The sun sets on the Texas horizon as a young boy sits in the car with his father, toes tapping to the beat of the familiar music. A pair of eyes appears in the rearview mirror, looking back at the boy, and an unseen smile faces the empty road.

“My dad listened to a lot of music when I was a kid, so there are always stories of me singing along in the car with him,” new choir director Sid Quinsaat said.

Quinsaat teaches freshman girls A Capella part-time. He started playing piano when he was six, began singing in choirs when he was in 5th grade, and continued learning music throughout high school.

“I love music so much, and I want people to enjoy it as much as I did,” Quinsaat said.

After high school, Quinsaat went to the University of Michigan to study choral education. There, he joined the A Capella group that he later became the director of for two years, Quinsaat said.

“[Quinsaat’s A Capella group was] called the Michigan G men,” Quinsaat said. “That was a lot of a lot of fun, I made a lot of good friends there.”

After he graduated college, Quinsaat moved to California where he spent three years teaching for open youth chorus, spent time at a charter school for half of last year, taught in Hayward, and then arrived at Piedmont, Quinsaat said.

Quinsaat said that both of his high school choir directors support their students inside, as well as outside, the classroom.

“It’s really nice as a choir teacher because I had that same teacher for four years, and you don’t get that with other subjects. I think that’s the only reason I was able to be so close with those teachers was because we had that long term bond.”

Quinsaat said that he compiles all of the things he has learned from other teachers and uses them to improve his own classroom experience.

“Teachers are like extremely good thieves,” Quinsaat said. “They watch other teachers, and they take tricks from other teachers or, you know, I always take fun warm ups that I hear from other teachers or different exercises.”

Quinsaat’s biggest fear as a teacher is that the way he presents the information will cause his students to become less interested in what he is teaching, he said.

“I always want to teach in a way that shows my love for it,” Quinsaat said. “I think that’s what makes me a strong teacher.”

However, he always makes sure to stay out of that mindset by just staying true to himself, Quinsaat said.

“I really, really love what I’m doing and I feel like my students can really sense that,” Quinsaat said. “As long as I focus on my love for what I’m doing, if there’s somebody who doesn’t like it, it’s probably not because I wasn’t showing them, It’s probably just because it’s not for them. Some people might do it as a hobby, but I just need to kind of accept that and bring what I have to bring.”

Freshman A capella student Charlotte Yang Levy said that Quinsaat is very entertaining and is teaching his students a lot about music theory, which she enjoys.

“[Quinsaat’s students] feel comfortable to communicate with him, and seems like he’s open to talking to anyone who needs help or wants to just talk,” Yang Levy said.

Quinsaat said that for him, the most rewarding part of being a teacher is not the big things, but the little things he achieves with his students.

“When I ask for something weird, and then the result comes up, and my students understand how it actually works,” Quinsaat said. “Or if I make a stupid joke and l get a smile. There’s just a lot of small things that kind of add up to the big reward of being a teacher.”

Quinsaat has already seen a lot of enthusiasm in his freshman girls A capella class. He said that one of the great things about music teachers is that they rarely change throughout the years, and therefore the teachers can watch the students really develop their skills from freshman to senior year, if they choose to do it that long.

“He’s got the training, he’s young, he’s personable, he’s energetic, and I think he works well with young people,” choir director Joe Piazza said.

Quisaat feels that, in this world where so many things go wrong, music can help people find unity, and is sort of the answer to the world’s issues in a way, he said.

“People don’t know how to listen to each other, they want to just scream their own voice and I’m not just talking about in choir, I’m talking about in the whole world,” Quinsaat said. “If just people would listen to each other, and maybe be willing to be vulnerable in themselves and be willing to question themselves, which I feel is what we do here in this class every day, that’s what’s inspiring it, I see that work happening.”

Quisaat also hikes and does yoga in his free time, he said.

“There’s a lot of things in yoga about breathing and body awareness, and I think that’s actually really important in singing too because your whole body is your instrument,” Quinsaat said. “I’m strengthening my body, and that’s helping me be a better singer.”

Quinsaat found a job posting online for a part time position completely by chance, he said.

“Everybody that I was telling that I got an interview at Piedmont was like, ‘oh, wow, that’s like, really cool.’,” Quinsaat said. “I honestly didn’t know. But now that I’m here, I can see what is here and I’m very, very honored to be part of it.”