Clayton has a new face in the orchestra room.

This fall, Daniel Henderson took over from Julie Hoffman as the new CHS orchestra teacher. Henderson had previously been teaching at Pattonville High School.

“I was at Pattonville high school for the past six years. It was great. It was a lovely place, a much bigger school, about twice the size of Clayton,” Henderson said.

“We had about 115 people in orchestra there. [At CHS,] there are 41 students in symphonic and 20 in concert orchestra.”

Besides the size difference, Henderson has found the main difference between the two schools to be the freedom of the students.

“I’m finding it interesting getting used to the freedom that students have here in terms of open campus, just the expectation and the reality that students are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Henderson said.

CHS is the third school for Henderson, who was in Virginia before coming to Pattonville. So far, his transition has been smooth.

“The students have been very nice, the faculty have been very welcoming and it’s been fun so far,” Henderson said.

For Henderson, a smooth transition doesn’t mean taking things slow. Instead of going easy for the first semester, Henderson has hit the ground running.

“I’ve already programmed some really challenging music. My favorite piece that we’re doing right now is “Rounds” by David Diamond, a really difficult yet fun piece for string orchestra,” Henderson said.

In addition to teaching at CHS, Henderson spends his mornings at Wydown.

“I go to Wydown every morning for four periods, I assist Mrs. Geiler, the orchestra teacher there, and we’re together all day. I’m there for her four classes and she comes up here for the two classes here,” Henderson said.

Besides teaching at two schools, Henderson is involved in two clubs at CHS. Taking over for Mrs. Hoffman, he is the new sponsor of the Tri-M Music Honors Society and the CHS Buskers Club.

“It’s both exciting and terrifying since I’ve never been involved in Tri-M before, so I have to be inducted into Tri-M before I can even start serving my duties there,” Henderson said.

For the first few weeks of the school year, announcements directed students to contact Mr. Henderson for details about the Buskers Club.

“I’m the contact person, but really, if you contact me, I’ll just put you in touch with the right students. They take care of just about everything,” Henderson said.

Henderson sees himself as a nerdy person.

“I don’t really have any fun facts about myself, I just have a bunch of nerdy facts. I own three cellos, which is completely unnecessary, but it makes me happy,” Henderson said.

Cello is Henderson’s primary instrument. When he was young, Henderson wanted to be a musician, so he studied cello performance in college.

“I focused on the individual performance thing for a long time, but then I just kind of slipped into my first high school job.I thought, I’ll try it out and see what happens, and I really fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since,” Henderson said.

Before college, Henderson attended school in the Rockwood district, where Hoffman was teaching. Henderson actually played in a chamber group under the direction of Hoffman.

It was Hoffman who suggested that Henderson come to CHS.

“She talked to me about it, pulled me aside and said, hey you should look at this job. I decided to come to Clayton because the program is really strong, the level of students, the musical ability is super high. It just seems like so far, it’s a really supportive environment to be in,” Henderson said.

Henderson has high hopes for his first year as a CHS teacher.

“This first year, my main goal is to really get to know the students. Also, I think it’s going to be really exciting to see the performances, the concerts, because I think the students are going to do a great job,” Henderson said.

While Henderson is working towards getting to know the students, there are a few things that he is keeping from them.
“I don’t want to say what my favorite piece is, since I haven’t told them yet. I’m saving it for later,” Henderson said.