Jeff Quamo, the new band director at Chandler High School, was born and raised in New York. He taught in Mesa Public Schools for 18 years before joining us at CHS.
As a kid, Jeff Quamo’s interest in band was sparked when he was “tricked” into playing the clarinet in the third grade. When all the students were sent down to the music room to be assigned an instrument to learn, he was planning to choose trumpet, drums, or saxophone. But the band director had other ideas! Apparently, the director had already been forewarned about Jeff’s “hyperactive” behavior and was worried he would misbehave if left unsupervised in the percussion section. Quamo said the director gave similarly “weird” and “silly” reasons for not allowing him to play trumpet or saxophone, but offered to let Jeff try the clarinet, claiming it was “kind of like a black saxophone.” The director let Quamo blow into the mouthpiece while he moved the keys, and from that moment, Jeff was hooked. He even persisted through his friends’ teasing that the clarinet was “a girl’s instrument” and the awkwardness of being the only boy in the clarinet section for years.
Mr. Quamo has known he wanted to be a band director almost as long as he has loved the clarinet. He told us about a memorable trip he enjoyed when he himself was a high school band student: “I was maybe 15 years old and got to go to Europe. It was for the concert band of about 120 of us, and we did 16 concerts in 14 different countries in the span of a month.” Although he had always enjoyed music before, he said this experience showed him his future career: “I felt convinced that that’s what I wanted to do for a living.”
Today Mr. Quamo is primarily a woodwind player who specializes in the flute, clarinet, and (finally!) saxophone families. However, besides the concert and marching bands, he is also responsible for teaching guitar at Chandler as well. Luckily, he has had quite a bit of personal experience. Mr. Quamo played in a rock band called The Freeloaders in the 1990s and 2000s: “We opened for a few national acts such as The Spin Doctors, Vertical Horizon, and Blues Traveler.”
Mr. Quamo’s excellent advice to students who may want to pick up an instrument but are nervous or embarrassed?
“Never be scared of mistakes; never be scared of what you might sound like. Be scared of not trying.”
