Band teacher comes to Havre High from Louisiana

Editor's note: The Havre Daily News is attempting to interview new teachers in the local school districts. People who know of new teachers, or the new teachers themselves, can contact the Havre Daily at [email protected].

Havre High School has a new band teacher from Louisiana.

"The first thing I'm looking forward to is the difference in temperature," Cullen Hinkle said. "I can tell you all the kids are excited to have a new band director and they are super excited that I've done marching band a lot, so they're excited to get started, and it's just going to be exciting to work with kids that really, really work hard and that's pretty much what I've been hearing."

He is also excited to work in a community that is supportive of the arts, he said, because he is not used to that where he comes from.

He said he will not only be teaching band, but also specialized adaptive music.

Havre High has three bands: The Pony Band, the Concert Band and the Symphonic Band, he said. 

Marching Band camp begins Friday, Aug. 14, he said, adding that a parent performance is set for Friday, Aug. 21 at 1 p.m.

That is still scheduled and could change depending on COVID-19, he said.

"We're kind of waiting to see the science of it, there's a study coming out from all the different music organizations across the country," Hinkle said. "They are doing a study on the aerosols that come out of the instruments to see how safe it is to play with each other, because, I know you are blowing air, it could obviously contaminate with the virus so it we're going to wait for that and see if it's super safe before we do any playing or anything here at school."

He said masks will be required when they are not playing and then if they are playing they will be spaced apart and outside as much as they can.

"We don't want to be linked to having any positive cases come from the band. That would be super bad," he said.

If the school goes back to remote learning, he said, the students will get a piece of music where they may play with the piano accompanying them and that they would practice that.

He said he is attending a professional development conference Thursday, July 30 on how to teach the students through remote learning

"To make sure that I'm best serving the kids," Hinkle said.

Students can get an app called "The Band app" where he is able to send out information to students enrolled in his classes.

Students and parents can contact him at [email protected].

"I think band is for all, and I'm a music teacher above all, so even if you're not experienced and you want to come learn totally open to anybody," he said.

"I'm really looking forward to showing the kids different perspectives about music around the world, basically where I come from and just exposing them to different types of music," he added.

Hinkle is from Morgan City, Louisiana, he said. He attended college in Hammond, Louisiana, at Southeastern Louisiana University.

He received his bachelor's degree in music education in May, he said.

"I worked with a lot of different marching bands around the area, everything is a lot more condensed there than it is here," he added. "I was also  principal euphonium in the symphonic band, marched in the spirit of the southland for three years, I was president of Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity, so I did a lot of stuff - tried to be very active the whole way through my college career," Hinkle said.

For updates or more information about the Havre High School band, people can visit its Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HavreHighBands .