Josh Sette is a very well known musician in the Stamford area. He is a teacher at Rogers International School, performs music for local plays and musicals constantly, and is loved by tons of people (he’s also my cousin). Despite graduating from Stamford High School more than ten years ago, he has still stayed in the area and has continued to be involved with Stamford Public Schools as an elementary music teacher and frequent member of various orchestra ensembles for drama productions. Since he has had such passion for playing music, and playing it for Stamford High, I thought I’d ask him a few questions about his experiences with the school and music.

Since music has been a prominent theme in his life, I decided to start by asking him about how long he has been playing. Sette responded, “I’ve been playing music for 29 years now. Time flies. I’ve been playing for Stamford High on and off since I first joined the band in fall 1998. Continuing with that, I also joined Jazz Band, Madrigals, and played for the school plays. I then went to college in Boston and then at Westconn for a combined five years, and when I returned I continued playing for the school shows year after year.” Showing his fondness for the school’s productions and the music programs throughout Stamford High, after roughly nine years, he came back to the high school and started to play for them again.

People might think this kind of attraction towards your high school is well beyond normal. Don’t worry, I thought the same thing – so I went ahead and asked him why he decided to come back and continue to play here. Sette told me, “SHS fine arts completely shaped who I am as a person. Band, Jazz Band, Drama and Madrigals were what I ate and breathed, and seemingly every moment of my high school career could be directly traced to at least one of the four. So I’m extremely grateful that I’m in the position to be able to come back and keep giving to the programs that gave me so much growing up. Two of my best friends now run the drama and band programs respectively, so it’s wonderful to collaborate with them. It’s also cool to know that I met them through those same programs 18 years ago. And finally, being a teacher affords me the opportunity to teach some wonderfully talented students, and playing for the SHS shows allows me to continue seeing them grow firsthand as artists as well as people.” Sette added that he enjoys watching people go through the same inspiration and growth process that he was able to go through at his time at Stamford High.

I finished off the questions by asking him about who some of his favorite teachers were from Stamford High. He said, “Well, we all loved Mrs. Gillin’s positivity and ability to get through to anyone and everyone. And I can’t say enough about the arts team when I was in school at SHS: Mr. Fasoli, Mr. Limone, and especially Ms. S. They helped me realize my passions and taught me countless valuable lessons that stretched far beyond music. There aren’t many things in this world better than an inspiring teacher, and I was very lucky to have a few of those!”