our story

Leading Our Wold through Music

Chaparral was built to be the city’s flagship high school- a truly unique and special place. Music has always been an important part of that heritage. 40 years later Chaparral has a huge music program with a whole department full of music faculty- something not seen at your average school. We have a TWO full time band directors (who teach all band- no music appreciation or other courses to fill out their schedules) Full time choir, orchestra, and mariachi.

Our specialty is helping students find, expand, and realize their full potential as people and as musicians. Those who exit our doors leave not only better musicians but better people. Whether it is a concert band, marching band, percussion, color guard, jazz, or small ensembles our students are learning to be a positive influence on the world around them “Leading our world through music.”

From the beginning Chaparral was set up to have unusually strong music programs. The school hired outstanding directors, provided funding and structure that ensured success. An unusually large number of students from the early graduating classes went on to become professional musicians and teachers.

A typical high school may have one or two music teachers who often have to supplement their schedules with piano, guitar, music appreciation, or other classes. At chaparral we have a full department of music teachers including band, choir, orchestra, and mariachi. In the band area we are blessed to have TWO full time band directors with two instructional assistants. With generous support from our administration and district we are also able to bring in guest teachers and hire specialized staff to work with specific instruments and our color guard.

Our mission: Leading our world through music.

We often say “Those who exit our doors leave not only better musicians but better people.” We strive to have a student led program. We have an extensive leadership audition and training process. We spend months training our student leaders and then we utilize them to run the program- gaining that valuable real-world leadership experience in the process. Our mantra is “those that do are those that learn” and we strive to have our students involved in the decision making and learning process.

Our program adheres strictly to four Core Beliefs:

PRIDE

Students are taught to believe in themselves and to build and express Pride in what they do and who they are. We strive to leave our equipment, relationships, the music, and the world better than we found it.

DEDICATION

Students are taught to work hard. We teach our students to give “everything, all the time” so that we are constantly “expanding our ability” and pushing our potential to new heights. We are dedicated to the bands, to each other, and to the art. We won’t stop until our goals have been reached.

FAMILY

We are a family as a band. We are there for one another through the good and the bad.

LOVE

Love is the value that ties all of the others together. With love we sacrifice our own interests to the betterment of one another and the art.

From the beginning Chaparral was set up to have unusually strong music programs. The school hired outstanding directors, provided funding and structure that ensured success. An unusually large number of students from the early graduating classes went on to become professional musicians and teachers.

A typical high school may have one or two music teachers who often have to supplement their schedules with piano, guitar, music appreciation, or other classes. At chaparral we have a full department of musicteachers including band, choir, orchestra, and mariachi. In the band area we are blessed t have TWO full time band directors with two instructional assistants. With generous support from our administration and district we are also able to bring in guest teachers and hire specialized staff to work with specific instruments and our color guard.

Our mission: Leading our world through music.

We often say “Those who exit our doors leave not only better musicians but better people.” We strive to have a student led program. We have an extensive leadership audition and training process. We spend months training our student leaders and then we utilize them to run the program- gaining that valuable real-world leadership experience in the process. Our mantra is “those that do are those that learn” and we strive to have our students involved in the decision making and learning process.

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Discover Your Potential

Chaparral Band students get better grades, do better on standardized tests, graduate, attend college, and earn scholarships at a higher rate than their peers. Those things learned in Chaparral Bands will serve students for the rest of their lives- whether they become lifelong musicians or not.

I am ready!