Our Band Director

The SLO County Band is delighted to have Leonard Lutz as its current director. Leonard began directing the band in June of 2000.

Leonard graduated in 1977 from Pacific Union College, in Angwin, California, with a B.S. degree in Communications, with an Emphasis in Broadcasting, and a Minor in Music Education. During this time he met his wife Jeane on campus. Following graduation he worked at the Adventist Media Center as the Music & Sound Effects Editor on film and video productions and also served as an Audio Engineer.

A change in career led to a job teaching music in a circuit of six schools in Southern California. This was followed by more years of teaching as a regular classroom teacher as well as directing the school music programs. In 1988 Leonard moved to the Central Coast with his wife Jeane, their son Leo, and their daughter Chandra, to teach multiple subjects and music at Valley View Adventist Academy in Arroyo Grande. In 1999 Leonard began a four year break from teaching but returned in 2003 as the music teacher, leading both band and a handbell choir. Currently, he is a part-time music teacher at Coastal Christian Academy in Arroyo Grande. He is also "Grandpa" to two of the greatest and most wonderful grandchildren in the world! - Cedar and Kyndree.

Leonard has taught lessons on all of the band instruments, as well as classical guitar and organ. As a musician, Leonard plays the trombone, organ, oboe, bassoon, flute, saxophone, French horn, and guitar.

Over the years Leonard has started and built several new band programs. He has also begun and expanded handbell choir programs, and is currently directing the Grande Ringers Handbell Choir at the Arroyo Grande First United Methodist Church. He is a member of the San Luis Chamber Orchestra where he can be found playing various instruments at varying times and places.

As an organist, Leonard is a member and co-Dean of the Central Coast Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and plays for the Arroyo Grande Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Leonard has an intense love of music and strives to inspire a desire to excel in all his musical organizations. He sees his job as an interpreter trying to inspire a sense of music, as opposed to just playing notes.

One of Leonard's hobbies is magic, and he loves to display his skills as a sleight-of-hand magician. He auditioned at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles and was accepted as a member of the Academy of Magical Arts in 1990.

Leonard and his wife, Jeane, are residents of Nipomo. The SLO County Band is privileged to have someone with Leonard's experience and enthusiasm as its director.

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