This year the Erie High School music department has welcomed a new band teacher into the Erie Community, after Doug Carmichael’s long reign, Zachary Fruits has stepped in to take his place. 

Fruits music career began in 5th grade, when he started playing the clarinet. A couple of years later, during his sophomore year, Fruits made the decision to be in band for the rest of his life, “I had sort of like an epiphany moment where, you know, I loved being in marching band, I loved playing in the symphonic band, I loved playing for the musical, I loved playing in jazz band” Fruits reflects, “and I knew my sophomore year that when I grew up I wanted to provide that opportunity for generations to come.” Fruits exclaimed.

Fruits’ journey to Erie was definitely long and took a lot of work, going to school in the Midwest he earned his degree in music education at Southwest Missouri State  University, he then moved on to graduate school and was offered an assistantship at Colorado State University and stayed in Colorado ever since. Fruits continued, “so my first job as an undergrad was teaching down in southern Colorado and I’ve just been working my way up and then I landed in Erie and love it here.”

Although being a band teacher means you have to have a good understanding of how to play most instruments, Fruits primarily plays the clarinet and he specializes in mostly woodwinds, like flute, saxophone, oboe, ect., “Although in band director school you have to be able to play all the instruments, so [ I ] play a lot of high brass too, so horn and trumpet, a little bit of low brass and then lots of percussion, guitar, and piano,” Fruits added. 

In the first few months of being here, Fruits has already made a huge impact on his classes and the community of the Erie music department. Thalia Burd, the choir teacher here at Erie has already noticed some changes Fruits has made and how its made the band seem so much more bonded and synchronized, “their intonation sounds really good and the way they’re marching really really clean and put together,” Burd explained. 

As the school year progresses, Fruits has so much more planned for the music department, his band classes, and the Erie community and the students cannot wait to see what he will do.