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Month: July 2020

Meet Mr. Nachtergaele!

Alessio Nachtergaele is the newest addition to the Cy-Fair HS Choir Director Team! Mr. Nachtergaele is originally from Belgium, and lived there for six years before moving to Fort Worth, TX. After this, he remained stationary, and would not move again until graduating from L.D. Bell HS to go to college at The University of Texas at Austin. Although originally striving for a BS in Mathematics at UT, Mr. Nachtergaele quickly realized that turning to music was a much better career path for him. This led Mr. Nachtergaele to audition for the Butler School of Music, and ultimately earned him his BM in Choral Studies.

After transferring to the Butler School of Music, Mr. Nachtergaele studied voice with Professor Nikita Storojev, and studied choral methodology and conducting under Dr. Suzanne Pence. He also studied, for several semesters, under Dr. Judith Jellison, Dr. Robert Duke, and Dr. Amy Simmons, learning the intricacies of classroom management within the music realm. In his final semester at UT, Mr. Nachtergaele also had the pleasure of student teaching with Ed Snouffer, Jenn Goodner, and Austin Hart at Westlake High School, and with Lindsey Creel at Cedar Creek Elementary, helping put everything he had worked on for the past four years into context, and giving him the final push to become a new Texas Choir Director!

During his four years at UT, Mr. Nachtergaele was also extremely involved in several different ensembles, both on and off campus. On campus, he was involved in Concert Chorale, led by Dr. Suzanne Pence, Longhorn Singers, a completely student-led organization, and Chamber Singers, led by Dr. James Morrow. These three unique ensembles focused on making very different types of music, helping expose Mr. Nachtergaele to more choral music than he could have ever imagined. Off campus, he sang with The St. Matthew’s Schola as well as Austin Cantorum, both semi-professional ensembles that rehearsed and performed many times throughout the year. Mr. Nachtergaele hopes that he will be able to stay involved in these ensembles by driving back to Austin in the Summers to perform once again with these wonderful groups.

Mr. Nachtergaele is extremely excited to start this new chapter of his life in the Houston area and to start his career off at Cy-Fair High School! He is ready to start making a difference in the lives of young people, but of course, still have lots of fun doing it!