'It's a way of life'

Transition smooth for new SSSD band director

Janelle Jessen/Herald-Leader Band director Daniel Hodge coached the Siloam Springs High School band during practice last week.
Janelle Jessen/Herald-Leader Band director Daniel Hodge coached the Siloam Springs High School band during practice last week.

Teaching music is much more than a job for Daniel Hodge, new band director for the Siloam Springs School District.

Hodge is in charge of overseeing the 210-member high school band, the 107-member eighth-grade band, the 150-member seventh-grade band, and the 185-member intermediate school band, as well as the five band teachers on his staff.

He replaces longtime and much-loved band director Keith Rutledge, who retired along with his wife, sixth-grade language arts and social studies teacher Rhonda Rutledge, at the end of last school year. The couple worked in Siloam Springs for 28 years.

Hodge has been a longtime admirer of the Siloam Springs School District's band program and feels he has found the place he wants to spend the rest of his career.

"This job is not just a job to me, it's a way of life," Hodge said. "What I do is embedded in part of my soul."

Hodge's journey to Siloam Springs began when he discovered his love of classical music as a seventh-grader when he began playing the saxophone in the band at Darby Junior High School in Fort Smith. His band director played recordings of symphonic music for the class.

"I was just enamored with it," Hodge said. "I remember asking 'How can I get a recording.'"

The experience turned him on to composers and he began asking his mother to buy him CD's of their music.

"It was over after that," Hodge said. "I just devoured classical music."

Throughout high school and college Hodge knew exactly what he wanted to do with his career. He earned a bachelor of instrumental music education degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master's in instrumental conducting from Oklahoma City University.

"I always felt all my classes were a blessing," Hodge said. "It was really, really engaging to me."

His first job as a band director was in Berryville, where he stayed 10 years and worked with his two best friends.

"It was a wonderful time with a lot of success," he said.

When Hodge married, his wife worked at the University of Arkansas and they found the commute from Berryville to Fayetteville was tough. Hodge made the switch to the Springdale School District, where he worked for the past two years.

"All the while -- even in the early years -- I would look at the Siloam Springs High School and think it was the perfect scenario as far as school size, parental support and the structure within. ... I always thought 'Man that's a place I would like to be," Hodge said.

Hodge and Rutledge are good friends and Hodge has a lot of admiration for his predecessor.

"He is a legendary band director -- just as gifted as anybody and he is also hilarious," Hodge said with a laugh.

The transition from one band director to the next has been "as smooth as it can be" for staff and students, Hodge said.

"I've been overwhelmed with how kind everyone is here, with students, parents and specifically our staff and administration," Hodge said. "Everyone works together and wants the best for each other."

Hodge said he senses a great deal of sincerity from the school administration and a willingness to do whatever they can to help students be successful.

"The really exciting thing to me is the administration has been really supporting bringing additional help with professional musicians in the area," Hodge said.

Adjunct teachers have been working with small groups of students and giving private lessons to help boost individual musicianship -- one of his main goals.

"It's a luxury we enjoy," Hodge said. "It's incredibly valuable at the younger ages."

Hodge described his teaching strategy as high energy, an emphasis on no wasted time and lots of repetition. For the marching band that might mean practicing until they get it right once, and then doing it right again another 25 times.

"It's very physically taxing but it teaches muscle memory so they just can't get it wrong," Hodge said. "I feel the students have really bought into allowing themselves to be pushed."

Hodge has especially seen a release of musical passion from freshmen students, he said.

"The students are really starting to sense we have something special," he said.

In the past the band has taken some spectacular trips across the country as well as to Europe to march in parades, such as the Rose Bowl Parade in 2012, Barack Obama's Presidential Inaugural Parade in 2009, and the Festival International de Musique in Luxembourg in 2001.

Hodge plans to continue with trips but change the focus to performance based on a concert setting. The high school band has set a goal to go to Chicago next spring for a concert band competition on the national stage, he said.

Hodge hopes the hard work will pay off in the form of more students achieving All State honors, which will translate into significant scholarship money.

"It's kind of a barometer of success," Hodge said. "Kids leaving here with a band scholarship and contributing to musical society."

General News on 10/07/2015