PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
The MUSIC TEACHER
58 Port St. Lucie Magazine
JOHN BIONDO PHOTOS
After a decade of teaching, Jason Hatfield has seen many students in his Palm Pointe Symphonic Band program earn superior ratings at state competitions.
From Alaska to Florida, Jason “Billy” Hatfield is following
a life roadmap that includes his vocation:
music teacher. An avid guitar enthusiast, Hatfield’s
family lived in Homer, Alaska, alongside the homesteading
Kilcher clan of the Discovery Channel’s Alaska: The
Last Frontier — family of the pop singer, Jewel.
“We would see the Kilchers around town,” Hatfield says.
“It wasn’t like they were our next-door neighbor — everyone
was so spread out.”
Born at Fort Hood, Texas, when Hatfield’s father was in the
military, the family eventually moved to Alaska because his
grandparents lived there.
“I was a bit of a rebel,” he says. “My family life wasn’t the
greatest.”
“I got into music because I had a band director who played
saxophone — I played sax — and he became a mentor,” he
explains. “Music was a window into other cultures that I
didn’t have access to. It was a nice place to escape.”
Private lessons were provided and his mentor gave him all
the Chicago albums telling him not to listen to the words, just
the horns. That advice was a springboard to his future.
Hatfield’s grandparents homesteaded in Alaska in the land
giveaway. The idea was to provide free land to settlers willing
to develop the land.
“It was rough,” he says. “Driving up a dirt road when the
snow melts, it’s called breakup, was a mess. There was no indoor
plumbing. We had to use the outhouse. It was a unique
experience.”
Transportation was limited but adventurous at the same
time. “I had a friend who flew a Cessna. We would fly out
and fish and then fly back.”
One summer during high school, Hatfield worked at a
commercial fishery.
“The building was really smelly, but it paid quite well,” he
says. “The goal was to get overtime. College students would
come in from around the country, work the summer to make
money and go home.”
Homer was a way of life unlike any other.
“I grew up with a Hunter and a Trapper,” he says. “They
were brothers. People go there to get away from other people.
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BY DEBRA MAGRANN