About the Directors

About the Directors

Brian White I am passionate about band music and I work extremely hard to share this love with my students. I believe that the arts are essential to the overall education of a child. Music, art, dance, and drama provide an outlet for children to learn self expression; the arts teach us all to be "human." I also believe that participation in a musical ensemble can teach students non musical goals such as teamwork, leadership, persistence, and responsibility. In addition, instrumental music participation encourages growth in critical thinking and problem solving. Furthermore, playing in band enhances academic areas such as science, social studies, and maths.

In order to accomplish all of this in the classroom, I rely on my wide variety of teaching experiences. In my nine years of teaching (this is my fourth at SAS), I have taught elementary general music, class guitar, as well as beginning, middle, and high school bands. I have also worked as a middle school counselor/teacher at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and as a graduate assistant at Illinois State University. I am proud of these experiences and the accomplishments I have achieved.

In my first year of teaching in Tallahassee, Florida, the high school band was invited to the Florida Bandmasters Association State Band Festival. Also, each year the marching band won top honors at the district marching festival. At Elk Grove High School (Chicago suburb) the Symphonic band was invited to the Superstate Band Festival- the first time in the school's history. In addition, the jazz band placed in the top six at the prestigious "Jazz in the Meadows" jazz festival three years in a row. While there, I also received the National Band Association "Citation for Excellence."

I am an advocate for new music and new ideas in music education. This has has led me to commission three new compositions for high school concert bands - "Song of Spring," "Short Story for Wind Ensemble," a jazz band piece called "Give and Take, " and most recently, the world premiere of “Singapore Folk Song Suite” performed by our very own SAS Advanced Middle School band. Further, I designed a new concept in high school marching band called the "Scramble Band".

My college professor at Illinois Wesleyan University once said "to become a great band director, you have to first be a great musician." I took his words to heart and worked hard to become the best I could on my instrument. As a graduate assistant in trumpet performance at Illinois State University, I was part of the "Faculty Brass Quintet." We performed extremely challenging music including the world premier of "Quintessence" (sound clip) by David Gillingham. At the same time, my student brass quintet "Mad Brass" was the youngest group to make the semi finals at the Fishoff International Chamber Winds competition in 1996.

In my free time I enjoy reading, playing on the faculty soccer team, and traveling. My wife and I love the cinema and go as often as we can. I really enjoy working at Singapore American School because I have been able to find the time to follow all of my passions.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to call or email any time.

Rebecca Davidson
The Middle School Band program at SAS is dynamite and I’m so thrilled to be a part of it! Band provides a way for students to practice commitment, communication, collaboration and patience and reap rewards of excellence and joy in music making both on a personal level and as part of a team.

My goal as a teacher is simple: empowerment. I want to help foster in students a sense of self-worth and confidence coupled with a “can-do” attitude and the skills to back it all up. After all, this is what my most effective teachers did for me.

When you visit my classroom, you’ll find students working on playing and performing techniques, but you will also see them learning theoretical aspects of music, making connections to their own world through music history and learning scientific principles which govern music and music making. Technology is a part of the band experience as students use notation software to write their own original compositions and use technology as a research tool to find out about band instruments and the music we play.

In the US, my band teaching experience includes freelance work with High School bands in Tennessee and Kentucky. Internationally I have worked with Elementary and Middle school band in Shanghai, China and with the Grade 5 band program in the intermediate school here at SAS where I taught for two years.

My wind instrument is French Horn and I have enjoyed playing in wind ensembles, chamber groups and orchestras in Kentucky and Maryland in the US. In Singapore I have played with the Philharmonic Winds, the Celebration Chorus, and the Lion City Brass, a faculty brass quintet at Singapore American School. Like many musicians, my musical education began as an elementary school student at the Piano. I pursued that love throughout high school and college and I earned my undergraduate degree in Piano at Murray State University in Kentucky.

Living and teaching abroad has heightened my interest in multicultural studies and prompted me to attain my Master of Education degree in Multicultural Education from George Mason University in Virginia. I am currently pursuing a teaching endorsement in English as a Second Language and hope that this will help me to better serve the many English language learners I see every day.

My husband, Mark, teaches grade 4 at Singapore American School and most of our time outside the classroom is spent with our children, Roxanne and Rhys.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to call or email any time.