Andrew Hill, the new music director for Los Gatos High School, has a resume that goes far beyond his years.

The 25-year-old trombonist has performed across Europe with the San Francisco Symphony’s Youth Orchestra and with Grammy-winning composers and musicians. But even with his impressive accolades, Hill prefers his spotlight to be in the classroom and not center stage. He has his own high school band teacher to thank for that.

“He really brought a lot of great energy and was really my favorite teacher throughout high school,” Hill said. “I kept learning more instruments and kept taking more band classes. Junior year of high school, I thought it’d be really great if I could make a living playing music and teaching music.”

The Lake Tahoe native then ventured off to San Jose State University, where he thought he wanted to study to become a professional musician. But after a grueling tour in Europe with the San Francisco Symphony’s Youth Orchestra, he realized that he wanted his career to be in the classroom.

“I still play a little bit in some bands and professionally, but I knew deep down being a teacher was what I wanted to do and had known since junior year in high school,” he said.

Since graduating from San Jose State with a bachelor’s degree in music education and trombone performance, Hill has certainly been busy. Besides private lessons, he taught elementary band in the Saratoga Union School District and last spring, he taught at seven elementary schools across the Los Altos School District.

“I’m indebted to educators who have mentored me along the way,” Hill said of his accomplishments. “It is definitely odd being 25 years old and being in charge of all these ensembles at a high school with a large booster organization. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I also feel like it came at the right time.”

Now at Los Gatos, and in one of his first gigs post-student teaching, he has his hands full with six different music groups on campus: marching band, wind ensemble, symphonic band, crescent ensemble, string orchestra and jazz band. Hill said he’s especially enjoying teaching marching band because of its collaborative nature.

“It’s one of the few activities on campus where there’s no varsity or junior varsity, there’s no bench, we don’t turn anyone away and everyone ninth through 12th grade gets on the field and gets to make beautiful music,” he said. “The thing I love to do is giving them the tools to create and express themselves.”

This year’s marching band season, however, was cut a bit short. Hill said the band normally competes in four competitions, but two of them–including the championship finals in Bakersfield–were canceled due to smoky conditions from wildfires that ravaged parts of Northern and Southern California last month.

Last week though, the Los Gatos High School marching band got to perform its show one more time as part of a Northern California benefit for victims of the Butte County Camp Fire.

“That was probably the coolest part of the whole (season),” Hill said. “We didn’t get to compete, we didn’t have a normal season, but we made the best of the situation where we had one more final hurrah.”

With his first semester on the books at Los Gatos High, Hill has big plans for the program.

“I’m looking forward to growing the music program and exposing the kids to a lot of professional opportunities,” he said. “In the spring, we’re doing a side-by-side concert with the jazz ensemble and a professional big band. I think that’s the biggest thing is having them get exposed to more guest artists and professional-style music.”