Classroom Composers

Classroom Composers is a team of two music teachers, Kevin Hoff and Jessica Frank, based out of Oceanside, California. Between the two of us, we have experience teaching K-6 general music, elementary 4/5 band/strings, and middle school band/strings/guitar. We teach at Title I schools with a significant amount of free and reduced lunch students. The majority of our students use school instruments and private lessons are a distant fantasy. Finally, our classes often are large (50+ students) with mixed instrumentation.

Music is fun and students should have fun while learning music. Our goal is that each kid leaves the classroom happier than when they arrived. We strive to create kid-friendly resources, a team-first, non-competitive environment, in which ensemble success is the ultimate goal. We believe in going slow when introducing new foundational concepts to ensure that every student is successful. That being said, we do move the class along a quick pace so that we are learning a new skill/concept during every class meeting. We waste no time and we make sure that our advanced students are challenged throughout the class. All-in-all, our teaching style is fun, yet demanding which ultimately leads to a rewarding experience.

Our "competitive" ensembles routinely receive "Excellent" and "Superior" ratings at their festival performances.

Kevin Hoff: BA Music Education, San Diego State University; California Single Subject Music Credential, San Diego State University. Jessica Frank: BS Journalism and Music Minor, San José State University; MA Communication Management, University of Southern California; California Single Subject Music Credential, Alliant International University

Why should a music teacher compose the music for your music program? It’s simple really. Because they know what your students need. Don’t get us wrong, there are incredible pieces of music that have been written for elementary, middle, and high school bands and orchestras to play. Many of these pieces are loved by students and appreciated by audiences. But most of them are missing a very key component: they are not composed through a teacher's lens. There is no judgment here! Band and Orchestra composers are great at what they do, often writing expertly to fit the ability levels of the students that will play their music. But ability level should not be the only consideration. Compositions should also be aligned with your pedagogy so they can be perfectly timed tools to support the growth and musicianship of your students. Now we know what you’re thinking: a piece usually loses that certain artful quality the more academic in nature it gets. Enter the “Classroom Composer.” This may seem too demanding of an undertaking: to compose quality music that is academic, easy to align to your teaching practice, and accessible for students while retaining that certain artfulness embodied by modern band and orchestra masterworks. But here is where we submit to you that it can be done! Composition is a skill that some teachers choose to develop alongside their teaching practice and this kind of teacher becomes a double threat; someone who is able to both write wonderful music inspired by iconic composers and guide a composition through a teaching lens. In an endeavor to bring this kind of composition to all of you, we have accepted this undertaking, and we can’t wait for you to see what we’ve written.