“The more people play music in a collaborative way – in a group, in an ensemble or at a high level – the world would be a better place,” said Morgan band director, Vidal Orduz. Orduz has been the band director at The Morgan School for three years now, and despite the low numbers in band, he still believes that music is a way to make the world a better place.

Orduz took the position of band director after the previous director, Ray Smith, retired after running the program here for 36 years. Orduz first started as the band director at Jared Eliot Middle School in town, and when the opportunity arose at the start of 2022, he took up his current mantle as both the Morgan band director and the band teacher for 5th graders at Jared Eliot.

“I just kind of found myself in Clinton through the middle school band and felt like it was appropriate to go to the high school,” said Orduz.

Orduz has always enjoyed music since he was young. As he grew older, he started to take private saxophone lessons. On top of this, Orduz joined a drum and bugle corps when he was 15 and picked up the euphonium.

“I started playing the saxophone at 10, in fifth grade, because that’s when we started at beginning band. And then I started playing, like private lessons on saxophone,” said Orduz.

Orduz studied music education at Western Connecticut State University and Kent State University. He had learned to play over four instruments as part of the music education courses.

“You literally study everything. So every band has a clarinet, saxophone, a trumpet, French horn, whatever, all that stuff, a Tuba, too. You also study the string instruments, violin, viola, cello, and you don’t really do much guitar. You do take two years of piano, though,” Orduz.

Orduz believes that everyone should play an instrument. He claims that the world would be a better place if more people played instruments. Orduz acknowledges that there is an idea that only smart people can play instruments, but Orduz made it very clear that he wants more people to be part of the large band ensemble he dreams of.

“I think we fall into a trap that ‘smart’ people tend to stay on an instrument because they’re encouraged to stay

on an instrument, but if more people just gave it on a try, and we had more different types of groups, I think more people would enjoy it,” said Orduz.

Currently, The Morgan School has less than 50 students in the current band ensemble. Orduz hopes that within the next few years, the ensemble will grow into larger numbers in the 70s and even 80s. The large number of students added to the ensemble could help break the stereotype that only the academically engaged students can play instruments and make music.

As Orduz talked about the expected growth of the ensembles, an exciting expression filled his face. Larger ensembles are very important to Orduz – and he hopes to recruit more students in the coming years.

One way – guitar.

“Before I came to Morgan, I didn’t play much guitar, and now I’m playing a lot of guitar.” I asked him why he started playing more guitar here at Morgan, “For beginning guitar and rock band.”

One potential solution to getting atypical students into the band is Morgan’s rock band. The class was started by Ray Smith with the goal of being able to have students play a different genre of music with different instruments, so they can enjoy band as much as the students in our typical band program.

“I would say rock band in itself here at Morgan is different from – I think a lot of school districts would call it – modern band. I still stick to calling it a rock band ’cause we don’t really follow the same curriculum as a modern band course, and it is definitely more based on inclusivity than the musician. We definitely strive for better musicianship.”

Inclusivity in the world of music can help break stereotypes and can even make music more common throughout the world, as Orduz has said. Mr. Orduz believes that if everyone played music, the world would be a better place. And many can believe that it is a naive way of thinking, but to Orduz, it is more meaningful, and it encouraged him to become the band teacher he is today.

“I have this naive view, which encourages me to be a band teacher.”