Greg Hayes
Mr. Gregory Hayes serves as the head band director for the Wylie East High School Band.
Matt Edwards
Mr. Matthew Edwards serves as an Assistant Band Director for the Wylie East High School Band. His responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble and Concert Winds, teaching AP Music Theory, team-teaching the Pride of the East Marching Band, and assisting with all other aspects of the band program. Bands under his direction have been awarded overall superior ratings in UIL Concert and Sight Reading Evaluations along with earning superior ratings at various music festivals in North Texas.
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Mr. Edwards holds a Bachelor’s of Music Education Degree from the University of Houston and a Master’s of Music Degree from Southern Methodist University. Before joining the Wylie East band staff, Mr. Edwards started his music educator career as an assistant band director at Otto Middle School in Plano, TX.
Additionally, he taught on the brass staff for the Guardians Drum and Bugle Corps for five seasons, serving as the brass caption head for the 2018 and 2019 season respectively. His participation in the DCI activity first started as a trumpet player with the 2011 Revolution Drum and Bugle Corps followed by his age-out summer with the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps in 2012. His professional affiliations include the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmaster Association, and Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity.
Mr. Edwards and his wife, Maria, reside in Plano, TX and are the proud parents of their beautiful baby girl, Macie.
Molly Leonard
Ms. Molly Leonard is an Assistant Band Director for the Wylie East High School Band. Her responsibilities include directing the Symphonic Band and Jazz Collective, team-teaching the Pride of the East Marching Band, and assisting with all other aspects of the band program.
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​Ms. Leonard holds a Bachelor’s of Music Education Degree from Texas Christian University. At TCU, Ms. Leonard studied saxophone with Mr. Joseph Eckert and Mr. Allen Cordingley and performed in the Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensembles. Ms. Leonard also served as a drum major for the Horned Frog Marching Band and as President of Kappa Kappa Psi. Before joining the Wylie East Band staff, Ms. Leonard was a student teacher at Timber Creek High School and Timberview Middle School in Keller, Texas.
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Ms. Leonard is also a staff member at the Young Saxophonist’s Institute, a Texas-based saxophone camp. Her professional affiliations include the Texas Music Educators Association, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Kappa Kappa Psi.
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Ms. Leonard is excited to join the Wylie East Team!
Mr. Nick Guiliano is an Assistant Band Director and Director of Percussion for the Wylie East High School Band cluster.
Mr. Tyler Stewart serves as the Assistant Director of Percussion for the Wylie East High School Band cluster.
He is an experienced percussion educator, arranger, and audio engineer originally from Huntington, WV. He has taught and mentored percussion students across various school districts in Texas, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio, including Kennedale ISD, Mesquite ISD, and Venus ISD, and has directed front ensembles at schools such as Ravenwood High School (TN), Hurricane High School (WV), and Avon Lake High School (OH). He has also worked with Cap City Indoor Percussion and Pioneer Drum & Bugle Corps.
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Mr. Stewart holds a Bachelor's in Music Performance from Marshall University, where he was involved in a variety of musical ensembles. He also studied Brazilian percussion and culture at the Universidade Federal de Goiás in Brazil. He briefly pursued a Master's in Audio Engineering at Belmont University in Nashville, where he expanded his knowledge of sound design and worked on projects such as The Wood Brothers' album One Drop of Truth.
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As a professional musician, Mr. Stewart has performed with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, in multiple musical theater productions, and with Music City Drum Corps and Gateway Indoor as a vibraphone, marimba, and drum set player.
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Outside of music, Mr. Stewart enjoys walking, exploring the Dallas-Fort Worth area, sipping coffee, and spending time with his two cats, Sombra and Cleo. He is also a fan of IndyCar, Formula 1, and hockey. Mr. Stewart is passionate about contributing to the success of Wylie ISD and its music programs.
Sarah Pichardo
Ms. Sarah Pichardo is the Color Guard Director for the Wylie East High School Band cluster.
Ms. Pichardo was born and raised in El Paso, TX where she graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in Multidisciplinary studies in 2017.
Ms. Pichardo's color guard career began in middle school at Walter E. Clarke and continued on at Americas High School. After high school, she went on to perform with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps 2011-2015 and served as color guard captain in 2014 and 2015. She also participated in numerous independent winter guards including FeniX Independent from Arizona State University in 2014 and Americas Independent 2015-2017, Black Gold 2019-2020 and most recently with Origins Color Guard based out of Austin (2022-2024).
Along with performing, Ms. Pichardo started teaching right out of high school at Walter E. Clarke Middle School from 2011-2013. She then went on to teach at Franklin High School from 2013-2018 where she was first a technician then moved up into the director position. In 2018, Ms. Pichardo moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and served as director at J.J. Pearce High School (2018-2019). From 2019-2020 she was a technician and choreographer at Wylie East High School, Flower Mound High School and McKinney Boyd High School. She was the color guard co-director and dance instructor for Terrell ISD (2020-2022), director at McKinney North High School (2022-2023).
Ms. P is excited to be at East and cannot wait to see what is in store.
Wendy Norman
Ms. Wendy Norman serves as the Fine Arts Administrative Assistant for Wylie East High School Fine Arts.
Ms. Norman started working for Wylie ISD in 2006. The district looked very different back then, Wylie East did not even exist yet!
Ms. Norman's children graduated from Wylie East HS in 2017 & 2019. They both played bassoon in the band program. For marching season, her daughter played vibes in the front ensemble and her son marched saxophone. Ms. Norman's son was also the bass player in the jazz band all 4 years at WEHS.
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Starting in 2012, Ms. Norman's husband served as Band Booster Vice President and Pit Crew Chief. She was the volunteer/chaperone coordinator. As parents, they spent many hours with the band by chaperoning, serving concessions, working pit crew, making hundreds of bags of “Bandwiches” and traveling everywhere with the band. The Pride of the East band is very near and dear to their hearts!
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Ms. Norman worked at Akin Elementary for 10 years before moving to WEHS in 2016. She became the first ever Fine Arts Administrative Assistant at East, so she has had the privilege of creating this role into what it is today. She enjoys serving the students, staff and families at Wylie East High School. Ms. Norman has also had the privilege of watching hundreds of her Akin Frogs walk the stage at graduation, these have been amazing moments for her!
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Ms. Norman looks forward to seeing what the future holds for The Pride of the East!