About

Welcome!! As of September 2019 I am no longer communicating with students through this website/blog. The only communication I have with them is through google classroom. This is a resource for former students and fellow educators.

For any other music inquiries, go to lane tech band website, the music department’s website, or Mr. Comiskey’s site.

PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT FOR BAND

At the heart of the Lane Tech Band Program is a focus on building core musicianship skills, including improvisation, sight reading, performing, singing, drumming, dancing, and composing. We believe a great ensemble starts with a holistic approach toward each individual’s musical development. We also work hard to foster a positive, warm, and familial atmosphere that welcomes all students and encourages them to care about each others’ success as well as their own.

Beginning Band is a place where any student can start an instrument without any previous experience and will prepare them to move up to Concert or Varsity Band. After selecting a band instrument early in the year, students learn scales, blues forms, solfege, how to match pitch, and techniques specific to their instrument of choice during their first semester. During second semester, students will become familiar with GarageBand on iPads, compose an original piece in binary form, and perform at our spring concert. Students will also be exposed to performances by other ensembles at Lane and learn music from cultures around the world.

Concert Band 1 and 2 are our general concert bands for anyone grades 7-12 who is ready for an intermediate band experience. Concert Band 1 is by audition only and is around 35 players. Concert Band 2 is literally everyone else and the natural progression from Beginning Band. We work on wind band repertoire and perform a few times throughout the year at school concerts, CPS festival and selected small group opportunities. A select group from Concert Band is pulled out to become our Jazz Band, where they study jazz standards, improvisation, and other musical skills that lead to success in that genre. Students also join the Varsity Band for certain pep band dates, and memorize our school song.

Varsity Band is our marching band, composed of roughly 60 wind, brass, and percussion students as well as 22 flag corps members and 18 majorettes. Their main responsibility is to represent the school and bring school spirit to athletic events, community events, and performance opportunities throughout the city during the year. Throughout the year, we also create Brazilian and West African ensembles, incorporating percussion, singing, and dance into our instrumental work to explore musics from other parts of the world and develop entirely new musical skills.

Symphonic Band is the top performing ensemble in Lane’s band program. We work on challenging concert band repertoire and perform a few times throughout the year at school concerts, the CPS festival, and other small group opportunities. The top two players in each section combine with the string players in Sinfonietta to create one of the few full orchestras at the high school level in Chicago. Select students in Symphonic band are pulled out to create Lane’s top Jazz Ensemble. Students will also join the Varsity Band for specific pep band dates.

Mr. Flygt attended Lawrence University Conservatory of Music where he studied Instrumental Music Education and Percussion Performance. His additional studies have led him to the Dagbe Cultural Institute in Kopeyia, Ghana, West-Africa (’08, ’10, ’12) and also to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the Ethnomusicologist Dr. Philip Galinsky (’10). Studies in the USA have led him to the California Brazil Camp in Cazadero, California in the summers of 2011-2015 and 2017. Outside of teaching in CPS, he enjoys the outdoors and playing music in the bands Fatbook, Ragged Claws, Bloco Maximo and many other local groups.

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.” – Anais Nin

Born at a young age in Madison, WI, Mr. Flygt is the son of a retired middle school choir director and internal physician. His parents, Charlene and Rex, met in Concert Choir at UW-Madison in the early 70’s and continue to make music to this day. His musical education started with his mother as his piano teacher in 4th grade and then moved on to Nick Kelly who provided formal piano instruction from 5th-12th grade.

His mother made him study piano for a year before he would be able to study drumset and after one year of diligent study he received a drumset for Christmas of 1996. Even though it was a formal agreement the drumset still was a complete shock! The acquisition included one month of free lessons through Ward-Bradt Music Mall in Madison. In middle school things quickly escalated as he stared at the pages of Realistic Rock Drum Methods, by Carmen Appice, and then really started taking things to the next level in 6th grade when he met Mr. Rick Meiller (retired). Mr. Meiller – a pilar in the local community – was also a percussionist and had an extremely appealing white Ludwig in the back practice room of Jack Young Middle School (formally Baraboo Middle School) where it was ok to play rock at any volume. In high school his studies continued with band masters Mr. Gregory P. Lang and Mr. Jeff Roy – both recently retired. Mr. Lang had long been a friend of the family and amazing mentor in life. Drumset studies continued with Tyson Suemnicht.

Some high school activities he enjoyed included playing soccer, hockey, attending FUMC, going to Devil’s Lake State Park, skateboarding, mowing lawns, and hanging around outside. Some of specific musical engagements included playing with The Messengers (his parents group) and Soapbox USA (a local christian rock band). Later in high school he wound up preparing an audition and getting into Lawrence University to further his musical studies. At college he met many great people, joined Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and then completed his student teaching through the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture program which led him to Lane Tech in the fall of 2008. After student teaching he traveled a bit and looked for work here and there with brief stops living in Fort Collins, CO, Boulder, CO, and his parents basement in Baraboo, WI. He moved back to Chicago in 2009 and then moved away again, and then ultimately returned to Chicago the fall of 2010 to accept a position at Lindblom Math and Science Academy. In fall of 2011 he began teaching at Lane Tech.

He would like to personally acknowledge Dane Richeson and Nani Agbeli. More specifically Dr. Philip Galinsky and Samba New York, Jorge Alabe, Marcus Santos, Ailton Nunes, Jimmy Biala, Dudu Fuentes and many of the Chicago area musicians such as John Beard, Marcos Oliveira, Dill Costa, Heitor Garcia, Geraldo de Oliveira, Dedé Sampaio, Felipe Fraga, Will From Brazil, and Moacyr Marchini.

if you need some motivation…