MEET MR. SPRUILL
The world’s top-selling classical music magazine called 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 being one of the noteworthy interpreters of the music of leading American composer Philip Glass, May 2021
To the Students and Families:
Welcome to the 2023/2024 School Year! It is my great joy to be in my seventh year at Sierra Vista K-8 as your full-time, on-campus music teacher, collaborating with young people in Grades 4 through 8 to explore the exciting landscape of music through general music curriculum, wind, brass and orchestral string instruments!
I spent the greatest part of my school life right here in Vacaville, and this is the city where I decided as a 10 year old that I wanted to be a professional violinist, musician and educator. From 2012-2017, I was living and working in Providence, Rhode Island, teaching 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 touring, performing and recording music written for me by the great American composer Philip Glass based in New York City alongside the director of the Philip Glass Ensemble, Michael Riesman. After earning my Bachelors Degree in Music from Sacramento State University (GO HORNETS!) and my Masters Degree of Arts in Education from Alliant University, I had a lot of questions about what music is doing in today’s world: Who is or is not listening to it, and why? Who’s making it? Who has access to it? Who has experience with it? Who thinks they’ve never had experiences with it, or think maybe they don’t want it? In the face of a global pandemic, questions like these became even more important for me to ask as families all over the country sheltered in place for health and safety and took on new routines like learning handwashing songs together to figure out how to wash hands for 20 seconds, or intentionally using music to calm down during stressful moments or grow aware of how it brings joy into their day. Music is the tool I use to help me further connect with people, to learn about them, and to try my hardest to give something when or if people ask for it.
Music and the arts are an absolute right for you to be able to use and to access whenever you want and however you want. The vessels you find and use in the arts can help build bridges, communicate, and express things between people when we simply don’t have the words to do it or when words aren’t enough. When we’re making music together, my goal is to enter into the journey with you exactly where you are right now, to share with you everything I’ve been learning along the way, and to grow right alongside you. The past three years invented new challenges in existing and learning, but the elements which have remained unwavering are our work we undertake together to create joy and fun while continuing to keep each other physically and emotionally safe. As we continue to learn about our individual responsibilities to ourselves, to our music, and to our groups, I hope you’ll think of learning with me as a journey that might transform your expectations around what music can be and might be able to do for you, and to celebrate all the rewards it has potential to bring into your life!
Yours,
Mr. Spruill
[email protected]
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