Award-Winning Instruction

Instrumental Music Director

Kevin Hamilton is the director of bands for Wilson High School and the Long Beach Summer Music Academy. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000 from UCLA and Master of Music degree in 2010 from Sam Houston State University. He currently teaches the Wilson Marching Band and Color Guard, Symphonic Winds, the Wilson Jazz Band, Band 1-2, and two beginning piano courses.

Mr. Hamilton has spent 22 years teaching band and orchestra for the Long Beach Unified School District, first as an assistant director at Millikan High School, then as teacher at both Rogers Middle School and Lowell Elementary School, and then solely at Rogers Middle School. At Rogers, he built his reputation as a passionate, student-centered teacher with the skills necessary to help students perform beyond their years. He attributes his success to the valuable mentorship of Long Beach teaching legends, Andrew Osman (Poly H.S.), Dr. Gary Scott (LBCC) and Roger Johnson (LBCC), as well as longtime UCLA Band Director, Gordon Henderson.

Mr. Hamilton’s career achievements include being a two-time recipient of the Long Beach Council PTA’s “Teacher of the Year” Award (2007-2008 and 2018-2019), receiving a National Band Association Citation of Excellence (2018), being awarded the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association Gold Award (2022), and receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Rogers Middle School PTA (2023). He has been a National Board Certified Teacher since 2018

Mr. Hamilton is a product of the LBUSD, Holmes Elementary, Mark Twain Elementary, Bancroft Middle School, and Lakewood High School, and proudly resides in Long Beach with his wife and three children.

khamilton@lbschools.net

Assistant Director

Matt Brislawn, affectionately and abbreviatedly known as 'Mr. B', was educated in the

Long Beach school system, and has been proud to continue working with young people in music education at Wilson High School since 1997. He is also very active as a working violinist in several area symphony and chamber orchestras, and enjoys fiddling with a local Long Beach Irish band, the Whooligans. Matt also teaches privately on the violin, viola, mandolin and guitar; and enjoys doing crossword puzzles in ink. Matt has been here for over 18 years as violin/viola coach and assistant 

director to Mrs. Ellis

Instructional Aide

Joanne Harrison, Graduate of CSULB in Music Performance. She is a professional Violinist performing with numerous trios, quartets, and Symphony Orchestras. She is currently with the Rio Hondo Symphony Orchestra. Joanne also performs Fiddle music and has won many fiddling contests at both Los Angeles and Del Mar County Fairs. She has been here at Wilson since 2007 as a violin coach for intermediate orchestra and for organizational support for all other classes.