Final Curtain Call Comes For Evergreen Park’s Legendary Band Director Ken Kazin

EVERGREEN PARK, IL - When Ken Kazin was asked about his legacy as band director at Evergreen Park Community High School for the past 38 years, he didn’t immediately know that he is the longest serving band director in school history.

“Wouldn’t that have been Oberto?” Kazin asked, referring to the legendary James Oberto, who formed the EPCHS band in the mid 1950’s and wrote EP Victory, the school’s fight song, which is enthusiastically played and sung at school events to this day.

Mathematically, it couldn’t be anyone else. Kazin has been the EPCHS band director for more than half of the school’s entire existence.

EPCHS was only 32 years old when Kazin took the reins of the Mustang band in 1987. He is just now retiring as the school celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2025. That’s 38 years with Kazin and only 32 without. Kazin added he was very proud of his 2 “free” years given to him through TRS (Teacher Retirement System) for having over 400 unused sick days, so he actually would like to think of his career as a clean 40 years.

“I always wanted to be there, especially when my classes always started around 7 a.m. I was usually one of the first cars in the parking lot,” he said.

When the opportunity to lead the Mustang band was presented to him, it made sense for Kazin to take it. Having grown up in, and residing at the time in neighboring Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park seemed like “a good fit,” he noted. “Oak Lawn and E.P. have always shared similarities.”

Kazin was a student of Chicagoland icon Leo Henning who taught at St. Laurence and Brother Rice high schools. After high school at St. Laurence, Kazin received a scholarship to VanderCook College of Music (Chicago) with emphases on composition and percussion studies. Kazin was already an established musician and recent graduate of VCM, where he received both his BA and MA degrees. He also had credentials teaching privately and performing professionally, and was ready to be a musician in the Chicagoland area.

“I started at E.P. in a part-time position when there were about 400 students in the school. My first time addressing the kids here I remembered telling them, ‘I’m a musician who happens to be their band director’,” Kazin remembers. “I still thought of myself more as a musician at the time and performing music for a living. To this day, performing music has always brought me much joy!”

That first year, Kazin remembered a few friends and colleagues who recommended him for other, more permanent teaching jobs, and figured his role at EPCHS would be a “stepping stone” to something more concrete. He even landed an interview at a nearby rival school to become their full-time band director. But once EPCHS Superintendent Omer Renfrow got wind of that, a decision was made that would forever alter the history of music education in Evergreen Park.

Renfrow offered him a full-time job as long as he didn’t take the interview at the other school.

Kazin didn’t, and Evergreen Park hasn’t had another band director until this year.

(Re) Building a Great Band / Keep Calm And Play Jazz!

As the years went by, Kazin worked to grow a band that went from a neighborhood favorite to a public entity recognized regionally and even nationally. The Marching Mustangs became regulars at parades, concerts, competitions and bowl games over the next three decades.

In the late 1980’s, the program slowly began to build a winning tradition by building the band in size and working on fundamentals. This was done through the school’s strong jazz tradition.

“We popularized our music program with jazz first, then built up the instrumentation and soon got more kids involved,” Kazin said. “We had an outstanding jazz combo class at lunch and the big band met every morning. We call it the ‘Jazzasaurus Jazz Band.’ The students and I created t-shirts of dinosaurs playing different jazz instruments for every school year. We played gigs at the Martinique, The E.P. Plaza, different malls and parks... We performed at jazz festivals, contests and we were slowly building momentum.”

The jazz ensemble created a tradition when the Spring Fling, a former band performance, was converted to an outdoor jazz concert held in the school courtyard. In the early years when band numbers were still low, Kazin appreciated the courtyard setup that helped amplify not only the ensemble sound but its number of followers, too.

“We’d get over 100 people and that was a lot of people in the courtyard,” he said. “It looked like we were starting to draw a lot of people to our concerts. The community really enjoyed those early jazz events. Those were some of my favorite concerts, and that came right off the bat.”

High school band directors wear many hats throughout the year. Separate seasons for marching band and concert band, plus the jazz band and combo, teaching, and conducting the pit for musicals etc., means there are very few days throughout the year where a grand performance isn’t right around the corner.

At EPCHS, Kazin has also been the director of the school play since 1993 and the conductor of the school musicals since his first one here, which was titled “South Pacific," in 1987. Taking on roles as director, conductor, and pit musician, he has more than 75 productions under his belt in the Batho Auditorium.

Under Kazin, Evergreen Park returned as a regular auditionee to the Illinois Superstate competition, an invite-only event encompassing only the best high school bands across Illinois.

The band first qualified in the 1960’s under Oberto. Under director Jim Gilworth in 1977, the Mustang band won “Best in Class” at Superstate, the most recent known occurrence of Evergreen Park winning a state championship in any activity or sport. The occasion was celebrated locally as Mayor Anthony Vacco declared an “Evergreen Park Band Day” upon their return to the village.

“It is hereby resolved by the Mayor of Evergreen Park and the Village Board of Trustees to congratulate, Mr. James Gilworth, Director, and the Evergreen Park Community High School Symphonic Wind Ensemble for bringing honor to its school and the Village of Evergreen Park,” the proclamation reads, in part.

Kazin led the Mustang band to qualify for Superstate in 1994, 1999 and 2002.

“The audition tapes we sent in for Superstate were closely scrutinized,” Kazin said. “It was an honor for us to be selected – they only take a few schools in each class (school size).”

The first of Kazin’s three Superstate appearances were held at The University of Illinois, where an EPCHS alum, Dr. Peter Griffin, was working as the assistant band director. Griffin was also the Superstate coordinator at the time.

“When we received our first invitation to perform at the Krannert Center on the U of I campus, it was a huge turning point for our program,” Kazin said.

According to Kazin, Dr. Griffin met the band in the warm up room before the performance and praised them for their improvements. He mentioned he was a proud alumnus, and he had the honor to perform in the 1977 Superstate band. Then he shared his experience with the 1994 band members.

“It was truly inspirational,” Kazin said. “It was a stepping stone for our program that was headed into a consistent and positive direction.”

Competing at that level became progressively more difficult as enrollment rose steadily during Kazin’s first and second decades at the school. As enrollment numbers went up, Evergreen Park was grouped with much larger schools.

“We went from a big small school to a small big school,” Kazin said, noting the Mustang athletic programs have encountered some of the same challenges.

The consistent success Kazin brought back to the EPCHS band was reminiscent of the band's success in the 1960’s and 1970’s, which Kazin himself called “amazing.”

Oberto, “who actually started rehearsals, before the school was under construction, in an empty storefront on 95th Street,” according to Kazin and all others who remember him, was the founder of the band. He’ll also be forever remembered as an American hero having been a Pearl Harbor survivor while on board the USS Utah. After Oberto’s death in 2007, his ashes were placed back in Pearl Harbor where the USS Utah sank and will remain forever.

The band placed 1st in the state in the early 60’s under Oberto. The program continued to build momentum after his 1977 retirement. The next director, Gilworth, reached the pinnacle by earning “Best in State” in 1977. Kazin was also a student of Gilworth, who was the president of VanderCook during Kazin’s college tenure. After Gilworth came Raymond Fry (another college teacher of Kazin’s), Robert Strey, Jerry Dalrymple, David Ksyckia, Rob Fund, Greg Smith, and Melanie Michalak, who all had stints leading the band while it went through frequent leadership changes in the mid 1980’s, Kazin said.

By 1987, Kazin was in and well on his way to re-stabilizing it and rebuilding a cohesive music department at EPCHS.

Traditions Were Born

The idea for Sounds From The Stadium, one of EPCHS’ most popular concert events held inside the large gymnasium every fall, was born during the first marching competition held under Kazin.

“We were at Shepard High School and Shepard's band director brought in the USC Marching band that week because their football team was playing Notre Dame,” Kazin said. “It rained a lot that week, and the USC band had around 400 members. They totally trashed Shepard’s field before we had to perform on it. There were big divots. Just not marchable for the Saturday morning contest.”

Shepard moved that event into their gymnasium due to the circumstances, and Kazin took that idea into a scheduled show that became Sounds From The Stadium.

“I thought about it, and why couldn’t we just march our entire show and perform in the gym? It’s something we’ve done ever since that is unique to our school,” he said.

As the band numbers grew however, the show morphed from an indoor marching routine to a student “park and blow” while in uniform featuring the different sub groups of the marching band including the famous George Parks marchoff.

WATCH: Mustang Band Marchoff from 2021

“My philosophy is if you want the kids to do well, you want them to play and perform as frequently as possible,” Kazin said. “But you have to prepare them in such a way where they aren't in over their heads, and more importantly, are having fun doing it!”

“I've always been a firm advocate of making your audience want more. We didn't have to give our audiece a 3 hour concert. If you give them a good “ taste,” they'll want to come back for more.”

Sustaining Success

On weekends in the fall, the Kazin-led Evergreen Park band has often been spotted at band competitions throughout Northern Illinois at the Stagg Jamboree, Marengo Settlers Day Invitational and others. In addition, the band has never missed a Fallfest performance in Sandwich, Illinois, plus many more contests that don’t even exist anymore.

Kazin vividly remembers the moment Evergreen Park’s Mustang Marching Band earned its first “Best in Class” field show award since he started as band director.

“It was in Franklin Park,” he said. “The kids were so unbelievably shocked, proud, and happy that when the school name was announced as 1st Place, they jumped the fence and hugged the drum majors, basically tackling them to the ground! It was pretty embarrassing, but the band didn’t know how to win. [That was] yet another turning point, and a proud moment nonetheless.”

Eventually, the Mustang band members would build positive traditions and get used to winning. The band room’s walls are fully stocked with trophies, plaques and ribbons dedicated to various events.

“In the beginning, it was several blue ribbons earned at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield for our Jazz Ensemble performance,” Kazin said.

There are a plethora of marching band awards from all over the state. The students earned many specialty awards for captioning the highest scores in the class in various categories. They have performed in out-of-state contests as well in New Orleans (Sugar Bowl), Memphis (Liberty Bowl) and Toronto. The school has participated in The Midwest Music Festival at Lemont High School even since its inception, when it was held at Stagg High School. Kazin is actually one of the band directors in the Midwest Hall of Fame and has the Group 1 Percussion Award named after him.

The band has also performed at professional sports stadiums, including Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Fire home games, in addition to the now defunct Arlington International Racecourse.

From Evergreen Park to the World

The participation in the out-of-state bowl games and the consistency of the success at contest may have symbolically marked the Mustang band’s return to regional relevancy, but it also served as a catalyst for the group’s explosion on to the national scene.

Their first out-of-state trip was to Florida in 1989, when the band took one bus over 24 hours of straight driving to the Sunshine State.

“Our first decade of trips were all bussed,” Kazin said. “In the mid 2000’s we started to fly.”

More recently, the pattern has been for the band, along with the EPCHS choir and color guard, to embark on an out-of-state trip during Spring Break every other year. Disney World has been the destination once every four years, giving all four-year music department participants a chance to visit a Florida theme park once during high school tenure.

Kazin’s final band trip was to San Antonio in 2024, where he led the band at UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) and the famous San Antonio River Walk.

“The marching band with our color guard and the choir performed two concerts for passing boats and seated bystanders on the iconic River Walk,” Kazin said. “It was really memorable. Most kids came home with a cowboy hat and could line dance with the best as the students strutted their stuff at our annual Music Awards Banquet.”

In previous years, Kazin’s band has traveled to Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis, St. Louis, Toronto, and New Orleans and was featured as part of prominent college football bowl games like the Outback Bowl, Liberty Bowl, and twice at the Sugar Bowl.

Building A Music Department - Not Just a Band

Kazin really stressed that the secret to his success was all about his family, friends and the support from the Evergreen Park collection of teachers, secretaries, maintenance workers, administration and school board.

“My wife, Amy Kazin, is hands down the best teacher I have ever seen or worked with,” Ken Kazin said. “When Amy started as the choir director in 2014, she started our department motto ‘Music Changes Lives,’ a true mantra of what every music educator should believe. I have always thought the best musicians in general are the most versatile. We wanted all of our students to be as well-rounded as possible. We also tried to make a music department feel more like a family.”

“We worked hard making sure that the Color Guard felt as included and important as the choir and as the various bands during a given season,” he added. “We strived that the students become lifelong learners, and encouraged them to join band, choir, and participate in our theatre department. We now offer music classes for the entire school population, not just our music students!

“Another goal achieved,” Kazin said proudly.

Another important person to help the department was former Principal / Superintendent, Dr. Beth Hart.

“She included our department on meetings and decisions that made small events feel very polished,” Kazin said. “Dr. Hart made a big difference in the music department’s successes in her tenure at E.P. Dr. Hart was instrumental in the renovation and upgrade of the Batho Auditorium in 2015.”

The last element, but most important factor are the students and parents in the program. The music boosters and parent support made the EP program work seamlessly.

“The students, what can I say, I will miss them a lot. I purposely tried to make a silly joke or tell them a story to get a concept across,” Kazin said. “Sometimes it worked. The ‘buy in’ is the key, and the students over the years have truly ‘bought in’ to the program and performances.”

“It’s important that even though I say music is a sport without an off-season, it is actually not a sport at all; it is an art. I have tried to respect and teach all my students during my career. Hopefully I have made them appreciate the talent and complexities of not just band or music, but life itself. In retirement, I will truly miss my interaction with my students the most.”

Book End Commissioned Pieces

Toward the end of Kazin’s year-long sendoff, a commissioned music piece was made by Kazin’s longtime friend and well-accomplished composer William Owens to mark the end of the “40” year era. Coincidentally, the most recent time before that in which a musical number was created specifically for an Evergreen Park school was Kazin’s first year in Evergreen Park, although that piece was made for the band at Central Junior High School.

Kazin was still involved in the 1987 performance, directing the Evergreen Park Percussion Ensemble, with guest conductor and composer of the piece commissioned by The Central Junior High School, Jared Spears.

“Jared was a percussionist and we had a nice percussion ensemble,” Kazin remembers. “He conducted one of his pieces with us, and that worked out well for me because (Central) parents were there, who were going to be my students, to see this new guy and how we were going to turn it around.”

The Kazin Band Director Tree

Kazin’s musical legacy will no doubt continue at Evergreen Park Community High School, with new band director Colin Curatolo already hitting the ground running ahead of his first marching season.

But Kazin’s impact will continue at other schools near and far.

“I have had many students who are successful music educators, music therapists, private music instructors,professional musicians, and most important music enthusiasts! ” Kazin said. ”If I listed all the former students who are teaching or still involved in the art of music, I would no doubt leave someone out, so more importantly I’m proud that a good portion of my students never lost the joy of learning and performing music and still appreciate listening or watching the arts being performed.”

Kazin guesses the number of former students that are employed in the music industry are in the hundreds.

“Every year, I see at least two or three senior students go into music education, theater, or other music careers,” Kazin said. “They are all passionate about the arts. Everyone wants to be a performer, and if you want to perform, then perform. But if you are looking to stay in music long term, it’s always a good idea to look into music education. It’s a great way to give back.”

“I also am so proud of my students that might not study music as a major, but continue performing in their college marching, concert or jazz bands. And then some alums still rockin’ it out and swingin’ with the best of them, or participating in community groups performing for the pure joy they never lost.

“Music Changes Lives!”

“Thank You Evergreen Park, It's been a privilege working here.”

A Hall of Fame plaque in the school’s main hallway showcases Oberto’s contributions to the band’s beginnings. It shows his active years at EPCHS as from 1954-1977.

“That’s twenty-three years,” Kazin said, just then realizing that 38 is indeed more.