Michael Davis (right) is the new music
director and Christopher Heacox is the new program director
for the St. Johns River City Band.
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by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
From his post as
the band and orchestra director for the Walt Disney World
Resort, Michael Davis dreamed of conducting the St. Johns
River City Band.
Now the dream is a reality.
“I’ve
had my eye on this for a long time,” said Davis, who retired
from Disney and was hired as the new River City Band music
director last month. “The past directors are impressive
enough. The thing about brass bands, historically, is that
there were more then than there are now. There are only two
bands like this in the country. The other one is in
Pittsburgh. There are a lot of symphony orchestras and
commercial brass bands but they’re not really professional
bands [i.e. the musicians are paid] that do a concert
series, are non-profit and are run by a board of directors.”
Davis will conduct the River City Brass Band, River City
Big Band and River City Youth Wind Band, though he won’t be
moving to Jacksonville because his wife is a tenured school
teacher in Orange County.
One of the main changes Davis
will make is implementing the reorganization of the band. An
advisory board of community leaders and band members has
been formed to better reflect the wishes of area residents
and to illicit input from the players.
“We want to get
creative with the programming,” he said. “We want to build
our audience with things that interest an audience and with
good quality music. We want to know what people want to hear
so we can organize a concert series.”
Crossing cultural
and age divisions is part of his plan.
Davis brings an
appreciation of music from theoretical and practical
perspectives to his new position. In addition to his 25
years of conducting experience, he has a long history of
involvement with academics. While at Disney, he functioned
as manager of atmosphere talent and education programs,
developing workshops, show concepts, audition processes and
operational procedures for Disney’s Collegiate All-Star Band
and Orchestra ensembles. He was also employed as director of
bands and percussion at James Madison University, as band
director/percussion instructor at the University of
Wisconsin and has taught band, orchestra and chorus from the
elementary to the high school level. He remains active with
Disney as a contract conductor, music director and
consultant.
“An area we want to go into is serving the
community with educational programs,” he said. “This will be
the springboard to increase awareness of live performances.
It’s another idiom of the arts. We have ballet, symphony and
now wind instruments. We want to be the thing kids listen
to, the flagship they can benchmark off of. I want to wave
the banner of the performing arts.”
The River City
Band’s new program director, Christopher Heacox, concurs
with Davis.
“We want to reach as many students as
possible with all styles of music,” said Heacox.
“We
will partner with other arts organizations to promote the
arts in Jacksonville as a whole.”
A Jacksonville native,
Heacox will assume marketing and some directing roles. With
a background in music education, he will coordinate
educational initiatives in the Duval County School System,
in addition to booking gigs for the ensemble groups,
conducting the River City Youth Jazz and River City Satin
Swing Band and promoting the band internationally. Heacox
received his master’s degree in jazz and contemporary media
from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and learned
the more basic music concepts at Florida State University.
“Educationally, we’re developing outreach programs for
students and seniors,” he said. “We want to get more
involved in the community that way. We are working on a
state touring grant that will take the arts into rural
communities. The organization will be moving into the 21st
Century with websites and virtual work space, too.”
Other changes on the horizon include coordinating the
different ensembles under one umbrella, reevaluating the
worth and membership of the administration and tooling
methods to effectively use funds with the goal of promoting
more performances of larger ensembles.
Heacox also
teaches at Stetson University, the University of North
Florida and Daytona Beach Community College. Locally, he has
taught at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, LaVilla
School of the Arts and Mandarin High School.
On Oct. 24
and 26, Davis and Heacox will be interviewing current and
potential adult band members to gauge the area’s talent
pool.
“We want to interview, not audition, musicians so
we can figure out what they’re like,” explained Davis.
The interview process will beto any professional
musician. Youth auditions will be held in January.
“There’s great opportunity here, not only for
Jacksonville,” said Davis. “They’re not just the band of
Jacksonville — it’s the band of Florida. My immediate goal
is to get this band into high profile venues in
Jacksonville. My main focus is this band and the impact for
the community, Jacksonville and Florida. I would like to
branch out and take this national, maybe even international.
I want to get people more excited about what were doing and
building. It’s something to protect to keep the arts
alive.”
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