Every time David Leach listens to the music of “Star Wars” or “King Kong,” to the bold scores of John Williams and Max Steiner, how the sound curves around and shapes the characters they portray, he is immediately transported to his childhood. The music of one’s childhood, when their brains are developing and their lives are taking shape, is what they gravitate towards as adults, he says. For him, it was movie scores, and for us, he says, it’s gaming music. “They play such an indelible role in who we are and the sound track of our lives,” Leach says.
Having been a part of the Pioneer Band Program for 22 years, he has been able to see students making these bonds time and time again. However, the 2023-24 school year will be his last with the program, since he is retiring in the spring. Looking back over the years, he has made what seems like, “a billion incredible memories.”
From playing the “Stars and Stripes” on the Great Wall of China to bringing the Mayor of Trieste, Italy, to tears, some of Pioneer’s greatest accomplishments have happened outside of Pioneer,” he says. “The first time we marched on Hollway field. The last time we marched on Hollway field. Marching up to Hollway field and feeling that connectivity with not just athletes but the community,” Leach says.
However nothing compares to the minute the students walk into class, he says. “When you get to hear the magic of that classroom: hearing kids assemble gorgeous, artistic moments of music is just my favorite part of the day.”
His students love this time, too. Gabriel Weintraub, a Pioneer sophomore and bassoonist in the Pioneer Concert Purple Band, says he hopes the next band director will be very much like Leach, especially in his passion for the band program. One can see this clearly during rehearsal and the performances, where he puts on a show at the conductor’s podium. “He has this glare that people always find very scary. So when you first meet him, he’s kind of intimidating, but as you get to know him,” Weintraub says, he turns out to be a “very silly guy.”
Andrew Ayala, a sophomore and bass trombonist in the Symphony Band, says he wants the next band director to continue providing a calm space for students to thrive and preserve the prestige of the program, things Leach has done well for years. “One of the primary benefits of music is the break it gives you from the constant slog of school work,” Ayala says.
Apart from its many wall-lining awards, Leach wishes that the school will continue inspiring students at a young age to surround themselves with music. “I think being involved in instrumental music is paramount to a kid’s success,” he said.
He knows that his students will find their own John Williams and Max Steiner, maybe not in movies like for him, maybe in something entirely new, but, he says, no matter what form, “They’re a big part of who we are as humanity, and music is an inexorable part of that and it connects us to our history, our life, our existence, and our experiences.”