POINT LOMA
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When she joined the Point Loma High School marching band a few years back, Chelsea Oakes and her fellow students weren't exactly aiming for the stars, musically speaking.
In 2003, the year before Chelsea arrived, the struggling program was nearly shut down. The music director abruptly quit to take another job, and there was no replacement. In competitions, Chelsea said, the band strove not for first place but to avoid finishing dead last.
“Our motto in my freshman year was to suck less,” said the 17-year-old senior who plans to attend Point Loma Nazarene University in the fall.
No more.
Students in the fall of 2003 refused to give up. They organized themselves and cajoled a substitute teacher to stay after school so the band could practice. Experienced band members taught new recruits until an enthusiastic college music student arrived to help out.
The program has been playing a new tune since.
Participation has surged from a low of 30 or 40 students to more than 100 musicians. Last year, for the first time in recent memory, the band made it to the championship competition for Southern California, where it placed seventh among more than 100 similar-sized programs.
Perhaps most telling, students said being in band has become a status symbol rather than a social liability.
Brandon Zedaker, 18, a senior who is captain of the drum line, said friends on the football team have told him, “ 'Man, I really wish I would have stuck with you guys, you're so cool.' It's become something comparable to varsity sports.”
Zedaker said Point Loma High's music program has emerged as among the best in the city, and he expects it to win a championship before long.
His assessment is shared by Dan Nelson, professor of music at Point Loma Nazarene University.
“I think it's the crown jewel in the San Diego city (schools) music program,” said Nelson, a supporter of Point Loma High's music program since he came to the university in 1991.
Understanding the program's achievement requires simply listening to the musicians perform, he said.
Nelson credits the program's turnaround to John Dally, the college student who arrived at the school in the fall of 2003.
Dally taught band under the supervision of substitute teacher Anthony Patalano and with the help of Point Loma alumnus Shawn Loescher.
In his second and third years, Dally worked on an interim contract while he earned his teaching credential. It wasn't until his fourth year that Dally officially became the school's full-time music director.
Under Dally, the program has added not only students but ensembles, including an orchestra and a jazz band.
“For our first year, we are a smokin' group,” Zedaker said of the jazz band.
Dally said his goal throughout college was to work as a high school band director because of his experiences in band during high school, which included marching in Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade.
Dally's approach starts with a passion for music. During a recent class, Dally played a piece of classical music and described his emotions from hearing the piece. He asked students to describe the images the music conjured in their minds. By doing so, he explained, the students would be better equipped to convey their feelings to the audience.
“I've worked very hard to make sure music and emotion are associated with band, rather than honks and squeaks,” Dally said. “Students are asked to go beyond what's on the page.”
That morning, Dally and his students were still feeling the glow from a successful concert at Point Loma Nazarene University the night before.
Band booster John Bauer, the father of one current Point Loma band member and one former member, said he had to “strong-arm” a number of friends and acquaintances to attend the show.
During intermission, Bauer said, he ran into some of them. “Their mouths were agape. They could not believe the quality of the music,” Bauer said.
Bauer said he has been transformed from a skeptic to a believer in the music program. Bauer, who has a background in science, said he once thought programs such as band were mere “fluff” and that schools should focus strictly on academics. But watching students run the band when the music director left and seeing the program's improvement caused him to rethink his position.
“The program is much more than music,” Bauer said, noting that music students do better in school, which enhances their opportunities for going to college.
Bauer and other boosters are raising money to remodel the school's former woodshop building into a music center. The project will cost just over $1 million, and supporters have pledges for about half the money, Bauer said. Depending on how fundraising goes, work could begin this summer.
Alexandra East, one of the seniors who helped run the band in 2003, is now a junior at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she is majoring in biology and chemistry.
East stays in touch with Dally and her former bandmates. She feels a sense of accomplishment for playing a part in the band's transformation, as well as gratitude for what she learned.
“I think it really taught me how to be a leader and how to actually get things done,” she said.
Joe Tash is a freelance writer.
