Shortly after Fountain Hills High School hired Michael Fox to be the new high school band director, Fountain Hills Middle School hired its own new director. For the benefit of all Fountain Hills students, Fox and Greg Caruso have a rich history together and they plan to work together to revive the school music programs.

Caruso, the new middle school band director, met Fox in 1992 while they were still in high school in Gainesville, Fla. They worked together as teachers’ assistants at Santa Fe High School before going their separate ways. Fox taught in South Carolina and overseas, while Caruso moved back home to New Jersey and then taught music up and down the east coast.

“It was just by sheer luck, actually,” Caruso said of the duo now teaching in the same district. “Band directors are a small group of people, so everybody pretty much knows who everyone is. As a friend of [Fox], I decided to look around and see who his feeders were, and this was the only feeder and there wasn’t a band director. It was by coincidence, so I applied for it and got the job.”

The two directors already have a five-year plan, and they want to accomplish everything in that plan within three years. Caruso said it will take a lot of work, but it’s doable. The first step of their plan is to perform a concert, will come very soon.

The directors would have like to have both bands play together, but only the middle school program is ready for a Christmas concert. The concert will be Dec. 15, at 6:30 p.m. inside the Fountain Hills middle school cafetorium. Caruso is also having a meet and greet the night of the concert so he can meet the parents.

The middle schoolers have been working on four Christmas tunes. Caruso will combine the sixth, seventh and eighter graders into one band to play “Jingle Bells,” “Up on a Housetop,” “Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Fox may perform by himself at the winter concert since his high schoolers won’t be there. The goal for both directors is to have a joint concert in the spring together.

“Everything is going to go as we planned, that's what we're working for,” Caruso said. “[The Spring concert] will do one of two things, or maybe both. It will give the community a sense of relief that they have the program back and/or it will shock them that they didn't know their band program was this good.”

Caruso is happy to be in Fountain Hills and working with an old friend. He said that he didn’t want to mess with anything in place halfway through his first year, but both Caruso and Fox will be ready to dig their heels in next year and make a difference in the music programs.

“From what I was told, the programs were the heart and soul of the community, both of them, so Mr. Fox and myself were brought in to bring them back,” Caruso said. “With music, for myself and other people who are into music, there’s a sense of unity, a sense of family in a program. The idea behind it is to create an environment that welcomes students and lets them feel safe about where they are and helps build confidence.”

Caruso and Fox have a working relationship where they drive five minutes to the other school and help each other with their classes. Caruso said that’s especially important for the middle schoolers, who are just beginning to learn music. Caruso does expect to help with the high school marching band, and his presence will help Fox build up that program, too.

Caruso said his students were ready to learn when he arrived, and that’s made them easy to teach. Whether your child plays percussion, brass, woodwind, or they have no experience at all, the band programs are back in business and ready to help them improve.