With the start of the 2019 school year came the arrival of Mike Kowbel, who took on a new position at City High after being the band director at South East Junior High for a year. 

“When I came to town and I drove past City High for the first time, I saw the football field,” Kowbel remembered thoughtfully. “I thought to myself, ‘Man, I want to teach a band that performs on that field someday.’”

He frequently shares these memories with his students in between friendly reminders to “march evenly through space and time.”

“I just knew that I wanted to work close to home and [have] a chance to fulfill this dream of working at City High. And now, five years later, I finally have the chance to do that,” he said. “I’ve really found a home here. I really love it.”

He followed his passion to teach band from South East to City High, but it began before that; Kowbel has wanted to be a band director since he was young. 

“My band director was really influential in my life; he kind of took me under his wing and taught me a lot of things. I wanted to have that same type of relationship with high school students,” Kowbel said. “And so I thought, ‘You know what, I think I’m pretty good at trumpet. I like music a lot. I think I can make a career out of this.’”

Having been inspired by his own band director, Kowbel is now attempting to make a similar impression on his students.

“Working with the students is the best part for sure, just getting to know [them] and being able to just hear about how things are going and stuff like that,” he said.

Spending around 45 minutes each day rehearsing outside, rain or shine, working on the show, requires commitment from the horn line, drumline, color guard, pit, directors, and everyone else involved. Even though the band only has a few chances to perform this year, it’s been working on its show since before August. 

“I really love seeing something that is very imperfect at the beginning of a process become very great by the end,” Kowbel said.

The marching band has recently put their whole show together and still has to prepare for one of their few shows this year including a competition.

“All this hard work—we’ve put in four months—come[s] to fruition on one night, and just all the galaxies collide and we hit that moment of beauty in our performance,” said Kowbel. “Those are the moments that I cherish.”