Catherine Yang

Coppell High School senior Catherine Yang plays the alto saxophone and will be studying music education at the University of North Texas. As drum major her junior and senior year, she hopes to become a high school band director someday.

What have you enjoyed about Coppell Band?

Band was definitely one of the highlights of high school. I’ve made all of my friends through band  and it’s  been kind of like a little cult for me. I just got to grow more as a person. As I was in the band, I [got] to interact with so many different types of people and learn so many really important life lessons like responsibility and time management.

How have you grown in band?

My junior and senior year, I was drum major for the band and that was a dream role for me since my freshman year. To get [to] that point, I have grown a lot – just interacting with a lot of the leadership people from when I was a little freshman, like the upperclassmen that I looked up to and the respect that they’ve had for other people. They were just very inspirational leaders. I  learned a lot just by watching them and interacting with them and  figuring out what kind of person I am.

Why did you decide to study music education at the University of North Texas?

I’ve kind of known since my sophomore year of high school. Even in middle school, music was a really big part of my life. I really loved getting to play and getting to interact with my friends and watching them grow as musicians and  as people in general. My sophomore year of high school, I really fell in love with the band hall setting and the fact that I could interact with people who are passionate about music. I realized this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  Having band directors who have inspired me and have been people who I can talk to influenced me to want to be that type of person for students in the future. Especially since high school is stressful, having band and having extracurriculars is a really nice way to get away from all the stresses and do something you’re passionate about. 

Who has really inspired you through your time in high school?

I’ve been really inspired by  all my band directors. All of them each have very unique traits about them that I’ve always admired. I’ve really [loved] getting to talk with them and having fun conversations. That’s  the type of teacher  I want to be someday and I hope to be as inspirational as they have been for me. 

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