Director

Director of Bands - Music Department Chair

Leon Slater is the new Director of Bands at Hellgate High School. Mr. Slater received his Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University in Trumpet Performance, where he was a student of Vincent Cichowicz and Luther Didrickson.  He moved from Chicago to Missoula in 1993 to attend the University of Montana where he earned his Master of Music and an additional Bachelor of Music Education.

Mr. Slater comes to Hellgate after 10 years of very successful public school teaching and 2 years of college teaching.  His most recent work took place at the University of South Florida in the Jazz Studies Program and at the University of Montana where he was the Interim Assistant Director of Bands and Professor of Trumpet. His public school experience started at Florence-Carlton Schools where the band program grew from 13 students to over 100 during his tenure. Slater’s second teaching job was at Missoula’s Big Sky High School where the program grew from 97 students to an all-time high of 195 students. His high school concert bands have received invitations to music festivals such as the 2005 Aloha Showcase of Music, Honolulu, HI, the 2006 Australian International Music Festival at the Sydney Opera House, and the 2008 New York Wind Band Festival at Carnegie Hall.  His high school jazz bands have participated in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington competition as well as having been selected to perform at the 2007 MENC All-Northwest Convention in Portland, Oregon. 

Mr. Slater is a very active trumpet artist performing regularly with groups such as the Big Sky Mudflaps, Salsa Loca, The Ed Norton Big Band, Critical Martini, and Blue Talk & Love with Eden Atwood.  He has performed with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Ben E. King as well as jazz luminaries Terry Gibbs, Bobby Shew, Eddie Daniels and Slide Hampton.   He has most recently performed with the Florida Symphony and the Opera Tampa under the direction of Anton Coppola.

Mr. Slater resides in Missoula with his wife Liz, their two beautiful children Ethan (age 10) and Emi (age 8) and their two dogs, “Be-bop” and "Rock Steady".

Assitant Director - Drumline Coordinator

Eric Rokohl is the Assistant Director of Bands at Hellgate High School.  He is in his senior year of studies at the University of Montana, and will be obtaining his Bachelor of Music Education degree in the upcoming Spring of 2012. Eric is in his third year as Assistant Director of Bands.

Eric's duties include running indoor and outdoor drum lines, percussion ensembles, and pep band. He has had 7 years of drum line leadership experience, including two years in the Lion's All Star Marching Band, five years in the University of Montana Grizzly Marching Band, and a partial season with the Seattle Cascades Drum and Bugle Corps. Eric also writes original compositions for all of his groups.

Eric lives in Missoula with his new wife, Jesica.