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Episode 19: Provo High Band with Deven Halcomb

Sup with the Sup
Sup with the Sup
Episode 19: Provo High Band with Deven Halcomb
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Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up with the Sup podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. For this week’s episode, I will be visiting Provo High School to speak with Deven Halcomb, the Provo High Band Director. We will talk about the school band program and even hear some music performed by the Provo High Jazz Band.

Before we hear from them, let’s review our updates.

  • Help spread holiday cheer with Timpview High School’s Sub for Santa program, starting after Thanksgiving break, November 27th, 2023, and continuing through winter break until January 3rd. Timpview is teaming up with United Way and the Food and Care Coalition to support families in our district. Whether you want to donate new gifts, contribute cash, or find more ways to join in, please visit timpviewsubforsanta.weebly.com and make this season extra special to those in need.
  • Look for the weekly videocast from Superintendent Dau this Friday. In this short video, I will provide important information and updates about work happening throughout the district.

And now, on to our podcast.

Wendy: I’m excited to be here today at Provo High School. We are talking with Deven Halcomb, who is our band director at Provo High School. So welcome, Deven.

Deven: Thanks for having me.

Wendy: So let’s start first, I have so many things I want to talk to you about so I’m super excited so I hope you’re as excited as I am.

Deven: Okay.

Wendy: So first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up at Provo High School. Like when you were, you know, seven years old, did you think, I’m going to be a band teacher. This is going to be amazing. So tell us a little bit about your journey.

Deven: Yeah, it’s a wild, crazy one. Um, I was raised by a single mother. I have three younger siblings and growing up wasn’t always the easiest. And I think it was, it was around middle school when I first got into band just cause I wanted to play tuba like my mom. My mom was a tuba player. She told me about it all the time. And growing up in poverty, I didn’t get to travel much and my mom, she would always tell me, Oh yeah, I went to, to Europe and played tuba after high school. I’m like, I wonder if I could do that if I play tuba. And so initially as 10 year old little derplit, that was why I wanted to do band. Um, and then sixth grade, seventh grade, I realized I’m actually kind of good at this and middle school is hard. And for me, the band room and my band friends were my safe space. And I realized that I wanted to pass it on to other people, um, to help other people be safe and happy and productive. Um, and then into high school, I realized I’m also pretty good at it. And then I kind of looked at that career, uh, projection of, is this a marketable job? Is this a needful job? Does this help people? Am I good at this job? Can I get paid doing this job? And It checked all the boxes for me, you know, um, there’s a market for it. I’m good at it. It helps people. And so from there, I went into college for music teaching. I started at Missouri State nearby, uh, where I grew up and then, uh, following a two year mission for my church, I, uh, transferred to Brigham Young University and finished my degree out here. And it was a bit of a. of a jump going from rural Missouri to the Wasatch Front. It is a little bit different here. And then in all craziness, after I finished my degree, I decided, let’s take my first teaching job in the San Francisco Bay area, which is a whole nother environment, but so much of it was very familiar with me. Um, and so I started teaching there and I was looking for a change of venue after a while. I wanted to pursue a high school. Um, music position and a position I heard opened up at Timpview High School and I applied for it and ultimately that they chose the current director, Mr. Bolton, he and I are still great friends and, um, and later when the Provo High position had opened up, h was like, Hey, you should apply at Provo High. And I, I applied, I came out and I was ultimately granted the position and it’s quite warm because I had been calling for positions all over the state of Utah, trying to come back to where I’d finished my degree. And it was, it was quite warm and telling of how Provo handled that hiring process, um, of reaching a very wide net. At the time I was an out of state candidate, um, with different ties to the Provo area and what I would bring to the community. And it was really telling of the priorities of the administrations at both schools that I interviewed for. That’s incredible.

Wendy: Well, welcome. I’m so glad that you ended up here. So how long have you been at Provo High?

Deven: This is my fourth year at Provo High.

Wendy: Okay, fantastic. So tell us a little bit about, um, the band program here at Provo High. What are the different classes or bands or, um, groups that students can be part of and tell us how they get involved in that. Like, what does an audition process look like? Um, what, what do they need to be doing?

Deven: Yeah. Provo High has a wide array of band opportunities. Um, there’s concert bands, there’s jazz bands, and there’s after school band activities. Um, so the jazz bands are based on the American jazz tradition. We have two classes of that at Provo High School. We have an open enrollment class that anybody who can play the instrument can take. There’s no audition process. There’s no cuts. Last year we had four tenor saxophones, but normally there’s only two, but it’s an intermediate class. If you know how to play the instrument, come play some jazz.

Wendy: Okay.

Deven: And then we have our top jazz group. Um, that’s an audition select group and their audition usually starts the first day they walk through the door. Um, if things get close, I have some music I’ll have them play and I’ll adjudicate it. But usually you can tell who shows up, who works. And those are the type of people who tend to move forward through the advancements of the bands. Um, similarly with the concert bands, we have a symphonic band where students come in and in some cases they’re learning. Um, but they sign up for the class and they just jump right in. Um, for our wind symphony, uh, similar to what I had mentioned with the jazz bands, the people who show up in the end, who work hard, who submit high quality assignments, I’m able to, Compile those together and, and decide who needs to be moved up to the higher, uh, ensembles with the wind symphony.

Wendy: Okay.

Deven: Um, and then lastly, we have a similar thing with our percussion programs where we have an intermediate percussion and an advanced percussion, um, where the intermediate, anybody, anybody, everybody just come play some drums. And then the advanced group where we work on percussion ensembles, a higher level percussion preparation, some of, some of those students are preparing for college percussion auditions and things like that. And then let me get into the whole afterschool monster. The afterschool, uh, band programs are, honestly, they’re from, for me, they’re the cherry on top of everything that is music education. Um, these students spend hundreds of hours together with each other. Um, we just wrapped up our fall marching season back in November. We took a second place down in St. George. That was amazing. And we had a first place percussion section. They took first place nearly all season long. Um, another unique thing for our district is provo, uh, Timpview High School also got first place percussion in their division. So we’re doing some good drum stuff and those two percussion programs. They come. They work together with what we call Provo City Indoor Percussion.

Wendy: Okay, that’s right.

Deven: Where they compete in a winter indoor percussion circuit across the state with other schools. Um, and our, this is the third year that we’ve worked together with both high schools on that. And they’ll rehearse, uh, Tuesday and Thursday evenings for three to four hours each night, and then they compete on Saturday starting in February. And so I’m excited to see what they’re going to, how they’re going to do this year. They just started that up about a week ago. And so folks are getting settled in from both high schools, figuring out how these two teams work together.

Um, it’s interesting because our district has so much Provo, Timpview rivalry, the basketball games coming up soon.

Wendy: On Friday. Yes.

Deven: And so, but to find a way that these schools actually. Compete together well, and they build each other up for it. It’s really a positive to see that in years past, we’ve done similar things with our color guard and winter guard units. Um, and so there’s all kinds of afterschool stuff as well. Those activities are typically seasonal. So marching band, we’ll start that up in February. We were like, Hey, come sign up for marching band. And then we’ll have that, that sign up window open and. For several months until about May, when we do our mini camp, that’s when the middle schoolers come up and see what it’s like, they get the music in their hands, the instruments in their hands, they start practicing some of the marching formation and choreography to see what it’s going to feel like and sound like, and then in summer, we do the parades here in the community. And then in August or end of July, we start up our week long band camp. And it’s about. 70, 80 hours of intense work where we learn most of the show and put all that in. And then when that ends, we go straight into our winter season with winter guard and indoor percussion. So it’s kind of a year long affair.

Wendy: Really? It really is. You’re just, you’re just kind of revolving or changing what your emphasis is at any given time. So your jazz band has prepared a couple of numbers for us. So tell us about the first one that they’re going to perform.

Deven: The first one has been in the jazz band folder for a couple of years. It’s seems to be a crowd favorite each year pulled from Polar Express. It’s called Hot Chocolate.

Wendy: What do the students love about this piece of music?

Deven: I think it’s the swing feel, the tempo. It gets really intense at several parts. So it’s quite a, it’s quite a white knuckle ride.

Wendy: Okay, let’s have a listen.

Jazz Band Play Hot Chocolate

Wendy: Nice! That was incredible! Lots of opportunities for students to get involved in this music program. What happens if, like, a student doesn’t have, for example, access to private lessons or things like that? How can we help those students become more involved in music?

Deven: Based on my background and a lot of my philosophy, the first thing is just do it. I did not get a private lesson until my senior year of high school. I had approached my band director. I think I want to be a music teacher when I grow up. Okay, let’s get you a couple lessons. It wasn’t even like a regular lesson schedule. I got a couple lessons from someone who was willing to donate their time. If you want to do music, just do music. Um, that really is the first step that I think perhaps sometimes holds people back. Um, what if I’m not good enough? What what what if I can’t afford things? Provo band rule number one is don’t take food off the table to pay for band stuff, you know, if you want to do it just do it the development and the training that comes with time that time never happens if you don’t just get your foot in the door and do it.

Wendy: Yep. So, more importantly, it’s just about showing up and putting in the work. Yeah.

Deven: Right.

Wendy: So, you’re talking about Marching Band. How do you pick, like, what your show is going to look like? What is that process? Because it’s a huge production, so tell me about what that looks like.

Deven: Um, so we just, uh, had our design meeting about two weeks ago to decide what the fall marching band show would be for Fall 2024.

Wendy: Yes. Okay.

Deven: And if there’s any band students listening, no, I’m not going to reveal it right now. But what we do is we sit down, we look at the folks that are returning the freshmen, sophomores and juniors from the previous season that have already told us that they’re coming back next season and we look at what our strengths are. Um, most recently are, we just finished a show called Out of this World where we did music from Gustav Holst’s Planet Suite with some music from Bruno Mars.

Wendy: Cause it’s always good to throw in a little Bruno Mars. So yeah.

Deven: Yeah. Um, and we. We looked at, we had a really strong percussion section returning. And so we wanted to write to those strengths. Um, like we do look at different solo opportunities or visual choreography type things. Um, going back to my first rule of don’t take food off the table to pay for band stuff. I try to keep our costs down and I try to reuse things that we already have. And so I look at the different props and things that we have that we can simply redesign without spending too much money.

Wendy: That’s great.

Deven: Um, and with that in mind, we, we find unique new ways to look at new themes uh, so this year we did a space show the year before that we did one about computers. The year before that we did a jungle and the year before that it was a dragon. So there’s all different opportunities and options out there. Um, so I, I look at that practical part of who’s going to be here. What do we do? Well, what resources do we already have? And then I also look at music education. I try to make sure that we’re teaching these students first and foremost. Um, so that that’s why I went with Gustav Holst. He’s one of the premier musical composers, uh, that students should study at some point in their musical careers. Um, we also look at various styles and cultures. Um, some of the things that we’ll be pulling for our fall 2024 show, Secret Hint, is that it involves more cultures than what our students would typically come across. And so giving an opportunity for them to not just play something that sounds like it, but also to invest in the deeper research behind that, what it means to appreciate, not simply appropriate. So it’s also about you’re trying to really push students outside of what maybe they’re really familiar with. So that we can expand their skillset at the same time. So I think of it like an experience as an intangible object. You know, if I could hand them a hundred dollars, that’d be super nice. This experience, I should be able to hand it to them.

They can drop a hundred dollar bill, but if they participate in this experience, no one can take that away from them. That’s theirs forever.

Wendy: And they’re going to remember it forever. Cause I still remember like. Choir trips and performances and, and it just lives with you forever. Cause it’s about being part of something greater. What are the skills that you feel like students really develop in music or in the performing arts in general, that they can take and apply in other parts of their lives or in other parts of their schooling that really supports them.

Deven: I am a very biased band director in this regard, but I would say every good thing can be found in a band program. If it’s done right, commitment, dedication, perseverance. There are some great things that would break your heart in the most beautiful ways of seeing how much these kids do to perform at their highest level. We’ve had students come back from devastating injuries on short turnarounds where I’m questioning them just to make sure that they’re safe and healthy because they want to come back and help their team. It inspires me to the deepest part of my soul to see how dedicated these students are to each other on top of that. There’s commitments and schedule making. I’ll send out a calendar of Hey, here’s all of our rehearsal dates and students have to block that out and manage jobs and their marching man comments and their competition schedule while trying to maintain their grades so that they’re eligible to perform, um, and just that act of self regulation I think is so critical to individual success in high school as well as beyond high school of, can you manage yourself?

Wendy: Yeah, I agree.

Deven: Um, when students are going to college or they’re trying to manage a job or additional training, and they still might have a family, and they’re man, they’re just managing a ton of things all at once, and so you’re teaching them all of those skills. Um, that’s pretty incredible.

Wendy: What, what is the best part about being a band director?

Deven: I feel bad in saying this because I feel like I robbed the community of this. Rarely, if ever, is our best performance on stage at the concert. They’re always really good. But there’s usually a moment that just the students and I see and Did you guys just see that? Did you hear that? And then they realize Whoa, this is so awesome. And that’s, that’s really precious to me. Kind of going back to like the injuries I had mentioned or other challenges that our students face, the amount of personal growth that these students exhibit. The only word I can think of is inspiring, but it doesn’t do it justice. It makes you want to get up and be better because of what you see these kids do, the obstacles they overcome, the challenges they take on, um, both curricularly as far as handling this rigorous music, that’s really difficult on top of the choreography and the schedule, but all those personal things that they manage on developing friendships, overcoming hardships and friendships, um, overcoming different personality traits, learning how to be a leader, learning how to be a follower.

Being somewhere in between that, that maturation process, seeing these students, because I typically work with them for four years, if they do all four years of the program and seeing the growth they make in that time is amazing. I think one of the things too, that students really take away from being part of a group is. They recognize too, that there are times when it doesn’t go their way and they can bounce back from that and, and really grow. And then it’s okay. It’s not, it doesn’t defeat you. It doesn’t define you because you just keep working at it. And then, like you said, you have this magical moment in a class period where it’s incredible and you’re like, wow, that was amazing.

Wendy: So the holidays are a very stressful time and particularly for performing arts teachers. So tell me a little bit about the preparation, um, that you’ve been going through to get all of your bands ready for concerts and performances. And, and where do your kids perform and, um, what does that look like for them?

Deven: Um, so it, it depends very much on the program that, that they’re in. For our concert bands, while we have a combined concert with the orchestra coming up on Thursday, December 14th. Okay. And for those concerts, we usually prepare music in class and then we have a dress rehearsal schedule before then, in preparation for that final concert date, we have to look backwards. We have to look, how much time do the students need to prepare this music?

Wendy: Right.

Deven: And then for some of the combination stuff that we do between band and orchestra. We have to plan collaboration practices with that to get all the moving parts together. It’s usually more than just a single night of dress rehearsal. For this season, we have two combined rehearsals and a dress rehearsal the night before to make sure all that comes together. And then as far as where we perform for the concert bands, they usually perform here at Provo High School for jazz band. We just did our second year of playing at Provo mall. Um, it’s a wonderful venue off by the food court. The families come join us and grab a bite to eat. It’s, it’s a cozy setting. And for me, I try to make it part of the jazz curriculum that the students learn. If they’re going to perform as a jazz musician after high school, either as a hobbyist and amateur professional, performing in public like that is more common than playing in a concert hall.

So try to get them more performance opportunities that are more like what they would encounter in a, in a professional or semi professional setting. And then my favorite. Tuesday before Christmas break, we’re playing in the commons at Provo High School at seven o’clock in the morning.

Wendy: So kids are gonna hear this when they’re coming into school.

Deven: Yeah, we call it jamming in the jammies. So they’re gonna bring all their Christmas pajamas.

Wendy: I love that. That’s awesome. So then they’re performing for their peers, which is really important too that they, that their peers get to hear all of the great music that they produce.

Deven: Yeah.

Wendy: And their hard work. So tell us a little bit about the second number that, uh, the students are performing before we listen to it.

Deven: The second piece is have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, a dramatic change of tempo. It’s got a beautiful laid back jazz style to the rhythms and a rich sonority in the wind section with some beautiful ornaments from the percussion section. Just an old favorite for sure. So here we go.

Wendy: That was amazing. It’s very clear that you are very dedicated to your work and, um, being able to change the lives of young people, but what, what are some final thoughts that you would have for all of us?

Deven: For me, music is different for each person. And I try really hard within the band program at Provo High School to emulate as many different backgrounds and cultures as possible to bring more people in. Um, I don’t want our program to be a monolith. I want it to be reflective of the diversity of our community, um, and to bring in more perspectives and ventures and ideas of what successful and expressive music can be like. Um, I want them to look in the current modern times and assess the music that’s coming out. In today’s music culture and looking back 20 years and 50 years, a hundred years. And then also looking beyond just the walls of our classroom. That’s why I take the jazz band to the mall, not just for the curriculum sake, but also to be a part of our community. And that’s the same reason why the marching band does the parades. It’s not so the kids can sweat in the summer and get extra, most certainly, but the whole reason we do it is to support the community. And we want the, we want it to be a, a complete social connection between the students and the music and our community.

Wendy: Thank you so much, Deven, for taking the time to talk with us today.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of What’s Up with the Sup. As always, all episodes will be posted on YouTube, the district website, and anywhere you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu.

Please be sure to join us next week for a new episode of What’s Up with the Sup. Until then, have a great weekend, everyone.

Shauna Sprunger
  • Coordinator of Communications
  • Shauna Sprunger
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