I basically spent both Holy Thursday and Good Friday playing my trusty Yamaha P-80 keyboard as accompanist during Holy Week masses and services here at our parish.
As it turned out I found that one of the members of the church choir which sang during those masses was a former member of the glee club of my high school for which I was often asked to be accompanist during my college days. Small world I thought. Compared to the others in that church choir, he was their most accomplished singer and was in effect their leader. Then it struck me that he was like so many others who belonged to the different batches of glee club members I worked with through the years: he had continued nurturing his passion for music long after he had graduated from high school.
And the only explanation for this phenomena that I could find was the training they received at the hands of their music teacher and choir director, Miss L.
Miss L in fact was not my music teacher during my high school days. She only got hired the year after I graduated from high school and I only got to know her when I was asked to be the accompanist of the glee club for a certain choral competition. There was this choral piece by Ryan Cayabyab that the glee club was preparing to learn for the competition and, typical of Cayabyab arrangements, it had a difficult accompaniment. As none of the current glee club members could tackle it, they looked elsewhere. To make a long story short, I was tapped to play for them. Apparently Miss L liked my playing well enough that I eventually became the glee club's accompanist during major choral competitions for a few years.
Anyway--I don't want to ramble on here too much--I must have worked with six different batches of glee club members. But every year was basically the same as I was amazed at how Miss L managed to coax beautiful music out of each of her charges time and again. Looking back, I realize that how fortunate I was then to witness how this average glee club quickly grew into a polished award-winning choral group under Miss L's guidance and inspiration.
There were however a few people who criticized Miss L's technique and approach to teaching music. One of them was the conductor of the very college choir for which I was a regular accompanist at that time. This lady said that it was not appropriate to force high school students to sing like adults and that it was bad practice. They should sing like children and sound like children, she said.
I silently had to disagree with her for such was not the case with Miss L. She didn't force her students to sing. Nor was there a need to coerce the students into rehearsing a piece until they perfected their singing. Miss L's love for music was infectious and through her enthusiasm instilled in her students a similar passion for music. They learned to love singing and what was required to produce beautiful singing and were thrilled with the music they produced as a choir. How often had I seen them, as they relaxed while awaiting their turn at a competition, suddenly bursting into song, harmony and all. And all by themselves without Miss L conducting them. Even other members of competing choirs who were standing around had to smile and be amazed with the group's enthusiasm.
I had never personally known anyone capable of passing on such a love for learning whether it be music or otherwise to her students and to do it so consistently. And I don't think I ever will again.
Sadly Miss L had to leave the high school for greener pastures abroad a couple of years after I myself left to pursue graduate studies abroad. The high school was indeed sorry to let her go and the glee club was never the same after that. All subsequent music teachers they hired could never produce the same results as Miss L did.
It is therefore a fitting testament to Miss L's legacy that this passion for music continued to burn in those whom she had trained, long after they graduated from high school and despite the diverse paths each have taken.
An alumnus went on to study music majoring in voice and is now a professional opera singer in Europe. I also know of several who went on to form their own singing group during their college days and have held concerts at the university's theatre. A couple of them sang during Miss L's wedding a few years ago and I must say they were just as good as the professional singers we see on television. A few are members of the university choir that sings a capella and has competed in a number of international competitions. Some of these same members in fact form a group that regularly sings during one of the weekend masses at our parish. One of my colleagues at work is himself a former glee club member and he heads the music ministry of his church group.
And now here is this fellow who sang the Introit and several chants during Holy Thursday mass--and who by the way holds a doctorate degree in biology. He could read notes, carries a tuning fork and was directing us on how to properly interpret Gregorian chant.
I myself believe that I would not have evolved into the accompanist that I am today had I not had the experience of playing for my high school glee club under Miss L's direction so many years ago. Heck, I even managed to train a small group of people to sing a choral piece during cultural night when I was abroad studying.
All this because of a great teacher.
