Welcome to the Lincoln Trojan Band Family!

Here at the Lincoln Trojan Band program, I strive to create two things out of every student: well-adjusted members of society and educated consumers of music. To simplify, that means all students will become two things once they leave after four years: great people, and great musicians. These goals are attainable by every student and are intertwined so that the student can accomplish one goal by working on the other.

As a music educator, I whole-heartedly believe that my job is not to produce only music majors, just as the football program’s job is not to produce only NCAA-bound athletes. Rather, our goal as educators is to produce well-functioning adults and members of society, so that they may be equipped to handle whatever profession they decide to devote their lives to after high school. Through band, and through the two points in the first paragraph, your child will see large amounts of growth and progress towards this ultimate goal. 

Hannah Haugen

Director of Bands – Lincoln High School

Band Philosophy

In the Lincoln Trojan Band, we want our students to learn the value of respect. This includes the small picture of “ ‘yes, sir’ and ‘yes, ma’am,’” when speaking to teachers and volunteers, and the big picture of how you treat everything around you, like our band equipment. We want our students to learn the value of hard work and improving on an instrument certainly teaches that. We want our students to learn the value of critical thinking and creativity, much like how creativity is required to improvise a great jazz solo. We want our students to understand the value of “transfer”: how any discipline can relate to another, just like how exercising your trombone embouchure is like exercising in the gym. We want our students to learn the value of our collective heritage and learning great music of the past can teach us a lot about this history.

Finally, we want our students to learn the value of music and the arts. Even though not all students will go on to pursue music after high school, it is crucial that everyone grows a respect, appreciation, and love for music and the arts for the rest of their lives. This is why one goal is to create educated consumers of music, and not “the best players possible.” Training students to be educated consumers of music leads to producing the best players, not the opposite way around.