Mr. Lee Hicks is in his 21st year as the Director of Bands at Fontainebleau High School. Since Mr. Hicks’ arrival at Fontainebleau, the FHS Band program has become one of the most well-rounded and successful programs in Louisiana. Mr. Hicks feels incredibly blessed to be working with incredible students, parents and supportive colleagues and administrators.

 

His high school bands have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally. The Fontainebleau Jazz Ensemble One, under the direction of Mr. Hicks, has been recognized as one of the top high school jazz big bands in America. Past notable performances include the prestigious Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL in 2010 and 2019, at the Jazz Education Network International Conference both in New Orleans in 2011 and 2020, the French Quarter Festival in 2015, and the Swing Central Jazz High School Big Band Competition in Savannah, Georgia in 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2016. The band has also performed with or hosted clinics with musicians such as Wycliffe Gordon, Joey DeFrancesco, Ronnie Kole, Roland Guerin, Stanton Moore, Jason Marsalis, Mark Mullins, Bonerama, George Porter, Jr., Matt Lemmler, Dan Caro, and more.

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Outside of being a band director, Mr. Hicks continues to play music professionally around the city of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. Mr. Hicks has performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saenger Theater Broadway Orchestra, the JPAS Broadway Pit Orchestra, the Crescent River Orchestra, the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra, the Pat Barberot Orchestra, the Tulane Summer Lyric Theater Orchestra, and the John Mahoney Big Band. In addition, he has performed with numerous brass bands, soul, funk, rock and Latin bands. He has also performed with celebrities such as Bernadette Peters, Barry Manilow, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Lou Rawls, Shirley Jones, Wayne Newton, Bobby Vinton, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Lewis, Natalie Cole, The Coasters, Patti LaBelle, The O’Jays, and more. He has recorded for Six Flags Entertainment, The National World War II Museum, several New Orleans musicians and composers, The John Mahoney Big Band and with the jazz vocal group Five by Design.

 

Mr. Hicks belongs to several music organizations including the Louisiana Music Educators Association, in which he serves as a board member and the Jazz Division Chairman for Louisiana, the National Association for Music Education, the Jazz Education Network, and is a board member for the Louisiana Association for Jazz Education.

 

All of that being said, none of it would be possible without the love and support from his family. Mr. Hicks is married to Mrs. Becky Brenner Hicks, who is the band director at Lake Harbor Middle School in Mandeville and also a professional bass player. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks have performed many gigs together in the New Orleans area including many local musical theater productions and national tours at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans. But, their most important gig is raising their two amazing and wonderful sons, Kenton and Carson.