Written by Claire Schmaltz 

For many students, the band director is more than a teacher, she is a mentor, motivator, and the reason they love music. For Salem Middle and High schools Brittany Hildenbrand fits all of these standards. 

Hildenbrand started her career by doing everything band related in high school.

“I was a part of the Marching Band, Concert/Pep Band, Honor Jazz Band (included the whole school corporation), Honor Band (included the whole school corporation), EPYO (Evansville Youth Philharmonic Orchestra), EPYO2 mentor student, took oboe lessons at the University of Evansville. I played in the pit orchestra for musicals and always participated in ISSMA Solo and Ensemble district, as well as state.

“I had always had incredible directors when I was in school.” 

Hildendbrand believes this is why she chose to pursue her band career. 

After high school,Hildenbrand attended the University of Evansville for oboe performance and switched to music education her second year. She originally wanted to perform her oboe on big stages but every orchestra has 50-plus people auditioning. While waiting to see if she got in, she needed to have something to do in the meantime. 

“It was this reason that I switched my major to music education just in case,” she said. “What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with it. Teaching band is incredibly rewarding and something that I’m incredibly happy I had chanced upon.”

Hildenbrand originally started teaching at Mater Dei High School in Evansville.

“I was employed by the high school and worked with their marching band that season (2022),” she said. “Though I worked at the high school, I was one of the middle school directors between two schools – St. Phillips Catholic School and St. James Catholic School – where I taught fifth through eighth grade band.”

She was then hired at Salem in June of 2023 as the band director. 

Since her time teaching at Salem, she has continued to work extremely hard at both schools teaching her students fun and challenging songs. Hildenbrand has also started her own jazz band at Salem which she and the students enjoy. 

¨Our Marching Lions have pushed themselves continuously and are performing wonderfully,” she said. “We have restarted our Salem Invitational and have been getting more local bands to come attend.¨ 

With all of these activities that are involved in band, the time commitment is the hardest part. Working at two schools can be a lot of work and very challenging. 

¨There are always extra rehearsals to be scheduled and things to be done,¨ she said. 

Along with these challenges, there are also lots of rewarding moments in Hildenbrand’s career. Her favorite part about being a band director is seeing her students have fun and enjoy what they are doing. 

¨I love when sixth graders really start taking initiative and playing their parts for fun,” she said. “When our seventh graders look at the music that used to be hard, but is now a piece of cake. When our eighth grade is performing at such a high standard and combining with our high school students. I love when the high school is handed a piece that they swear they hate because it’s hard, but when they turn around and learn to love it because of those challenges.¨

At the end of the day, Hildenbrand wants so much more than for her students to play the perfect notes. She wants them to leave the classroom having a safe place to come to, a place to belong, and a place to be themselves and have fun.