photo credit: Lincoln Hake
After seven years of directing the marching band Dr. Ishbah Cox has left the school after last school year to accept the position of Director of Wind Ensembles at Capital University. Taking over the role of band director is Joshua Boyer.
Before becoming the school band director, Boyer was the assistant director of the Ohio University athletic bands.
“My job at Ohio University evolved into largely administrative work with scheduling and technology support. Having a much more hands-on job has been very rewarding,” Boyer said.
Boyer is educating and leading his students while still giving an effort to create personal relationships with individual students.
“Boyer is a very light-hearted guy and genuinely very fun and easy to talk to. However, he keeps us in check when needed and knows how to get stuff done,” senior saxophonist Kyrie Kagy said.
The upperclassmen band members have been working under Cox for years now, with that time comes a lot of memories and traditions formed with him.
“He is really understanding of our traditions we’ve had for all the three years of band. While he has changed things, he very much gives us more opportunities in being a senior in the band,” Kagy said.
Although planned under Cox, Boyer is excited to take over the band’s Ireland trip next year.
“The trip to Ireland is going to be the highlight of the year. Although I have been to Ireland with a band before this will be my first time doing so in March for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” Boyer said.
The band celebrated senior night on the same night as the football and cheer teams while also taking time to honor and appreciate the seniors’ hard work at the band’s yearly Friday Night Lights performance.
“We honored our seniors prior to the football game against Dublin Coffman. Then, at our final home game on Oct. 13, we had the opportunity to feature our seniors with a senior drum break during halftime,” Boyer said.
Since the high school opened in 2008, the marching band has only had two directors. With the band program’s close relationship with the Ohio University band program, Boyer has had opportunities to know both the previous school band directors and learn from them.
“Knowing the program and the past directors, there is most definitely a high standard that we strive to continue to achieve each and every rehearsal and performance. My goal is to take what has already been built here at Orange and continue to lead the program to the next level,” Boyer said.
Freshmen and new members often face a learning curve in the band, so Boyer is working on improving his students’ talents in positive ways.
“Mr Boyer is including his students and he allows them room for improvement and mistakes and helps them along the way while also disciplining them,” freshman saxophonist Ezra Fouss said.
The band has daily rehearsals during and after school during the fall but they begin preparation over the summer. So while freshmen have only been in school since August, they’ve been building connections in high school all summer through the band.
“Through these rehearsals, the freshmen not only learned and refined their skills but also began to build relationships with the upperclassmen,” Boyer said.
However, Boyer isn’t afraid to change things up and teach the band his way. Boyer changed the ways that the band learns, practices, and the amount of halftime shows.
“Boyer has changed the way we learn music and drill. While keeping it fun by giving us long water breaks and giving us choices in music for a show,” Kagy said.
One of Boyer’s accomplishments in his first year as the school’s band director is leading the band to perform the most halftime shows the program has ever done in a single football season.
“The system of teaching and rehearsing drill I’ve brought to the program is exactly how I approached it with the Marching 110.For the first time in history for the Orange Band, we put four completely different halftime shows on the field,” Boyer said.
Alongside becoming the school’s band director this year, Boyer is also becoming a member of the community.
“It’s been great to see how involved and energetic the student section has been at football games. That type of school pride doesn’t happen everywhere for sure, and it’s great to see it happening here at Orange,” Boyer said.
