There’s a fresh face in the fine arts hallway of Antioch Community High School, and it belongs to the new band director, Jonathan Untch.

Untch is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a major in music education. He student taught at Rolling Meadows High School and spent three years teaching at Transfiguration Catholic School in Wauconda before joining the music program at ACHS. Coincidentally, Untch had formerly worked with the current ACHS orchestra director Michael Riggs at Rolling Meadows High School before he was hired by ACHS. This previous experience with each other  helped both men learn to work in tandem.

Now that he is part of the ACHS staff, Untch is excited to get to know his new students and help them reach their full potential as musicians. Student music groups at ACHS led by Untch include Wind Ensemble, Advanced Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, the Marching Sequoits, and Jazz Band. He also teaches keyboarding and fine arts appreciation classes.

This year, Untch has reinstated chair tests for the in-school ensembles. These are an audition of sorts to see which instrumentalist gets the most difficult notes.

“It’s never about competition, it’s about finding the right part for each person to play,” said Untch. For Untch, they are also a great way for the new band director to meet each student and hear them play individually.

One change Untch brought to the Marching Sequoits was moving them closer to the main fan section during football games. Previously, the band was more isolated, playing from bleachers behind the end zone. In fact, Choir Director Trey Hickey, Orchestra Director Michael Riggs and Fine Arts Department Chair Wanda Teddy all worked with Untch and new ACHS Principal Bradford Hubbard to make the move possible.

Untch’s personal instruments of choice are the clarinet–which he played in his high school marching band–and the guitar.  Outside of teaching music, he continues his passion for music by being involved in two rock bands.

“Jazz is one of my favorite styles of music to teach and perform,” said Untch. As a teenager, Untch played piano and guitar in his high school jazz band. Under his direction, the ACHS extracurricular Jazz Band will be starting up in October.

Untch is also excited to play piano in the pit orchestra for ACHS’s spring musical, “Oklahoma!” During the musical, student instrumentalists, vocalists, dancers, and actors will come together to put on a performance that showcases all of their talents. He appreciated the fact that at ACHS, all of the fine arts are intertwined and  support one another wholeheartedly.

A new standards-based grading system was introduced to the fine arts department this year, and Untch also has high hopes for it. He believes the new grading rubrics will force students to learn and work hard instead of getting full marks for no effort.

Altogether, Untch is optimistic about his first year of teaching and is passionate about the subject he teaches.

“I believe that learning music teaches you far more than how to learn an instrument or how to sing. You need that spice of life, that extra skill far beyond the technicality of playing an instrument. Once you experience that performing art, [whether] as a participant or an audience member, it changes you.”