David A. Leach
Director of Bands (2002-present)
band office telephone: 734-996-3210
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
David A. Leach has been Director of Bands at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School since 2002. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Education at Eastern Michigan University. He began his teaching career at Ypsilanti High School in 1988 and spent fourteen years there before coming to Ann Arbor. He was appointed Chair of the Pioneer High School Performing Arts Department in 2006, and Fine Arts Department Chair in 2013, serving in that position until 2021.
Leach sustains the long tradition of quality performance and repertoire in the Pioneer Bands. During his 21 years at Pioneer, his Concert and Jazz Bands have received consistent top ratings at district, state, and national festivals. His Symphony, Concert, and Jazz Bands have won overall festival championships at every national event entered. Leach wrote curriculum for and introduced a ninth-grade Jazz Lab, increased student numbers, and enhanced his students’ personal success in music with a high percentage of his graduates going on to study for careers in music education and performance. Under his baton, the Pioneer Symphony Band has performed three times at Carnegie Hall, twice at the Mid-Europe Music Conference in Schladming Austria, and performed on tour in China. In 2014 and 2016 the Pioneer Symphony was selected a New Music National Winner in the Mark of Excellence National Wind Band Honors project. In 2021, Mr. Leach and the Pioneer Symphony Band was invited to be part of one of the feature ensembles and clinicians in GRAMMY Museum's new initiative GRAMMY in the Schools Fest.
Mr. Leach has served on the executive board of MSBOA’s District XII as Secretary, Vice-President of Adjudication, Vice-President of Band & Orchestra, President, and is currently serving as 2nd-past-President; He has been an active member of MSBOA since 1988. He is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the National Band Association, and The American School Band Director’s Association. He has been included five times in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. The University of Michigan chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia honored him in 2000 with the Pendleton Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in music education. He has been nominated four times for Disney’s American Teacher Award, and has received honors from the United States Marine Corps for sending his students to the Marine bands, including two to the Commandant’s Own Marine Band in Washington, D.C. He was the 2006 and 2010 MSBOA District XII Band Teacher of the Year, and in 2014 and 2017 was a GRAMMY Foundation Music Educator of the Year quarter-finalists. In 2015, School Band & Orchestra Magazine named Leach one of the "50 Directors Who Make a Difference". In 2016 the Michigan Chapter of the ASBDA presented Pioneer High School Bands the Award of Excellence award for its continued commitment to excellence. Mr. Leach served as the winds and percussion coach for the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra for over 12 years. Mr. Leach is also the Conductor of the Festival (faculty) Winds at the Southampton Summer Music Camp, a position he has held since 2013.
Mr. Leach has won the praise of international composers such as Michael Daugherty, John Mackey, Thomas Duffy, Alfred Reed, Jan Van der Roost and others for his insightful conducting of their compositions. Mr. Leach has attended the Wind Conducting Symposium with John L. Whitwell and studied conducting with the University of Michigan Director of Bands Michael Haithcock, and Maestro Michael Adleson; former conductor with the New York Philharmonic. In 2019 Mr. Leach was named Fellow for the H. Robert Reynolds Conducting Institute at the Midwest Clinic.
Mr. Leach is a proud member of the Pioneer High School Music Department which has earned GRAMMY Signature School honors during his tenure there. In 2004, 2005, 2010, and 2015 the department achieved GRAMMY Signature School Gold status as one of the top two public high school music programs in the nation. In 2006 and 2011 the Pioneer Music Department was named the National GRAMMY Signature School as the top public high school music program in the nation, making it the first program ever honored twice by the GRAMMY Foundation. Currently, Mr. Leach is a past member of the GRAMMY Museum's Music Educator Award screening panel; tasked with selecting candidates for the GRAMMY Teacher of the Year finalists, and this spring is a featured clinician (along with the Pioneer Symphony Band) in the GRAMMY Museum's new initiative GRAMMY In the Schools Fest - a four-day virtual festival celebrating music and music education broadcast online the week leading up to Music's Biggest Night - the GRAMMY awards.
View 2018 Interview with David Leach!
Erin Lilliefors
Associate Director of Bands (2020-present)
band office telephone: 734-996-3210
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Erin Lilliefors is from Muskegon, Michigan and is a high school graduate of Mona Shores High School. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Eastern Michigan University and began her first job as an educator at Hooks Texas. She then took her first head director position in Winnsboro, Texas, where she served as director of Memorial Middle School bands and associate director of Winnsboro High School Band.
Lilliefors relocated back to Michigan in fall of 2014 where she began her graduate work at her alma mater Eastern Michigan University. She began working in Morenci Michigan (initially as a K-12, then a 5-12) music educator from 2015-2017.
Lilliefors was hired in Ann Arbor Public Schools in the fall of 2017. She was the co-director for Forsythe Middle School and Ann Arbor Open School, as well as the fifth grade band instructor for Lawton Elementary and Abbot Elementary. Lilliefors is also presently employed as a composer for Leading Tones Music, LLC, where she specializes in writing music for flexible instrumentation, ability, and format.
https://www.leadingtonesmusic.com/erin-lilliefors.html
During her summers, Lilliefors spends time at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp as the director of the Vander Linde Band during session 3.
Erin Lilliefors has had the privilege to be mentored by Matt Tropman (a Pioneer Band alumni), Ben Scarborough, Carolyn Bybee, & Geoffrey Stanton. She appreciates all of the help and support her colleagues in Ann Arbor Public Schools have given her. Erin owes her success to her family’s support and love for her daughter, Charlotte.
Further Contact Information
Pioneer Music Dept Fax: 734-997-1248
Pioneer High School Bands
601 West Stadium Blvd
Ann Arbor MI 48103