“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi. Sometimes those changes we wish to see in the world can come in the form of a friend, parent, or even someone famous. Even if you are not a big fan of Band or Jazz music, you should still meet Mr. Gurk, one of the high school band directors. He is a super sweet guy and always does everything he can to make you feel welcome in his class while making things fun for his students and all those around him.
Mr. Gurk, like many musicians, was introduced to music at a pretty young age.
“My mother was a teacher and she taught music,” Mr. Gurk stated, “I saw the way that she helped people and I thought that that was something that I wanted to do, I wanted to be able to help people and you know, make school enjoyable.”
Shockingly, he didn’t know what route of teaching he wanted to pursue: was it better to become a band director or a math teacher? He noted, “As I was getting better at my instrument, I was also really good at math, and so I went to school, with a double major: math and music, I just was kinda torn between the two.”
He did eventually end up choosing to teach band, obviously, but part of that adventure included him adding Jazz Band to his repertoire of areas to impact and change the world.
“I actually didn’t grow up with a jazz education,” Mr. Gurk stated.“ I went to a pretty conservative school, and jazz was kinda iffy. So the teacher I was working with helped me learn jazz and gave me some opportunities,”
Once you teach more than one thing, you are bound to have a favorite subject and Mr. Gurk is no exception. While Mr. Gurk noted “Concert Band is the foundation. In Concert Band we teach you all the rules so that in Jazz Band we can break them. So you can’t have Jazz, you can’t have Marching Band, you can’t have musical theater without that fundamental in Concert Band.”
Most students have a favorite way to learn but, apparently, teachers have a favorite way to teach as well!
“Anytime we can have 1-on-1 experiences,” he mentioned, “It’s that connection, you know, times like this where we make a connection.”
The true judge of a teacher’s character is not how they see themself, but what their students think of them, as this is truly the way they can bring change and light to the world.
“He’s just always been there for me, he always has that positive spirit to help me when I’m feeling down,” Chauncey Oliver mentioned.
“He made it quite easy to become a great player,” Berlinda Pablo-Pablo said, “He definitely made Band Camp easy to get over my freshman year. It was still kinda not really COVID, but we still weren’t like a full band.”
“I’ve never really been yelled at by him,” Caleb Anderson stated, “I know a lot of people who have done things and he’s very kind and gracious to them, and he will forgive you for things… I like how he’s very get-up-and-go because I feel like sometimes we can be kinda slow, especially if he’s not directing us, we like to take our sweet time.”
“He’s always been nice and welcoming no matter what,” Nikolaus Martz noted, “There was a time right before class a few years ago when I was incredibly overwhelmed and couldn’t participate, so he sat with me outside the band room and we talked it out.”
As soon as you walk into his office you can tell how much he loves fun by simply looking at the wall and noticing the “Earthquake Detection Kit” (two giant googly eyes) and his sign acknowledging how good he is at getting rid of small dinosaurs. With all of these glowing reviews, I think I speak for everyone in the band program when I say that I hope Mr. Gurk will remain in his current position for years to come because he’s a terrific teacher, a considerate confidant, a remarkable role model, and our number one velociraptor repellant at Wyoming High School.