From Our Choir and Band Instructors!
February 16, 2022
From Bryan Botka, Band Director:
It has been a joy to join the team at Cascade Christian Schools as the band director this year. The instrumental music program strives to foster excellence through music and provides student with a variety of music ensembles and performance experiences to participate in. Student ensembles include the Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble, and CCS Pep Band, which plays at football games, pep assemblies, and basketball games.
In December, the Jazz Band enjoyed playing Christmas music for students as they arrived in the morning and at the annual Christmas concert, where all the instrumental ensembles celebrated Christ's birth by presenting a musical offering. The students are excited to share their God-given talents and hard work again at this year’s Instrumental Spring Concert on March 1 as well as at the All-District Band Concert at the end of the year. This year, in addition to giving large ensemble performances, students have had the opportunity to rehearse and perform in smaller chamber groups, and this experience has helped develop their leadership skills and independence. I am so thankful to teach music in a place that seeks to glorify God in everything.
From Tegan Hinojos, Vocal, Worship, and AV Tech Director:
We have four choirs at CCS—beginning, intermediate, and advanced choirs, and a zero-hour jazz choir. I like to tell my kids, “By the time you leave, I want you to not need me anymore.” To achieve this, we focus on students using resources, learning independence, and leading sections and rehearsals. We perform for each other, the student body, and our elementary campuses, and we travel to vocal festivals. In fact, three of our choirs are traveling to Disneyland in March to compete at a vocal festival!
The worship team focuses on the musical aspect of ministry and more. In short, they lead musical worship every Wednesday, plan the songs for each chapel, run supervised rehearsals, and operate the behind-the-scenes equipment to create a distraction-free environment.
AV Tech is a job-training program. Students come in with little to no knowledge, and they leave with the ability to get a job with an AV company. We focus on the fundamentals of running cameras, learning ProPresenter (used for worship lyrics in churches), doing live audio mixing, and editing videos.