It was a night of music and memories at Bingham High School as former choir directors traveled from far and wide to reunite, take a step back in time, and reflect on the legacy they helped to create.
On this episode of the Supercast, we hear from Jolene Dalton Gailey, LeAnna Willmore, Kerrin Gates, and Ryan North about what makes the music program and students so special at Bingham and what moved them most about the magical reunion.
Audio Transcription
[Music]Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a night of music and memories at Bingham High School as former choir directors traveled from far and wide to reunite, take a step back in time, and reflect on the legacy they helped create.
On this episode of the Supercast, we hear from Jolene Dalton Gailey, LeAnna Willmore, Kerrin Gates, Ryan North, and Logan Bingham about what makes the music program and students so special at Bingham and what moved them most about the magical reunion.
We're here with current and past choir directors here at Bingham High School, way back into the 1900s. And we are really excited to have you all here. Just introduce yourselves, each of you, and then I have just a couple of questions for you. But it's really exciting to see you all here together at the same time.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
I'm Jolene Dalton Gailey and I was here from 1984 to 1991.
LeAnna Willmore:
LeAnna Willmore 1991 to 1999.
Kerrin Gates:
I'm Kerrin Gates and I taught here from 2008 to 2014.
Ryan North:
I'm Ryan North and I taught here from 2014 to 2023.
Logan Bingham:
I'm Logan Bingham and I am the current choir director, my first year here.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me how it feels to be here tonight.
Kerrin Gates:
It's exciting. It's different coming back as a visitor and this is actually the first time I'm seeing the new performing arts area, the renovations that have happened. So it's really exciting to see to see that and meet up with former students and their parents.
LeAnna Willmore:
This is the site of where I met my husband and married him.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
And so this place has more importance to me than just about any place I've taught.
Anthony Godfrey:
Is it bringing back memories?
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
Oh yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic.
LeAnna Willmore:
Okay I love I have Bingham High.I couldn't get over when I was here the traditions, how they honor the traditions and where they started and where they were going. It's just the mos traditional high school that I've ever been in. I've taught now in one, two, three, four different high schools.
Ryan North:
It's only been a few months since I was here last, but it's good to be back. It's good to see some of the students that I know and it's just, it's good to feel that energy, energy that you get on the night of a concert. You can feel that. It's just in the air and I just love that feeling. That was one of my favorite parts of the job.
Logan Bingham:
Well, I'll just add one of the things that we talk about at Bingham is they talked about being a legacy high school and so one of my things that I wanted to do is figure out how to involve and engage with the alumni and since I knew some or a lot of the past directors, I thought well maybe we could do something. Anyway, this is like you you know, planning coming true. And I mean, I'm just thrilled that they're all here. So it's really exciting to see everyone.
Anthony Godfrey:
These are all names that I've heard before and people I've met before, but now to see you all together tonight is really exciting. Tell me what made you want to be a choir director?
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
The woman standing next to me was my junior high school and high school choir director.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
And so I knew from about 12 years old that I wanted to do what she did because it was so impactful. And then as I studied, then the music became so important.
Anthony Godfrey:
LeAnna, I know that's not news to you, but how does it feel to hear that?
LeAnna Willmore:
It means a lot to me. You can imagine what kind of a student she was. I still remember the day when she was in the seventh grade, and I had this piece of music that I needed a pianist for and it was really hard. And I just said, who wants to play this? And she said, I do. And she took it home and practiced all night and came home, came the next day and she could play it. It was way beyond her.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
I can still play it.
Anthony Godfrey:
(laughing) - It's burned into your memory. Wow.
LeAnna Willmore:
Those are the very things that make you want to be a choir director. You just, you have those students that will just gobble it up. They all do.
Anthony Godfrey;
Sure.
LeAnna Willmore:
And you can change lives through the music, through the text, through the feelings in the music, you can change lives for the better. You can take someone and help mold them into a better person.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thousands of lives have been changed by this chain of directors here.
Ryan North:
One of the things I loved most about being a choir teacher, and this is something that we would get as choir teachers, let's say a math teacher might not get, is we oftentimes have the same students for two, three years, and you get to build a relationship with those students over three years, and you really get to know them, and they really get to know you. And you do, you get to see you get to see them grow you get to see them change. You keep in contact with them long after they graduate. You know, you get the wedding invitations and all the announcements about what's going on and it's just that's one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
Logan Bingham:
Well, and not not to you know throw the others under the bus but we don't have reunions like this for math classes or for English classes.
Anthony Godfrey:
My English students didn’t say, "Let's all get together.”
Logan Bingham:
Right, so I mean that is the beauty of music and not just music but then the culture and the experience that the high schoolers get.I mean they're amazing. The things that they do are incredible and so for me it was that I had a great music teacher that inspired me and I think that's probably how a lot of us got into this thing of we had someone that inspired us and then we decided, "Hey, I'll give it a shot too.”
Kerrin Gates:
Yeah, I had an interesting experience as a teenager in choir myself. I started out - my mother was very musical and she taught us all as kids and so we had kind of musical education throughout our early years of education. But when I went to high school I joined choir and a lot of the experiences I had there, just in an interesting moment of clarity as a teenager, I thought it's important that kids this age have a safe place where they can practice being themselves, you know what I mean. And practice that changing voice and understand things that are okay and not have to be scared. So to me, that was one of the things that inspired me to become a teacher in general, was this idea that kids need a safe place to be and to grow and to find out, you know, who they are and what they want to be.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of your favorite memories as choir director?
LeAnna Willmore:
The rehearsal was really more fun than the performance usually. That's where the magic happened. The most beautiful moments happened in the rehearsal and you always hoped that they would carry over into the performance and the audience would feel it but it was it was the rehearsal.
Anthony Godfrey:
You've had many favorite memories in those rehearsals over the years. Anyone else?
Kerrin Gates:
Well and like Ryan said those those times when you just see them get it too, the light will go on and when they make the connection between rehearsal and what happens in performance you know it's the performance then seems like a little bit of a flash in the pan after all you've gone through to get to that you know snapshot of all your work.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah that's the magic of learning it's something they didn't think they could do.
Kerrin Gates:
And they can make that connection and go ah that's what it's about.
Ryan North:
And some of the best memories too, are not musical memories. It's just maybe a connection you have with a student over something non-musical related. You know, you just make a connection and there's some sort of special understanding that happens there and you just feel like, ‘okay, we've got something here between us now’ and you feel like you can be influential in their life and you feel like you've made a little bit of a difference. That happens frequently too and you don't always realize it at the time and they'll come back to you later, you'll get a note at the end of the year or a parent will say something or it'll be years later they'll say, "hey do you remember when this happened? That really meant a lot to me.” And that's like, ‘Oh, wow.’
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
I agree with everything they've said. But to add to that, the ability to be able to take students on tours away from this area, to take them to Vancouver, British Columbia, to take them to Arizona, to take them to California, to take them and watch them go, wow. And then to have their music influence and affect people that aren't their moms and dads in the audience and to find out that they have the power to affect other lives with their music. You don't get that very many places.
Ryan North:
I always loved it because I think we did three trips to New York while I was here at Bingham and I just loved watching them when we get to New York. Their eyes would just open really wide like we are not in South Jordan, Utah anymore There's a whole other world out there outside of this little valley here. I love that.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
Yeah, that’s a gift.
Ryan North:
Yeah, and that's an important educational moment as well. It may not be music-related, but it's life-related.
Anthony Godfrey:
What's your favorite time signature? ⅞?
Kerrin Gates:
Oh, something asymmetrical.
Jolene Dalton Gailey:
Thank you. ⅝ now and then.
Logan Bingham:
I love a good 6/8. A little one, two, three, four, five, six.
Anthony Godfrey:
No ¾ huh?
Kerrin Gates:
Only if you're doing quarter note triplets in it.
LeAnna Willmore:
Only if you’re doing one beat per minute.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, all right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Any other thoughts or memories about Bingham?
LeAnna Willmore:
I have an overall thought about teaching music. And I don't know if this happens every place, but it happens for us at the end of a class period, you will have students say, "Thank you. It was a good class today. Thanks for what you do for us." That just - you get notes. You get so many notes. I had boxes, boxes of notes that I finally went through and read during COVID.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
LeAnna Willmore:
Just boxes, but it's the personal thank yous that they say as they're leaving the class. They don't just walk out.
Anthony Godfrey:
Sounds like you've had a similar experience.
Kerrin Gates:
I actually had a file in my cabinet in my office that I just labeled ‘happy file’ and I would take it out sometimes and just read those kind little notes that they would sometimes leave and it does it. It fills you back up a little bit, you know after you give so much.
Ryan North:
My time here at Bingham, I'm just filled with gratitude. There is a rich tradition of choral music here at Bingham going way, way back. And these three ladies here to my right here, they were part of that tradition and I just got to come in and kind of stand on their shoulders and continue to build upon what they had built. I'm just grateful to all three of you and the others who are not here for establishing that tradition and maintaining that tradition here at Bingham because it really is an important part of the school culture here. The Madrigals still sing at every assembly and you know that doesn't just happen overnight, I mean, that has to be embedded in the school culture so thank you for upholding that and I hope that just continues forever.
Logan Bingham:
Well, and I'll just add that's why I titled this whole event "We'll Always Remember" which is the first words of our school hymn that is sung all the time. "We Will Always Remember" this place and the legacy of this wonderful choir program and this event, which I hope is another kickoff to another almost maybe era of great onward and upward emotion for the Bingham High choirs. And, I mean, how lucky am I to be standing on the shoulders of you four and many more that aren’t here and I'm just so grateful for all that you've done too.
Anthony Godfrey:
I've long known about the music tradition at Bingham and it's really wonderful to meet the people who are responsible for it. Thank you very much for everything you've done for students over the years and for Bingham and for just being a part of this very important tradition here for these folks.
Ryan North:
Thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, hear a performance from the Bingham High School Choir.
Break:
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Choir singing Bingham High School Hymn:
We’ll always remember the blue and the white
And faces so tender and dear –
We’ll always remember the stars in the night
That shine on our campus so clear.
We’ll always remember the laughs and the smiles
And the struggles, the sorrows and tears.
But though we may travel o’er many strange miles,
We’ll always remember in May and September –
Bingham High as our happiest years.
Logan Bingham:
Welcome. I'm so happy and excited to see all of you here. Thank you for coming to tonight's concert/alumni reunion event. This is really an exciting night because I've been thinking about and planning this night for a few months and to see it happening is just making my heart so happy. So thank you for being here, whether you are a parent of one of the prior members or maybe you might be an alumni of Bingham High Choirs. Welcome.
My name is Mr. Bingham and I am the new choir director here at Bingham High. We’re using this event as kind of a kickoff to a new era maybe, that seems like a big word to say, but a new season maybe, that's what this is, like a television show, to a new season of Bingham High choirs. Let's have Bravado come out and sing to you.
(audience cheers)
[Choir singing (Ghost) Riders in the Sky by Johnny Cash ] An old cowboy went riding outOne dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested
As he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd
Of red-eyed cows he saw
Plowin' through the ragged skies
And up the cloudy draw.
Yippie-yi-yay
Yippie-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky
Their brands were still on fire
And their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny
And their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him
As they thundered through the sky
For he saw the riders coming hard
As he heard their mournful cry
Yippie-yi-yay
Yippie-yi-o
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.
Choir singing:
Yippie-yi-yay
Yippie-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky
Ghost riders in the sky
Ghost riders in the sky