Mark Hart

Mark Hart, Band Director

Mark Hart
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Mark HartDIRECTOR OF BANDS

Mark's musical career started in high school playing in various concert, jazz, and marching ensembles.This time spent devoted to his instrument, the trumpet, resulted in a state championship on trumpet his senior year.Following high school, Mark enrolled at Indiana University @ Bloomington, the currently #1 ranked musical school in the world.

While in college, he often played in various small groups and took private lessons from some of the best musicians in the world, as well as participating with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, from Canton, Ohio.Starting on the soprano bugle he became drum major for two seasons and eventually was promoted to staff member.Also during college, Mark spent a year working for and playing his trumpet for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida.Mark graduated from Indiana with his teacher's certification and has since enrolled at Loyola here in Baltimore in pursuit of his masters.

After college, he continued working with various bands from across the country, mainly in visual design areas, teaching and writing marching band drills in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Texas, and Maryland.Before coming to Calvert Hall, Mark taught within the Archdiocese at Spalding High School, and also was a Director of Education for Sylvan Learning Systems Inc.

Mark Hart, now director of bands at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, Md., hit the ground running in his first job.He took over for the newly departed assistant band director after the school year had already begun, and the curriculum was already in place.

"On my first day I taught a guitar class, and I've never played guitar before.The second I got the job, I signed up for guitar lessons and, that first year, I just tried to stay ahead of the kids," recalls Hart, who starts his third year as a music educator in the fall.

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Hart struggled with trying to please everyone in his band program - 120 students, plus parents, the administration and community members - and finding that that was impossible.

"I had a hard time learning the concept of 'You can't make everyone happy.' For every decision I made, there were always a couple people who weren't happy with it or who had questions about it.I was working so hard and investing so much time into it that it really devastated me not to be able to make everyone happy," he recalls."It took me a while to learn to just have faith in my decisions and be able to justify them and realize that I'm not going to be able to make everyone happy."

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As the first and second years of school progressed, Barr, Girard, Hart and Noble learned to adjust to the everyday challenges of leading a music program and rose above them to help improve their ensembles.
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Hart implemented many changes in his program during his first two years directing the Calvert Hall band program.

"I was really tentative about making changes.I definitely made some - some things I felt we had to do without being too disruptive," he reflects."I felt all those changes went extremely well and we probably could have done a couple more, in hindsight.I think we did a really good job of setting a standard in terms of how we do things and what's acceptable, and standards in terms of our performance levels."

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Hart has aspirations to build an even stronger program in the face of the unique challenges posed by an all-male student body in a private school.

"We have 120 kids in the program, so it's been a goal of mine to improve the numbers.It's an all-boys school.I would love to get more flutes and clarinet players, of course.They're hard to come by."

The Voice of Experience
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Hart advises new teachers to take the challenges of the job in stride.

"Take a deep breath before you get started.This job can just consume you and you just have to keep things in perspective.Another thing I've learned is the art of delegating things.When you first start a program you want to do everything yourself.And that's not out of disrespect for anyone else, you just want to have your hand in everything.Once you learn about the people around you, you start to develop that faith in them and you feel better about delegating things."
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MARK HART
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Mark HartMark Hart, director of bands at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, Md., began his career in education as a history teacher.Prior to becoming a history teacher, Hart had toured with drum and bugle corps and assisted the marching band at Calvert Hall High.During the first few days of Hart's second year, the assistant band director left, and Hart found himself at an historic juncture in his career.

After one year in the history department, he decided to follow his true passion and applied for the open assistant band director post at Calvert Hall.

"Music has always been my number-one passion.It took me a couple of days to fall for these kids, and I decided to do this."

For Hart, the beginning of his first year on the job - band camp - was an easy adjustment, since he'd been working with the marching band the year before.His experiences with drum and bugle corps helped him to adjust to teaching marching band full-time.His transition to the academic music classes was not as smooth, he admits, because he did not receive his degree in music education.

"I really spent a lot of time at home every night making up for what I would have learned in college as a music education major."

But having taught history had its advantages in the band classroom, he adds.

"Because of that year as a history teacher, I felt good about my classroom management and I felt comfortable speaking in front of a classroom of students.One thing I felt pretty comfortable with that I think a lot of people have trouble with in the beginning is time-management."

At the end of Hart's first year as assistant band director, the head band director left the school.Hart interviewed for his predecessor's position and landed the job.

After his first year as head band director, Hart took stock of his program and spent some time evaluating which aspects he might change.

"I've tried to evaluate everything we do in the program and our curriculum," he explains."I've tried to put in classes that are more toward my strengths.I've really tried to make the schedule work a little better for the kids and the parents.I've reevaluated every cent we spent this year and looked at the budget to see what we can do differently and where we got our value from.I think I spent so much time this year doing all the administrative stuff and working on systems that I definitely want to make a bigger push to get more personal time with the kids."

As Hart heads into his third year with the band, he does not regret his decision to leave the history department.

"As a teacher, you get to be part educator, part guidance counselor, part public speaker.I got all that out of being a history teacher.But the band is definitely like a family.As a music teacher, you get all those things plus you get the performance aspect, the creative aspect."

Mark Hart, now director of bands at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, Md., hit the ground running in his first job.He took over for the newly departed assistant band director after the school year had already begun, and the curriculum was already in place.

"On my first day I taught a guitar class, and I've never played guitar before.The second I got the job, I signed up for guitar lessons and, that first year, I just tried to stay ahead of the kids," recalls Hart, who starts his third year as a music educator in the fall.
...
Hart struggled with trying to please everyone in his band program - 120 students, plus parents, the administration and community members - and finding that that was impossible.

"I had a hard time learning the concept of 'You can't make everyone happy.' For every decision I made, there were always a couple people who weren't happy with it or who had questions about it.I was working so hard and investing so much time into it that it really devastated me not to be able to make everyone happy," he recalls.
...
As the first and second years of school progressed, Barr, Girard, Hart and Noble learned to adjust to the everyday challenges of leading a music program and rose above them to help improve their ensembles.
...
Hart implemented many changes in his program during his first two years directing the Calvert Hall band program.

"I was really tentative about making changes.I definitely made some - some things I felt we had to do without being too disruptive," he reflects.
...
Hart has aspirations to build an even stronger program in the face of the unique challenges posed by an all-male student body in a private school.
...
Hart advises new teachers to take the challenges of the job in stride.
...
MARK HART
...
Mark HartMark Hart, director of bands at Calvert Hall High School in Baltimore, Md., began his career in education as a history teacher.Prior to becoming a history teacher, Hart had toured with drum and bugle corps and assisted the marching band at Calvert Hall High.During the first few days of Hart's second year, the assistant band director left, and Hart found himself at an historic juncture in his career.

After one year in the history department, he decided to follow his true passion and applied for the open assistant band director post at Calvert Hall.

"Music has always been my number-one passion.It took me a couple of days to fall for these kids, and I decided to do this."

For Hart, the beginning of his first year on the job - band camp - was an easy adjustment, since he'd been working with the marching band the year before.His experiences with drum and bugle corps helped him to adjust to teaching marching band full-time.His transition to the academic music classes was not as smooth, he admits, because he did not receive his degree in music education.

"I really spent a lot of time at home every night making up for what I would have learned in college as a music education major."

But having taught history had its advantages in the band classroom, he adds.

"Because of that year as a history teacher, I felt good about my classroom management and I felt comfortable speaking in front of a classroom of students.One thing I felt pretty comfortable with that I think a lot of people have trouble with in the beginning is time-management."

At the end of Hart's first year as assistant band director, the head band director left the school.Hart interviewed for his predecessor's position and landed the job.

After his first year as head band director, Hart took stock of his program and spent some time evaluating which aspects he might change.

"I've tried to evaluate everything we do in the program and our curriculum," he explains."I've tried to put in classes that are more toward my strengths.I've really tried to make the schedule work a little better for the kids and the parents.I've reevaluated every cent we spent this year and looked at the budget to see what we can do differently and where we got our value from.I think I spent so much time this year doing all the administrative stuff and working on systems that I definitely want to make a bigger push to get more personal time with the kids."

As Hart heads into his third year with the band, he does not regret his decision to leave the history department.