Meet Ms. Cristina Molina de Matos and Ms. Olivia Webster, the two newest additions to Millikan’s Performing Arts department.
Besides being Band Directors, outside of school, Ms. Matos and Ms. Webster continue to pursue their musical ambitions.
Ms. Matos said, “I’m actually in a professional jazz band. I’m a saxophone player, I play in a couple of community orchestras.” While Ms. Matos plays saxophone, Ms. Webster struggles to find time aside from teaching, when she finds the time she plays and performs the trombone.
Both coming from families of education, Ms. Matos and Ms. Webster found their inspiration from their high school Band Director to pursue careers in musical education. Ms. Webster said, “My high school band director really influenced me, and the community of being in music was really influential to me.”
Likewise, Ms. Matos explains, “My band director in high school inspired me, because he actually made it fun, and every year we did something different.”
The flexibility of the band curriculum and being an inspiration to students motivates them both. They knew they wanted to pursue careers in musical education, and they were given the opportunity to join the Performing Arts department at Millikan.
In the near future, Ms. Matos would like to get involved with the school musical and continue to build the orchestra to competition level.
Similarly, Ms. Webster says, “My biggest goal at the end of the year is for my students to feel really fulfilled in their music-making process, to feel like a big team in a community.”
As they continue teaching, we are excited to see what they’ll bring to the Performing Arts department.
Millikan Corydon staff was unable to obtain a photo of Ms. Matos after multiple contacts.
Isabella Clark • Feb 16, 2026 at 3:31 pm
This article gives a warm welcome to the new Band Directors Ms. Molina Matos and Ms. Olivia Webster. As a student in marching band and color guard, I enjoyed reading more about our directors who make the music program possible. Knowing that both of these teachers we both inspired by their past band directors is very impactful to me because I am heavily inspired by Ms. Webster’s style of teaching and how supportive she is to all her students. While Ms. Matos plays jazz professionally and works with community orchestras, her support for the Millikan music program and the desire to build our orchestra to a competition level really shows how deeply she cares for her students. Alongside that, from this article it is known that Ms. Webster is focusing on a collaborative community for students within the music programs here at Millikan. Being a student of Ms. Webster, I can feel the community and unity within the music programs both teachers have built. I look up to both Ms. Webster and Ms. Matos and this article does a good job of sharing both the teachers goals along with inspiration. I genuinely like how the authors of this article incorporated their achievements and made me feel excited to get to know a little bit more about these teachers.
Aidan young • Feb 4, 2026 at 5:42 pm
On January 29, Sofia Alas and Lyla Benekos wrote an article titled “Meet Ms. Matos & Ms. Webster”.While reading this article, I enjoyed all the quotes that were provided. As well as the information about their ideals, goals, and aspirations provided by the answers to the interviewer’s questions. It felt as if I was getting an inside view of the process of new teachers establishing themselves. In addition, the goals they set for themselves and their students, and how they carry out their plans.
I also appreciated the fact that information was provided about these teachers’ backgrounds. It humanizes the people we often look up to and speaks to their qualifications in their field of music. As well as being simply fascinating to hear. Hearing about how both teachers play in professional bands outside of school is not only reassuring that they understand what they are teaching, but gives their students a deeper appreciation of their abilities and the assignments they give out.
However, if I were to make one addition, it would be writing about the classes they teach and getting a better understanding of their teaching process and how the classes are formatted. For example, what an average day in each class looks like, assignments they commonly give out, warm-ups, exit slips, ECT. Other than that one change, I really have nothing bad to say about this article. It was entertaining all the way through, and it felt more like a conversation than just information on a screen. Good job overall, and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Aidan Young
Tyler Cover • Feb 3, 2026 at 11:25 am
To begin with, I think that it is amazing for our instrumental music program to be given a spotlight recently. Just this year things were shaken up with new teachers, but I think that Ms. Webster especially has done such an amazing job in revolutionizing the program. In years prior, band was largely regarded as a chore of classes that had to be taught, and some of that reflected down to us, the students. However, with Ms. Webster now, things are beginning to change, almost exclusively for the better.
Like was mentioned in the article, it can be a very taxing thing to keep the program up and running, but Ms. Webster always keeps a level head and rarely, if ever, gets upset at anyone, which a lot of people who have her unanimously respect. She understands the limitations of a high school ensemble, how we may act sometimes and how naturally a few things can be left to be desired, but she still gives us her full attention and remains patient, which in all honesty is a refreshing change.
To add on, nothing stands out more to support all that she can do than her genuine love for our marching band. Even before she taught here, she was a key coach to the program for a few years, using her expertise with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps to help elevate everyone on the field. Numbers can show one thing, but everyone that I’ve talked to has concurred that this past field season felt like the best, something the judges can’t take away. In short, it is this community that she has built at Millikan that goes to show how deserving she is of praise for carrying the instrumental music program, and deserves even more recognition for this.
Emile Culbertson • Feb 2, 2026 at 1:22 pm
I loved how the authors touched on why the directors wanted to become teachers based on their personal experiences. I have Ms. Webster for Marching band and Ms. Molina for Chamber orchestra and I love both of their classes. Ms. Molina knows a lot about how to make music more interesting and how to be picky with how we play. Ms. Webster was in a professional marching band and she knew a lot about rehearsal etiquette, marching techniques, and musicality. They are both really talented musicians and very kind people. They understand why we play music and want to help us grow as musicians and challenge us to become better every rep.
I also loved that the authors said that Ms. Molina, wanted to take the orchestras to a competitive level. I am one of the presidents for Millikan’s String Society and we have been trying to raise money to take Chamber and intermediate orchestras to a festival and go to Disneyland after. It has been a lot of work but Ms. Molina has been by our side and supporting us however she can. A few chamber musicians performed at a holiday brunch party and Ms. Molina was there supporting the musicians however they needed. My friends that performed said that she was really helpful. I have been in orchestra since elementary school and I want to be a music librarian when I graduate college. I am currently second chair of the viola section and I love our full orchestra rehearsals because the people around me are very talented and funny.
In a similar manner, I appreciated that the authors mentioned that Ms. Webster’s long term goal is to unite the musicians to become a community. One really big thing about marching bands is that we spend a lot of time together. Whether that is during band camp in August or our Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday rehearsals, we spend a lot of time rehearsing and hanging out together. I am in the drumline and it is a majority of guys in the group but the people are really kind and funny and they make me feel included even if I have no clue what they are doing. One reason I love marching band is because of the people in the group. The work that we do is hard but it is worth it for the memories and five minute water breaks. I would love to do marching band in college but I am happy with the band I have now.