Taking a Musical Journey of Self-Expression
The world’s top-selling classical music magazine called Chase Spruill,”…an engaging and convincing advocate… Spruill has an energetic approach…plays with great spirit…and a great sense of presence…” –BBC Music Magazine, January 2020. In 2021, STRINGS MAGAZINE listed Chase Spruill as one of the noteworthy interpreters of the music of leading American composer Philip Glass, May 2021.
Chase Spruill’s most coveted role of his accomplished career is leading the music program in his hometown of Vacaville at Sierra Vista K-8. Spruill is in his seventh year of teaching 4th-8th grade students general music curriculum, wind, brass, and orchestral string instruments.
Spruill taught as a core faculty member at the Nationally celebrated not-for-profit organization Community MusicWorks, as a Visiting Professor of Violin at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and toured and performed recording music written for him by the great American composer Philip Glass based in New York City alongside the director of the Philip Glass Ensemble, Michael Riesman.
It didn’t take much convincing for Spruill to accept a position to come back home to Vacaville to develop the music program at Sierra Vista. He saw this as an opportunity to build a music program infrastructure in a public school system.
“I can model for young people in my Vacaville community who want to get started in music what an active life in music looks like. We’re engaged in the same practice. If I tell young people they must practice daily, it’s also because I practice daily. I like the authentic practice of being in it with young people. It’s so fun!”
Spruill also remains committed to exploring the intersection of social justice and music with his students. “Having a platform to converse with young people to respond to situations about what’s happening in the world where we have emotions we can’t articulate. I like that music is an access point to at least start to have a conversation so that young people can learn to articulate what they’re thinking, feeling, and processing. I feel like it’s important work.”
For Mr. Spruill, music is a journey he takes with his students each year. His goal is to transform his student's expectations of what music can be. Both teacher and student learn and evolve together.
The most rewarding part of his job, he says, “The performances and the concerts. It’s really fun to watch them start with complete fear and panic and ease them into the idea they are expressing, something we have been working on for months. Watching them experience that they provided a moment of joy for their family and friends and realizing what kind of impact their practice had has been a huge moment for me.”