Since the start of the 2022-2023 school year, Golden Valley’s band and color guard program has had to adapt and work flexibly without a director and competition is a big thing for many sports, and arts, such as band. Having to dedicate much time out of their days to perfect numbers to display, and all this had to be done without official leadership. However, with hard work and time, a new band director is leading our resonant and sharp band, along with the variegated color guard program: Angel Nazario.

Alumnus of Golden Valley High School, Nazario attended the school from 2006 through 2010. Like most students, he is committed to the performing arts, and practically ‘lived in the 600 building’—something commonly said by performers in band, theater, or vocal arts.

Additionally, he “attended Pasadena City College as well as College of the Canyons, and earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University Northridge. He has performed with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, Pulse Percussion Ensemble, and the Marine Corps Band to name a few” from gvgrizzlyband on Instagram.

With no actual band teacher to teach and lead the students, Kevin Alterman—Golden Valley’s theater technician and substitute teacher—was asked to step in and lead the coinciding programs at the start of the semester.

“I wasn’t sure how things would proceed, but I knew that no matter what happened I would make sure the band program survived the transition,” says Alterman.

Performing Arts is often something that is overlooked and underappreciated at schools; many people outside of the programs don’t realize there is as much time and dedication put into the programs as there is in sports like cheer, football, and basketball. Band has weekly evening rehearsals from 6-9pm and occasionally on Saturdays, from 8 am to 12 pm.

Additionally, just as cheer has a competition season, the performing arts, in this case band, has competitions as well: October and November. The band had to work twice as hard, and trust each other in the process—which succeeded in the end—to receive 4th place out of approximately 40 schools (great job, guys!).

Coming in half-way through the school year—second semester—for any teacher can be hard, especially for teachers in the performing arts.

“Coming in half-way through the actual school year makes things a little difficult, but I feel like I’m transitioning really well into the position,” says Nazario.

There is certainly a different relationship that has to be created between teachers or directors and student performers. In the performing arts program, the performers have to understand their director and what they want achieved from their performances; their goals.

Nazario touches this subject, saying, “I feel like the students are starting to understand who I am and what I’m about…I want to have the students involved with our long term goal process so that we’re all in the same page in their goals that are made by the teacher as well as the performers’.”

Not to mention, Nazario is not the new color guard director, but rather, Jules Gomes. Nazario states, “I just make sure I oversee everything, and the program is going fine in the direction of both myself and Jules, so we just make sure that our vision aligns and that it’s being portrayed correctly through the student’s performances.”
Going back, seeing the results of the band sticking together and witnessing the payoff for all their diligence, you can really see how even a minor setback cannot break or drag them down. “All it takes is one look at us to know that we are unbreakable,” says Alterman.

In addition, Alterman added, “Coming out of the role as band director, I feel relief, but not from any sort of burden being lifted but rather from the confidence that a truly wonderful person has taken over, and I know things are going to be okay.”