Luke Hayes is ending his senior year at BHS. As the drum major for the BHS band and a normal senior workload, Hayes has his work cut out for him. But he does not let the workload affect his effort.
“Luke is an extremely hard worker whether it is helping in band, or other students in academic studies,” junior Maddie Maddox said. “Luke is always on top of it and is constantly striving to help other people.”
Hayes plans to continue his music education at KU next year.
“Luke plans to attend KU majoring in music education,” Maddox said. “The audition for the KU band is very overwhelming and Luke did a fantastic job. Other than working on his own for countless hours, he has been taking lessons from Dr. Davidson at KU. Luke does not only play trombone which is his main instrument, he plays many more instruments and is becoming better at them each day.”
Hayes has learned many different instruments throughout his high school career.
“I’m honestly starting to lose track of how many instruments I can play.” Luke Hayes said. “My primary is trombone but I can play percussion euphonium and bass guitar at just about high school concert level. My standard guitar and French horn skills are a little rusty and recently I’ve begun learning the flute, clarinet, and tuba.”
After being in the BHS band for 4 years, Hayes has left an impression on his teacher.
“Luke has been one of the single best student leaders that the BHS Band has had.” Band teacher Stuart O’Neil said. “He’s a good role model, and he regularly does whatever is needed without complaining.”
Hayes has had a motivation to join band since he was younger.
“The main reason I first started band was because I would always go to my older sisters concerts when I was younger,” Hayes said. “I thought everyone up there looked so cool and professional and thought, ‘I wanna do that’ and it’s stuck ever since.”
Hayes has left a big impact on BHS and more importantly, the students.
“Luke has been our 23-24 drum major and I do not think there is a better fit out there,” Maddox said. “He knows when to joke around and when to be serious which is a key part in working with peers. He is an excellent leader and teacher and when he is in charge of 40+ teenagers with instruments he gets the job done, whatever that may be, lining up for a marching sequence, or working on music with the band when Mr. O’neil is not there. Apart from school, he works extremely hard in his music studies.”
Becoming a drum major takes a lot of hard work, and not many people have the chance to be a drum major because of this.
“A lot of the work I put into drum major was more mental than physical,” Hayes said. “It’s more than just waving my hands around in front of my friends and expecting them to listen. I worked hard to appear more sure and confident so that the band would respect me better and listen to what I had to say, with that said learning to conduct and walk backward was definitely hard. I remember falling on my butt a few times as I practiced over the summer.”