The choir department has a new director this year. Janson Guillen is the newest addition to the Redhawks’ teacher roster. He graduated from Texas Christian University and taught at Duncanville High School as an assistant choir director for two years. Wingspan recently caught up with him to get to know more about him.
Wingspan: How has being a Redhawk teacher been so far?
Guillen: “It’s been fantastic. I think being able to have the schedule that I have and work with all the awesome kids is just really good day to day. It makes me very happy to be here.”
Wingspan: What changes have you made to the school’s choir program and are you planning on making any changes in the future?
Guillen: “So there’s not too many changes happening at this moment. We’re doing two songs for the fall concert for each group. We’re looking to do all of the All state women’s repertoire at the fall concert. I don’t think that’s been done before. For the extravaganza this year, Ms. [Julie] Blackstock [orchestra director] and I are gonna collaborate a lot to do some more choir-orchestra stuff. Bella Voce will do stuff on their own, but we’re looking to do some more collaborations with them. Next year will definitely have the all-state process be a required thing for the varsity group.”
Wingspan: What, or who, got you into choir?
Guillen: “My middle school head choir director who was also my high school assistant choir director. She was my main inspiration for being in choir. She found a lot of ways to push me and to really make me fall in love with choir. Without her, I would probably not be here today.”
Wingspan: What is your favorite part of teaching?
Guillen: “The students. Whenever I get to see students have those aha moments or those moments where they really love a song or really love a section of a song and just seeing the joy that they have on their face is what gives me a lot of joy to be a teacher.”
Wingspan: What are some hobbies you have outside of this?
Guillen: “I’m a Spartan racer. I’ll actually be in West Virginia from the 4th to 7th doing the world championships for that. I’ve run nine races up to this point in the year and the second half of 2025, I’ll do another nine. So that’s running 5K, 10K and half marathon distances with obstacles in between.”
Wingspan: How do you balance your Spartan races with teaching?
Guillen: “I have to train for the marathons and I usually try to train in the evenings. So, I do all my work in school, I do a couple of things that I take home and then I just have to force time in there to train.”
