The Kettering City Schools and Kettering Music Team will welcome Mr. Matthew Phillips as a new music teacher in the band department at Fairmont High School and Kettering Middle School for the 2019-2020 school year.
Mr. Phillips’ teaching responsibilities will include both middle school and high school concert band. He will also take on a position as an assistant director with the Marching Firebirds.
Mr. Phillips is a 2008 graduate of Fairmont High School and a 2013 graduate of Northern Kentucky University where he studied Music Education. While at N.K.U. he performed with various university ensembles and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps, winning the DCI Solo and Ensemble event as a member of the Blue Stars Trombone Quartet.
Mr. Phillips has led the high school music program at Pendleton County High School in Kentucky for the past five years. At Pendleton County Mr. Phillips more than doubled the size of the music program in band, choir, and general music. Mr. Phillips continues to be an active trombonist and performs regularly with the Fillmore Wind Band in Cincinnati, Ohio.
With the addition of Mr. Phillips, the band program will undergo some shifting in teaching assignments and responsibilities for the coming year. Mr. Phillips will teach band at Kettering Middle School while Mr. Bryce Newton will move to the Van Buren band program, so that each middle school can benefit from a balance of brass and woodwind specialists. Mr. Newton will also take over as the Director of Jazz Studies, leading the district’s jazz ensembles, following the retirement of long-time jazz director Mr. Dan Nicora. While Mr. Newton will continue to work with the Marching Firebirds music ensemble and serve as the primary music arranger, he will take on a lesser day-to-day role.
The Music Department would like to thank the Kettering City Schools Board of Education and administration for their continued support of music education. Please help us welcome Mr. Matthew Phillips to the Firebird Family!
