the best in our school years. And the kids in the music program there are just the best, sweetest kids, and that's saying something about those pre-adolescent years! But they're expected to assume a lot of responsibility and be very disciplined, which is a wonderful thing in middle school.
