From conducting on the football fields to Cupertino High School’s theatre stage, Choir Director Andrew Aron has touched the lives of hundreds of students in his over 20 years of teaching at Cupertino.
In his childhood, Aron participated in a church choir directed by Pat Hutcherson, an inspiration for him and a close family friend in the present day. His parents were in the church choir, and Aron sang in the Cherub Choir, among other kindergarten and preschool children. In middle school, he began playing the saxophone in middle school and joined the marching band in high school, where he discovered his passion for conducting as a drum major.
“I realized that I really liked conducting,” Aron said. “There was something about conducting that was really exciting and fun. So I started learning how to conduct by myself, I would learn the patterns and the beats.”
Among his friends, Aron was the only one who pursued a career in musical education, graduating from college in the early 1990s and teaching as an elementary school music teacher and a high school choir director in Michigan. He moved to California in 1998 to pursue his master’s degree in choral conducting at San Jose State University, taking a job as the choir director at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church during that time. Later on, from 2000 to 2003, he became the choir director at Monta Vista High School. He was moved to Cupertino High School after a large series of layoffs and has been teaching at CHS for 21 years since.
The CHS choir department looked vastly different from its current state when Aron first arrived, with only one choir consisting of around 30 students, the majority of whom were female. Aron pushed to expand Cupertino’s program, speaking with the principal to form Cupertino’s first men’s choir.
“I mean, it was hilarious. […] In the first couple years, we had half the football team because they needed an extra credit or something,” Aron said. “[…] The first concert we ever gave was over at Bethel Lutheran Church across the street, and a couple of the guys wore their jerseys because they figured that to dress up, [they’d] wear [their] jerseys. And it was super funny to build it from ‘anybody come to sing,’ to now we’re in tuxes and dresses.”
The program continued to develop, growing from word of mouth from students and Aron himself, who would recommend the program to students who displayed musical interest. Although the program’s numbers grew to around 220 to 240 students prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding from one choir to five, Aron initially faced challenges with improving the choir program’s reputation and attracting students to join the program.
“[Choir] just had this stigma that it wasn’t something cool and fun to do,” said Aron. “So when we started gaining reputation — like the initial guys group — we sang in the quad for fun. So did Cantos. Cantos was the first group that we made an audition group, and we’d sing for football games, homecoming. […] So I think the main challenge was just getting people to take a chance on the program.”
Throughout his years as Cupertino’s choir director, Aron has seen countless students go through the program, often from their underclassman years to upperclassmen.
Said Aron, “My favorite part is watching people go through the program as maybe young, shy freshmen, and then seeing them explode onstage as juniors and seniors. There’s no more inhibitions, there’s no more shyness. They’re full-out confident, courageous performers. […] That’s the coolest thing about being a teacher — when you’re no longer needed and everyone’s just making music on their own, and you just get to be an audience member, like in the spring show, where I’m just in the booth, clapping along and being a fan of the choir.”
Though Aron has directed numerous performances, the annual Masterworks concert, a collaboration concert with other musical groups of all ages, stood out to him most.
Said Aron, “We have the entire school orchestra, we had the entire choir program. We had the church choir singing with us and doing something like the Dan Forrest Requiem, and you’re there, standing in front of more than 300 people making music. […] And then also at those concerts, my wife and my son would also be singing. So that would be these crazy, amazing worlds colliding, where multi-generations, everywhere from 13 to 80 year old people singing together.”
While teaching and directing rehearsals, Aron always approaches each day with a mindset of understanding.
Said Aron, “No one’s making mistakes on purpose, no one in the choir is singing the wrong notes on purpose, or anything like that. So I think that’s important for me to know that [if] I’m encouraging people to sing strong or sing loud or sing more passionately, I always have this idea that we will want to do that. It’s just finding ways to encourage people to bring that out in themselves and each other, and that also as a teacher, realizing everyone’s coming from different life experiences.”
Recently, Aron was nominated and voted by his peers to win the Outstanding Choral Music Educator Award by the California Association for Music Education Bay Section among numerous educators in the Bay Area. This award recognizes music educators who demonstrate excellence in their field.
“I didn’t expect anything like that,” Aron said. “You’re just doing your job, loving your work and everything. And so it’s just an honor to be recognized by people outside of the school, outside of our area, to go, ‘Wow, Cupertino has a great program. And so we’re going to award this guy an award.’ And I think it’s because of what the students — what we’ve — put together as a team, that we’re being recognized.”
Aron’s teaching has impacted numerous students in the choir program. Senior and choir teaching assistant Wendy Yu is a student in Cappella Choir — Cupertino’s most advanced choir — and has participated in the program for all four years of high school.
“Even if there are people who are not having a good day, or if the class is a little off, he always tries to work things out,” Yu said. “Especially since during concert week, a lot of people have other conflicts, but if you go talk to him, he’s actually very nice about it. Genuinely, he has never been mad or annoyed at anyone, even though in [my] four years of choir, there have been a lot of times where I think he was entitled to be mad.”
“The thing about choir is that you have to be very mindful about what’s going on around you, especially if you want your harmonies to click,” Yu said. “And because of that, if even a few people are missing from a section, you’re really able to feel it. And that’s also part of why in this class there’s so much emphasis on attendance and showing up for things. But I think that makes the choirs very tight-knit communities where everyone is very close […] and supportive of each other.”
As the choir program and Aron’s instruction have impacted the high school experiences of many students in the past, they will continue to do so in the future.
“It’s just an honor of mine to be a part of their high school journey, their musical journey, and I hope to provide opportunities for the students, so they have something wonderful or something memorable as they’re going through high school to remember and to think about,” Aron said.
“Music has magical qualities,” Aron said. “Where people are all doing something at the same time and making this beautiful project. And it can be on fire, it can be sweet, it can be tender. All the emotions and expressions in life happen in a choir, and you’re all doing it together. So really, even after 20 some years, I come to school just as excited as I did 20 years ago. Maybe even more, because I can enjoy it more as a veteran teacher and not be so worried about the small things.”
