Tunes in Turmoil: The Proposed Band Cuts

On a typical day, one can walk through the first floor of Stuyvesant and hear music all around: singing in the chorus room, piano from outside the auditorium, and a cacophony of instruments coming from the band room. The Music Department has long been woven into student life, with hundreds of students coming together across band, orchestra, and chorus to perform in semi-annual concerts year after year. For years, the department has faced tension with the administration over how the program should be run, including a proposal last year that intended to make all music classes pass-fail before being overturned following strong student and parent opposition. Now, Stuyvesant’s five bands face a major restructuring proposal for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year.

All students in band classes, as well as their parents, received a notice through Jupiter from band director Dr. Gregor Winkel on May 17, which described an initial plan to eliminate over 160 band seats. Currently, the band program comprises five classes: beginner band, two concert band classes, and the two advanced bands, jazz and symphonic. If the cuts are implemented, the beginner band and one of the concert bands would be eliminated. According to the notice, “The administration is asserting that the cuts are necessary to satisfy the need for ‘Music Appreciation’ classes.” Additionally, students in the band classes have also reported that Dr. Winkel shared that he would likely have to teach Music Appreciation next year. 

As a result, Dr. Winkel has expressed his deep concern about how this will affect his students and the organization of the bands. When course requests are submitted, Dr. Winkel has to provide the program office with lists of students to place in each band; however, the proposal would affect the traditional progression of students through the bands, and would mean that some students would have to leave the program. “It would make my heart heavy to see your child go. I do not want to exclude them from the opportunity to rehearse, perform, and grow in one of the bands because I believe this is a very important part of their education at Stuyvesant,” Dr. Winkel shared in the Jupiter notice. In a school so focused on academic rigor, the opportunity for music provides a crucial creative outlet.

Dr. Winkel believes that the current structure and system of the bands are crucial to how students flow between different ensembles as they advance. The majority of incoming freshmen join band playing instruments such as saxophone, flute, clarinet, and drums. It is in Beginner Band that he can teach them to play more uncommon instruments such as tuba, French horn, bassoon, and baritone horn. “The Beginner Band feeds all the other bands… These incoming freshmen can be trained to play needed rare instruments. Often the students learn so well that they make it to the most advanced bands, the Symphonic Band and the Jazz Band,” Dr. Winkel stated in an email interview. However, with the proposed changes, Beginner Band would be cut, and his ability to create and train these needed instrumentalists would be lost. This presents issues, as higher-level band repertoire often includes parts for such less-played instruments. “The Band cuts will eventually lead to an inability to perform Band music repertoire,” he said.

In addition to his opposition to the cuts for the practical issues they would pose, Dr. Winkel also voiced dissatisfaction with how his existing band students would be affected. He pointed out that, according to the students themselves, band is a class that provides a place for musicians to recharge in the middle of a long school day, and that there is value to learning an instrument as opposed to simply learning about music as a student would in Music Appreciation, and cutting student seats would be a loss. He believes that the cuts are unfair to students who have already taken a year of band to learn a new instrument, or are developing their skills on an old one, and are truly passionate about playing music. “[These students] could have just done one term of Music Appreciation and would have fulfilled their music graduation requirements. But they decided to do some more work and learn a new instrument,” Dr. Winkel said. He also expressed dismay for students who expected to stay in band. “I am losing about 140 spots in the bands to place band students. Usually, most of the band students stay in the bands for four years… On average, between 90 and 95 percent [of] the Beginner Band [students] continue into the other Bands. When this Beginner Band started a year ago, the students were kept under the impression that they could continue to perform in the Band Classes and grow their skills, yet were given no warning of this change. “[The beginner band students] and I just learned about the band cuts about one month ago (around the beginning of April),” he said.

Currently, two of Dr. Winkel’s classes, Beginner Band and one period of Advanced Concert Band, as well as AP Music Theory, which is taught by orchestra director Joseph Tamosaitis, are to be cut. As teachers normally teach five periods a day, cutting these classes would open up three new periods of Music Appreciation. Dr. Winkel had offered to teach Music Appreciation on top of his five periods in order to at least keep Beginner Band open. However, the administration pushed to cut the band classes instead. Dr. Winkel revealed that he was frustrated with his lack of say in the change and the lack of communication between him, as the band teacher, and the administration. “As the Band teacher, I am dismayed that I was not involved in the decision to cut the band classes […] I wish the administration would have involved me in that decision,” he said. He believes that this would have prevented some of the initial problems with the plan. Dr. Winkel maintains that preserving the band classes would better serve both current students and the long-term health of Stuyvesant’s bands.

Chorus Director and Music Coordinator Lilya Shamazov explained the administration’s reasoning behind the proposal. “Beginning next year, we need to offer three additional sections of Music Appreciation each semester. There are two primary reasons for that increase. First, several years ago, Music Appreciation was moved from [a] freshman year [requirement] to [a] junior year [requirement]. During the transition, fewer sections were needed because only juniors were taking the course while younger students waited until their junior year. That transition period has now ended, and a large group of students will need the course next year,” Shamazov explained in an email interview. In addition, she noted that enrollment in performing ensembles has dropped drastically over the past few years, with band students dropping to 244 compared to about 500 pre-pandemic. Because there are now less students who are completing two semesters in a performing ensemble to fulfill their music requirement, more students need to take Music Appreciation. Most importantly, Shamazov emphasized that budget limitations played a significant role in the proposal. Because the administration is unable to hire an additional music teacher under the current budget, the department has been forced to create more Music Appreciation sections under the instruction of existing staff, thus resulting in Dr. Winkel taking on additional classes. Band’s five sections make it Stuyvesant’s largest music program, so, according to Shamazov, it made the most sense to reduce it. “This proposal should be viewed as a restructuring rather than a cut,” Shamazov said.

Many students remain concerned about how these changes could affect their educational experience and worry that larger ensembles, the result of cutting two sections, would reduce opportunities for individualized instruction and make rehearsals more difficult to run. Sophomore Franciszek Rozbicki, a percussionist in concert band, explained that the already large class sizes for the concert bands can lead to wide gaps between students’ abilities and commitment levels. He said in an online interview, “A select few rowdy and unpassionate students ruin the experience for us all. Sometimes it's only one or two kids holding up everybody, and as a result, I'm not able to play, or our whole band progresses [more slowly].” With ensembles expected to be larger next year, Rozbicki noted his concern that students will receive even less individual attention. “It’s practically impossible for one person, like Dr. Winkel, to individually coach every student, and a larger ensemble would not make that any easier,” he said. Rozbicki also acknowledged that larger ensembles could encourage greater independence from the musicians. He compared the situation to a professional orchestra, noting, “each player is responsible for intense practice on their own, due to the sheer size of their ensemble compared to their one conductor. This might filter out the more dedicated and hardworking players in the bands and overall raise their level.” However, he cautioned that such a program could pose serious challenges for students who lack the time, resources, or instruments necessary for extensive individual practice.  

Senior Raymond Chen highlighted the importance of Beginner Band. While currently a trombonist for the jazz band, Chen initially started off in the Beginner Band freshman year. “That’s what I’m opposed to—the cuts—because concert band and Beginner Band, being the entry-level bands, [are] just pipelines for new kids to get into music. So if you take those away and you leave only the elite-level bands—jazz and symphonic—you have no pipelines left for kids, literally like me,” he explained. Chen also emphasized the difference between targeted cuts to improve a band’s skill level and the sweeping cuts in the proposal. He noted, “If you were to cut down the elite-level bands, I maybe would support it because jazz band in particular, I think, is slightly bloated. But the entry-level bands should be kept the way they are and maybe even expanded to let new kids have the opportunity to learn instruments.”

Not all students oppose restructuring in the proposed form. Sophomore Benjamin Xie, a flautist in symphonic band, said that one advantage of the proposal is that it would impact all current students in the program, as evident by the placement form sent to all band students. He argued that this allows less experienced musicians to still contribute. “There are definitely people who are just in band for the grade. However, there are definitely people in band who I know wouldn’t pass the band audition if cuts were to be made but still want to be in band for band’s sake,” he said. Importantly, Xie believes that not personally cutting students prevents debates over who gets to stay. “I don’t know how you would determine who’s just here for the grade and who actually wants to be in band,” he noted.

In the end, despite pushback, this proposal will take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. The demand for Music Appreciation sections poses a real challenge given the budget restraints, though disagreement remains over how it should be addressed. While administrators argue that the restructuring is necessary to maintain the band program while still meeting staffing and programming requirements, many students remain concerned about what the creation of larger ensembles and the loss of Beginner Band could mean for future musicians at Stuyvesant.