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We have a similarly obstructionist music director who really seems to want to subvert kids. That's exactly why we ended up sending our son to a precollege program where he finally got to spread his wings. Our hs music director actually told him there was no jazz guitar State Music Teachers competition; that he could only do a classical audition. That was just false, and we were clueless enough to believe it the first year. That was either abject laziness on the teacher's part or plain stupidity, or incredible meanness.
The district and state level competitions are great if you get them, but if you don't, it really doesn't affect a student's progress toward the goal of music school or conservatory. Our son was rejected from several local jazz band experiences for students (this may be because only 1 guitar is usually needed, though!) and it was demoralizing for him. But he still got into a great conservatory--in fact, he got into all but one of the schools he auditioned for.
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