Conrady & Palos South Band Directors collaborated on Competition

For the first time in the history of Palos South & Conrady Jr High Bands, Band Directors Rob Slater & Stavros Makropoulos collaborated on Competition.

The first event will be held on March 5th, at Conrady, and the second will be held at Palos South on March 12th. Both directors and students alike are working hard preparing, and are excited of the upcoming events. The March 12th event will feature both bands performing with a special appearance by the Stagg Band under the direction of Bob Mecozzi. The Palos South event on March 12th is open to the public.

It's nearly impossible to get a couple of adolescents to listen to what you're saying. Now put 65 of them in the same room and give them loud, really loud, instruments to play.
But that's exactly what Conrady Junior High School Band Director Rob Slater and Palos South Band director Stavros Makropoulos have their students doing - and doing well.
Both band directors are having their students going through their steps as they prepared for a friendly band competition on March 12 at Palos South Junior High School.

Both directors have the same philosophy, serious about learning and playing music, however, have fun along the way.

Both directors demand a lot from their students; while adding levity and laughter. They both feel fortunate to have a classroom of abdicate size, and to be able to work with their incredible, hard-working students.
Director Slater said he was bitten by the music bug back in grammar school when he decided to play the trumpet in fifth grade.
"I wanted to play the flute at first because it fit in my backpack," he said. "but I was assigned the trumpet and have been in love ever since.”
Slater said he inherited the music gene from his paternal grandfather who was a jazz musician in Chicago in the 1920’s.

Director Makropoulos also comes from a musical family. His father has been playing in a wedding band all his life and his brother and sister are also band directors. "My first instrument was the violin, later I took up the clarinet. Stavros is an alumni of Conrady and studied under his former director Sue Clemons.

Ironically both Slater and Makropoulos received their undergraduate degrees in Music Education from Western Illinois University . Makropoulos was the Drum Major and Slater was the top trumpet player. Although the were some years apart, their personalities and work ethics instantly clicked.

Both directors agree that one of the keys to being a great musician is the drive to do better every day, and work hard to do as well as you can in each rehearsal.
"Being a musician is unlike any other class in that 100 percent is the goal," Slater said. "Anything less is not pleasing to the ears of the audience."
He said while he doesn't set out to "create perfectionists, it happens."
Slater's office is decorated with music memes/jokes (some students made), student artwork, and a 110-year-old trumpet that he converted into a lamp. Markopoulos's office is about the same with a Clarinet lamp that he also made himself.

Slater graduated from Cary-Grove High School, while attending Western Illinois University, in addition to playing the band he also played baseball.
He is in his second year at Conrady, and spent the previous 15 years teaching at a north suburban Catholic elementary school.
Outside the classroom, he is a professional musician and has shared the stage with such names as Manhattan Transfer, The Gin Blossoms, David Cassidy, The Ides of March, and Three Dog Night.

Makropoulos graduated from Stagg High School and is in his first year at Palos South, previously taught in the Midlothian School Dist. He has been a member in the clarinet section at Moraine Valley Jr College Music Ensembles under the direction of Douglass Bratt.

While at Stagg he maintained a High GPA, was on the football team, power lifting and track for 4 years at the same time in the Marching band, Earing him a state scholarship.

Both directors educational philosophy is to create life-long learners and appreciators of music through performance and interdisciplinary activities, while developing a solid foundation of musical knowledge, aptitude and appreciation.

We can be assured, that this will be the first of many collaborations between Directors Slater & Makropoulos.