VISTA
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Frank Baker was standing in front of a concert band of 13-and 14-year-olds yesterday, relishing the last days of his 38-year career as a music teacher.
Tuesday, the Washington Middle School band leader will retire, concluding nearly four decades of teaching Vista children how to make music. But with just a few more classes ahead of him, Baker was still conducting his students through a series of concert pieces.
“For so long, I wanted to do high school, but (teaching) middle school is where the learning really takes place,” he said.
Baker, 61, said he has never ceased to be impressed by students such as KazJana Brooks, a 13-year-old who picked up a clarinet for the first time last year and has now earned her place as first clarinet in the school band.
And Baker has savored the times he could turn a child such as Kelly Jarrett on to music, just as he did with the 13-year-old's mother decades ago.
“He was an inspiration to me, and it's the reason I had Kelly join the band,” Denise Jarrett said yesterday afternoon in a telephone interview as Kelly practiced the flute in the background – the same one her mother played for Baker in the mid-1970s.
“Mr. Baker was very driven,” Jarrett said of those days when she was a student at Lincoln Junior High and Baker was a young teacher there. “He wouldn't accept second best. He wanted us to be the very best we could. . . . He's fabulous.”
For Baker, teaching music to children has often meant giving them something to hold on to, something they could focus on when difficulties at home or trouble at school conspired to undermine their progress.
At Washington Middle, where nearly 75 percent of students rely on free or reduced-price meals and about 40 percent are still learning English, music education is not foremost in the minds of many students or their families.
“They're not exposed to music, so we've tried to do as much as we can to expose them,” Baker said.
His students have benefited from teenage mentors from nearby high schools, many of whom studied under Baker. Vista and Rancho Buena Vista high schools have strong music programs, and Rancho Buena Vista's band is now touring China as part of the Olympic festivities. Last year, Vista High's band performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Over the years, Baker has taken his students to musical performances at the Civic Theatre in San Diego, and to Los Angeles to see productions of “Annie” and “Les Miserables.”
Baker's students have performed in local parades and at Disneyland, and they have competed in numerous music festivals.
“I've just been so impressed,” Susan Stuber, a former choir teacher at Washington Middle and a longtime colleague, said of Baker's commitment and affection for his students. “He loves them, and he goes out of his way to make sure they get opportunities.
“He likes to broaden their horizons and expose them to other music.”
After music practice yesterday, KazJana said proudly that she is the first in her family to play in a band.
KazJana said she practices at least 30 minutes a day, and music has helped her focus more on her studies. As for Baker, KazJana said he is patient and helps her stay motivated.
“He's encouraging,” she said. “He's nice, and he's always happy.”
Several of Baker's former students came to a May 28 spring concert, sitting with the band and playing for their teacher once again. Among them were studio musicians from Los Angeles and others for whom music is their lifelong passion. The guest book was filled with three pages of people who once called Baker their teacher.
Baker's son Andrew said it was almost eerie how the concert evoked the scene from the film “Mr. Holland's Opus,” in which a retiring music teacher gives a final concert before all the people who have loved him over the years.
“If it wasn't for him, some of those people would never have become musicians,” Andrew Baker said.
Bruce Lieberman: (760) 476-8205; bruce.lieberman@uniontrib.com
