“Music is life,” said Shirley Byers, the newest addition to the DHS Music Department, who is ready to bring her wide range of experience and musical background to the music program.

Mrs. Byers’s love for music goes way back. Growing up she always respected classical musicians such as Bach and Mozart, but her musical taste didn’t end there. A young Mrs. Byers could also be seen listening to rock. She loved bands such as the Doors and Queen; her favorite song being “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Her love for music didn’t stop at the classics and rock. Mrs. Byers found her passion for piano through the pianists of heavy metal bands such as Guns and Roses while also loving musical theater and pop as well. 

The love she has for her job doesn’t just come from her musical roots. The love for her work comes from the kids she works with as well. Junior Eme Clarke, a Harmonix member, said her class is “interesting and fun, while also teaching us continuously about different types of music,” and that Mrs. Byers’s initiation as the new musical director has been done with “a lot of grace.” 

Mrs. Byers has already gotten a name for herself outside school. Besides teaching chorus, piano lab, Harmonix, and guitar lab, Mrs. Byers can be seen co-directing all of Dartmouth High Theater Company’s shows such as this winter’s Charlie Brown and A Christmas Carol. 

If her name sounds familiar, students might remember her from elementary school where she taught music. She admits the adjustment has been more difficult than she expected, but she loves working with the high school kids and is ecstatic to work with harder material and to grow as a musician and music teacher. She’s accepting this challenge and facing it head on. 

She’s excited to become a part of the Dartmouth family and hopes to open up the world of music to her students as much as it opened up the world for her.