Docksiders welcome new band leader

Aaron Staluppi, the new director of the Gloucester High School Docksiders, is one of three new music teachers in the Gloucester Public Schools district. With new programs that have been started this past year at the middle school level, Aaron Staluppi says “There is hope for more and more students to pursue their passion for music”.

Staluppi attended UMASS Amherst, where he was a music major specifically studying tuba performance. He went on to get a master’s degree in music, play in a jazz band orchestra, be a part of a traveling marching band, and teach lessons in various instruments.

Within the next several years, GHS will try to create a separate block for students interested in participating in a conventional concert band. This is something that Staluppi previously tried to launch at GHS, but was not able to due to a lack of student enrollment. Creating this concert style band for students will be the first step towards enhancing the music experience for GHS students.

The next era of youth music in Gloucester will be “an evolution not a revolution,” according to Staluppi.

Having an extremely vast variety of favorite artists, ranging from Tony Bennett to Taylor Swift, Staluppi is a man with a love and appreciation of virtually every style of music. Despite his involvement in many different genres of music and many bands and orchestras, Staluppi described the music department at GHS to be “unlike anything he’d ever experienced”.

“For such a close-knit group, the Docksiders and the chorus, have been so welcoming,”Staluppi responded when asked how the students were adjusting to the loss of Mr. Adams. “There haven’t been too many conflicts adjusting so far, but it’s only my third official day.”

In the future, the City of Gloucester may also see a revival of the GHS Marching band which crumbled after a change in administration a couple of decades ago. Plaques mounted on the wall in the band office show pictures of the school’s hundred or so students who participated in the marching band. The current band has dwindled to about twenty-five students.

“My plan here is to really expose the students to new music, more music, and the fundamentals of music,” said Staluppi when describing his direction for the Docksiders.

The fundamentals he was referring to are basic things such as reading notes and being able to play a new song when presented with it. Many students lack these skills, and improving them will be a focus this year in order to prepare the students for involvement in music later in life.