Elementary bands rock school board meeting

Music teacher John Steinhardt and his two elementary school bands from Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain put some rock and roll into the Jan. 21 Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Directors meeting.

Steinhardt said CCSD#2 Superintendent Bob Gates came up with the idea and Steinhardt and his students ran with it.

I thought it was a good way for us to showcase (the students) and their achievements, Gates said.

The Saratoga and Encampment choirs sang at the December CCSD#2 board meeting, and Gates hopes to continue featuring student performances at upcoming board meetings.

Steinhardt’s love for music started 33 years ago when he took up the trombone at age 8 and then guitar when he was 11.

That early passion evolved into an active, versatile teaching style that makes music seem fun even to those with no interest in it. Steinhardt inserts himself in the band jumping from drums to keyboards to director, accompanying and encouraging the students.

Steinhardt doesn’t have a preference for teaching a particular instrument.

“Teaching different instruments is all the same - the instruments just represent different languages,” Steinhardt said. “You just have to hit the right note at the right time.”

Everybody has music in them, according to Steinhardt, and music education can be approached from different perspectives.

“In my opinion, the only thing that stops people is fear,” Steinhardt said.

One approach is to start teaching music when students are young. Band is required at Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow schools and students start at the same age Steinhardt did, 8.

“Music is the highest philosophy on the planet,” is a paraphrase from Beethoven Steinhardt likes to use. “It is a discipline that can be taught at a young age.”

The two elementary bands proved that at the school board meeting concert.

“It’s wonderful to see their progress,” Steinhardt said. “It’s wonderful to see them perform and to see the great job they have done - I’m very proud of them.”

As involved as he is in students’ music education, Steinhardt credits the students and their parents for the practice they put in at home.

Originally from California, Steinhardt was raised in Wisconsin. He has a home in Montana and drives there every Thursday and returns on Sunday.

The drives are long but they give him a chance to enjoy Wyoming landscapes.

“I like traveling along the highway and seeing antelope,” Steinhardt said.

Last month, while enjoying his other passion, he pulled the biggest brown trout he’s ever caught out of the Medicine Bow River. It measured 24 inches and weighed five pounds.

“I’m not going to say exactly where I caught it,” Steinhardt said.