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Looks Like He Made It; Riverton High Music Teacher Receives Barry Manilow Music Award
Description
Could it be magic? It was something like that for an amazing Jordan School District music teacher.
On this episode of the Superast, meet Riverton High’s Performing Arts Director Jason Weimer. Mr. Weimer recently received the prestigious Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award for the State of Utah. The award came with a once in a lifetime meet and greet with Barry Manilow, and with Mr. Weimer being recognized in the middle of the Manilow concert at the Maverik Center. Yes, it looks like this talented teacher has made it. Listen to hear his incredible story.
Audio Transcription
Jason Weimer:
He made me stand up in front of everybody at the Maverick Center and everybody was clapping.
Barry Manilow:
We have a winner here in West Valley City. Teaches at Riverton High School. Anybody?
Jason Weimer:
I was shaking in my shorts a little bit.
Barry Manilow:
Jason Weimer, Jason!
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Could it be magic? It was something like that for an amazing Jordan School District music teacher. On this episode of the Supercast, meet Riverton High School's performing arts director, Jason Weimer. Mr. Weimer recently received the prestigious Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award for the state of Utah. The award came with a once-in-a-lifetime meet and greet with Barry Manilow himself and with Mr. Weimer being recognized in the middle of the Manilow concert at the Maverick Center. Yes, it looks like this talented teacher has made it. Listen to his incredible story
Anthony Godfrey:
We are here at Riverton High School out with the marching band talking with Jason Weimer, the director of instrumental music. Jason, introduce yourself.
Jason Weimer:
Hi, I'm Jason and I teach the sit-down bands and orchestras and AP Music Theory at Riverton High School along with Mr. Chris Jesse and Mr. Drew Holland.
Anthony Godfrey:
The sit-down bands. Tell me about how all this gets categorized.
Jason Weimer:
Well, marching band is what I like to call stand-up band. We do that outside and march around on the field and then sit-down band is the stereotypical more concert inside at night concert sort of ensemble.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stand-up, sit-down, fight, fight, fight. That's right.
Jason Weimer:
Yep, pretty much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Alright, so tell me, give us a comprehensive view of the music program, the instrumental music program overall. You mentioned some other faculty members. I think that folks who have not been in music in high school recently or haven't been involved may not realize just the scope and the range of opportunities that are available to students these days.
Jason Weimer:
So our biggest goal is to be able to meet students wherever they are in terms of what they need to get better at their instrument. So we're lucky to be able to offer three levels of orchestra and three levels of concert band and three levels of percussion ensemble and two levels of jazz band. The biggest thing that that lets us do is differentiate instruction and just sort of really cater to what the kids at each level need in order to get better. We found that that's been the best way for us to help grow the program and have happy kids playing music.
Anthony Godfrey:
You have kids entering the program, it sounds like, with varying degrees of experience with instrumental music. Some of them may be starting in middle school, some of them are starting fresh in high school, haven't picked up an instrument before, and others have played for a long time. Is that accurate?
Jason Weimer:
Oh yeah. You never know who's going to end up being your best senior or things like that, whether they start in high school as a sophomore or if the