The Chatham Arts Council is investing in artists through our Meet This Artist (MTA) series, introducing you to 12 Chatham County artists each year in a big way. The fine folks at Hobbs Architects in downtown Pittsboro are powering our Meet This Artist series this year. Architecture is art, and the Hobbs crew values art in our community. So, take a look. Meet your very inspiring neighbors.
This installment of Meet This Artist was written by guest author Elisabeth Lewis Corley.
The first thing you might notice is the smile; it starts in the eyes. The second thing you might notice is the imposing height. This ex-Marine—well, is anyone once a Marine ever not a Marine?—looks like he might just as easily have chosen career as an offensive lineman in American football.
But he has always loved music. Zachary D. Wills, the current band director at Chatham Central High School in Bear Creek, grew up in deep South small towns in Louisiana and Mississippi, where he played in the band in middle school through graduation from Horn Lake High School in Horn Lake, Mississippi. And his primary instrument was, appropriately enough, the French horn. He also plays the trumpet and other brass instruments. Maybe it was the music in the language of the Deep South that influenced his ear, or maybe he was just born to play. And teach.
He earned his undergraduate degree in music education, enrolling initially at Northwest Mississippi Community College and completing the degree at Delta State University, in Cleveland—the one in the Mississippi Delta, not the one a bit farther north.
After graduation he taught for three years and then, in a spirit of both adventure and service, joined the Marine Corps in 2005. He saw himself serving as a grunt and smiles at the memory, “Well, it didn’t take them long to ask, ‘Wait. What instruments did you say you play?’ and that was that. I served for twelve years in Marine Corps bands. Got to travel, got to perform for royalty and heads of state. Went to the Naval School of Music. It was great, the music management course in Norfolk, Virginia, music theory, arranging, ear training, lessons with your instrument, and—because we’re in the military we have to have acronyms, right? We studied CERT: Contemporary Ensemble Rehearsal Techniques. Yep. All that. And I had a year on O’ahu. It doesn’t get better than that.”
Wills cites his military service as providing physical training and leadership training, which may have helped prepare him for his post-Marine Corps career, which included a stint as a middle school band director, a position that might test the courage of the bravest and before which an Achilles might quail. Wills’s resume is a long testament to his fortitude and determination.
When he landed on the east coast of North Carolina, it was always his objective to make it to Chatham County, where his wife Lindsey Wills’s family has deep roots.
He laughs. “Man plans. God laughs. It took us a while to get here.”
He now lives five minutes from the high school in a single-wide in Deep Chatham with his wife, Lindsey, their dog, Sammy, and three cats, Wednesday, Shadow, and Mad Sweeney (with a long nod to the “American Gods” television series that ran from 2017 to 2021). “We find ourselves often on the porch in the afternoon, watching the wildlife around us do what wild life does.”
This is Wills’s third year teaching in Chatham County and his first year teaching at Chatham Central High School and this is where he wants to be. “I’ll always have wanderlust, but I’m not going to be scaling Machu Picchu at this point. But I hope I will always be interested in experiencing new cultures, new foods. I want to see artwork in Greece. Go back to Paris and spend time in the Louvre.”
In the meantime, he is thrilled to be in the cinder block band room at Chatham Central, introducing students to the possibilities of progress and building something beautiful in an ensemble. On the white board in the band room are some salient questions. “Blend. Can I hear every voice? Is there too much of one flavor in the soup?”
One of his students comes into the band room for an instrument after school and stands talking for a few minutes. He slowly starts fanning himself with his t-shirt. “Mr. Wills, Mr. Wills, it is hot in here.”
The air conditioning is not working and the temperature in the room hovers around eighty degrees. That could be a problem all on its own, but the varying humidity is bound to be an issue for the musical instruments.
Wills smiles at the student. “Yep. Sorry about that. We’re working on it.” He doesn’t seem to register that the student doesn’t call him “Doctor” Wills but if you ask him, he might tell you he did earn his doctorate—at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Somewhere along the way, he also received a Master of Music Performance degree from San Diego State University. This is one highly-educated former aspiring infantryman.
He started with six band students. He has instruments available for students to work with on a simple parental agreement form at no cost—flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, baritone horn, trombone, tuba, keyboard, drums, guitar. He has a vision of a four-year, uninterrupted art path for high school students and is doing outreach into the schools that feed into Central—Bennett, Bonlee, J. S. Waters—to build interest in the high school band program. A few short weeks into the fall semester, he is already up to twenty-four band students or beginning instrument students and he is bursting with the energy to take on an expanding program in which he is constantly seeking information from the students to shape what they will learn. “So, when we’re choosing repertoire, I ask them to close their eyes and listen to some piece of music I might be considering. I ask them to keep their eyes closed and just give me a simple thumbs up or thumbs down. They can’t see how their friends are reacting, and their friends can’t see their response. And I get the information I need to chose music that speaks to them.”
Wills looks around at the assortment of instruments and uniforms surrounding him. “I do enjoy being here. At school. Teaching young people. I want to get better. Keep getting better. I can always be a better educator.”
The HVAC system may need some attention, but the light is definitely shining in that white-painted, concrete block band room next to the gym. Seems pretty clear the adventure continues for Zachary D. Wills and his very fortunate students.
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