A full house at the Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center hums with excitement on the night of May 15. On stage, high schoolers dressed in suits and ties hold and make last-minute adjustments to their instruments, while the rest of the Paly band sits in the lower bowl of stage seating, waiting for their turn to play later in the night. Suddenly, the lights dim and the crowd goes silent with anticipation. Paly band director, Jeffery Willner calmly walks out from the side of the stage and stands on the elevated director’s platform, facing his band. He raises his hands and music begins to play.

Willner has been teaching in the Paly music program for the past 25 years, and announced in February that he would be retiring after this school year. He organized Paly band’s last concert of the year as his farewell in the PAC, and hosted an alumni event for over 100 former Paly band students.

“It was a really special experience,” said Jose Pinto, a Paly junior and orchestra member. “To be out there performing with him one last time was cool, especially since he’s been teaching for so long.”

Willner began teaching at Paly in 2000. Unlike Willner’s previous jobs, which included a variety of high school music positions, including orchestra and competitive marching band, the Paly band initially had no marching experience and stayed in the stands during football games. He began taking his band out on the field to practice, improving the band’s marching skills.

“At the last football game [of his first year at Paly], I had everybody stand on the track and play, and people liked it,” Willner said. “I liked it. It grew from that and turned into a full-fledged marching thing.”

Simultaneously, the Paly football program had grown into a powerhouse, competing for a state championship in 2006 where Willner’s band marched on the field with the players.

“Our growth as a spirit group was cool, because it went right along with the team getting better,” Willner said.

While Willner said he takes pride in the strides he made with the Paly pep band, that isn’t the part of his career at Paly that he has found most rewarding.

“I’m proud of the fact that I was able to really make some good strides here musically,” Willner said. “Everybody had a good time, and I also didn’t neglect life at home. You have to have a balance of things, and that’s a hard thing to do when you’re trying to do great things at a school.”

Paly choir director Michael Najar said one of Willner’s greatest strengths as a teacher is his ability to work together with different groups to create amazing musical performances.

“When there’s a group of singers and a band and they have to work together with dancers and they have to work together, he’s crucial to making all that happen,” Najar said. “My long-lasting memory of him is him conducting in the pit the musicals that we’ve done together.”

Willner said one of his best memories at Paly was during his first few years.

“My second year [of teaching], almost everyone came back, so that was like ‘I’m doing something good’,” Willner said. “Not everybody comes back. And that’s cool, because sometimes band is not for them.”

Pinto said he admires the dedication Willner brings to band every day.

“The passion he brings to each class really is an inspiration,” Pinto said. “He’s a big figure in Paly music and has been doing it for so long.”

Najar said the consistency Willner brings every day has been a big part of his and the music program’s success at Paly over the last 25 years.

“He’s incredibly consistent,” Najar said. “He knows what it takes to be successful through changing times. He’s been around a long time and through that, if you let the different variety of things affect choice, programs, electives, they can really hammer you. But he’s been incredibly consistent.”