New HTHS band director seeks to continue success

Hewitt Trussville High School’s new band director, Mike Guzman, has had his eyes on Hewitt for a while.

He spent the past three years directing the Tuscaloosa County High School band and watched it develop into a nationally recognized program. He had no intention to leave any time soon, he said.

But if he was going to leave Tuscaloosa County, he always said it would be one of three reasons, he said: if he died, if he retired, or if a position opened at Hewitt.

“I feel that Hewitt has everything that a program needs to be successful,” he said. “I think it has the potential to be nationally known. If we were able to do that at County High — which didn’t have all the factors that Hewitt has — then going to Hewitt, it would be more of a possibility.”

Guzman was born in Cuba and moved to Miami when he was 9 years old. In sixth grade, he joined his school band and played the tuba.

“I just felt like it was the most human of things that we can use to express ourselves,” he said about playing music from a young age. “Being able to express myself through music was a big deal. … As a child, especially with a language barrier, I couldn’t really express myself, so music was my way of expressing myself.”

He grew up listening to salsa music and Latin genres of music, and he said this has affected his taste in music.

“Jazz is also a big factor in that,” he said. “Latin music is so connected to jazz, so that’s a big influence as well.”

After high school, he went to the University of Miami and received a music performance degree. He played in the Miami Symphony for a few years before he got into teaching. This is his 15th year of teaching.

Compared to playing music, he said he enjoys teaching music because of the connections he makes with other people.

“The relationships that you build with your students run a lot deeper than the connections and relationships you have playing professionally,” he said. “You’re basically watching someone grow, affecting their growth and opening their eyes to music. It’s a much deeper relationship than it ever is from a performance aspect.”

Coming to Trussville has been an adventure for him, as he gets to know new students and becomes accustomed to the COVID-19 procedures, he said.

“On top of that, it has to be business as usual,” he said. “You come in, you teach band camp, you put a halftime show together — all the many things that go with that. … There are a lot of balls that are being juggled right now with this year.”

His first look at how students would handle playing band amid a pandemic was during the band camp that was held in the summer. When students were playing their instruments, they couldn’t wear a mask, but the students were outside and far apart from each other.

The difficult part, Guzman said, was before and after rehearsals. He said it was difficult to remind the students to not socialize closely together during water breaks, for example.

Nonetheless, putting on a successful band camp has been his favorite memory at Hewitt thus far, he said.

“Reaching the end of band camp, and they got a lot of the show on the field, and they felt really good about that,” he said. “That was a good thing and a good memory for me.”

The band room at Hewitt is large enough to allow the band students in each class period practice while staying distant from each other, so the students have been able to have rehearsals as normal. But because of the pandemic, the band students aren’t able to play halftime shows at away games, play in-person concerts or go to competitions.

“But they’re making the best of it,” Guzman said.