TRIBAL MEMBER NEWS
The Music Teacher
Nita Van Pelt Lives and Breathes Her Music
by Laura McAdams of the Lake Oswego Review (reprinted with permission)
To Nita Van Pelt, music is a lifelong
skill that, despite the challenges, yields
great rewards.
“Kids that play music are able to
express emotions that can’t be
described with words,” said Van Pelt.
She knows that music can be an
outlet that is sometimes needed for kids
who are going through the turbulence
of growing up. And it is with this
knowledge that she is able to make a
difference in the lives of her students.
Van Pelt began her education in
music in fourth grade on clarinet with
the public school music program in
Beaverton. She didn’t always want to
earn her degree in music; she had
always dreamed of becoming a math
teacher, that is, until she took
trigonometry. Having won many solo
competitions on the clarinet, Van Pelt
decided to make her passion her
profession and teach music.
She was accepted at the prestigious
Oberlin Conservatory of Music as one
of three clarinetists. At Oberlin, one of
her professors insisted that she take at
least one string class — just in case.
Little did she know that she would need
that knowledge about stringed
instruments when she would become
the main orchestra director of the
entire Lake Oswego School District
Orchestra Program.
After teaching band for three years
in Ohio, Van Pelt returned to Oregon in
search of a job. She took up teaching
band and string classes at Waluga Junior
High School.
For 17 years, Van Pelt has led the
Lake Oswego School District Orchestra
Program, leading Lake Oswego’s
young string players to success.
Seventeen years ago when Van Pelt
first came to Lake Oswego, she taught
a couple of small classes, some attended
by only five kids. The string players
from Lakeridge and Lake Oswego high
schools were combined into one district
high school orchestra because of
limited interest; less than 20 kids were
signed up for orchestra.
Today, the orchestra program now
teaches music to students from every
school in the district. Since starting the
program, Van Pelt helped the string
program grow to more than 200 kids
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Siletz News
Nita Van Pelt (photo by Vern Uy etake of the Lake Oswego Review)
with the support of Sandra Nelson at
the central office and the music
coordinator, Debbie Glaze.
Many students make their start on
a stringed instrument beginning in the
fourth grade. Under the direction of
Brenda Liu and Cynthia Scott, young
musicians learn the basics of their
instrument starting from how to open
the case, to placing the fingers on the
fingerboard. With the help of Kathy
Reed, Van Pelt, at 7:30 a.m. teaches
90 elementary students who have
completed the beginner’s class.
Griffin Gaffney, a sixth-grader at
Uplands Elementary School who
started the violin with the Lake Oswego
beginning strings, says that he doesn’t
know how Van Pelt is able to manage
the whole orchestra like she does.
“I hope the orchestra program stays
even with the budget cuts because I
learn a lot from Ms. Van Pelt. I have
fun with my instrument and I get to
meet a lot of kids from other schools.”
After her morning session with the
younger students, Van Pelt moves on
to the junior high schools, where she
teaches around 30 seventh and eighth
graders at both Waluga and Lake
Oswego Junior High School.
“All the kids like Ms. Van Pelt. She
picks out good fun music that she
knows we will like to play and she is
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very encouraging. I definitely plan on
continuing orchestra with Ms. Van Pelt
into high school,” said Stephanie
Higgins, who also started playing the
violin in fourth grade.
One of the greatest accomplish
ments Van Pelt feels she has achieved
with the Lake Oswego strings is the fact
that she was able to boost the interest
for stringed instruments at the high
school level enough so that the
orchestra didn’t have to be combined.
Not only do LOHS and Lakeridge have
their own orchestras, but they have also
both reached an accomplished level.
Both qualified for state last year, and
both placed near the top of the state’s
high school orchestras.
“Ms. Van Pelt has given me the
opportunity to take a leadership role in
orchestra,” says Jerry Lin, a senior
violinist at Lakeridge who helped lead
the orchestra to state last year. “It is
great that this program is able to
recognize music, not just placing all the
emphasis on sports.”
Nicole Merzel, a junior who plays
the violin at Lakeridge, likes having Van
Pelt as a teacher.
“It is easy to have a personal
relationship with her. Unlike other
teachers, Ms. Van Pelt takes the time to
get to know you.”
Van Pelt is also very patient. The
logistics of her job are imaginably
difficult. She teaches five different
orchestras in five different buildings
spread out across Lake Oswego. As a
result, there is no permanent place for
her to store the variety of materials
needed for class, and she ends up
spending a considerable amount of time
in her car.
Despite the challenges of her job,
Van Pelt says she wouldn’t want to do
anything else.
“(The greatest reward) is being able
to start a child on their instrument and
watch them grow through junior high,
and finally into high school. The
ultimate reward is to be able to play
pieces with students after they’ve
become accomplished musicians on the
instrument on which you started them on.”
Aside from teaching virtually all of
Lake Oswego’s string players, Van Pelt
teaches the Interlude group (formally
known as the Preparatory Orchestra) of
the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.
Interlude is a full orchestra with 110
students playing different instruments
in the string, wind, brass or percussion
family. Not only has she accomplished
so much for the string players of Lake
Oswego, but Van Pelt founded and
organizes the All-State Middle School
Orchestra. Band and choir groups had
already existed, and Van Pelt wanted the
middle school string players of Oregon
to have the experience of participating
in an All-State orchestra.
To those who are thinking about
starting a stringed instrument or are
having difficulties with their instru
ment, Van Pelt gives this advice: “Music
skills are not mastered overnight.
Eventually, after putting in some effort,
something will click and you’ll become
an independent musician able to play
more difficult, fun music. Music is a
lifelong skill that you’ll be able to
use in many different ensembles,
providing a lot of different oppor
tunities you might not have been able
to experience otherwise.”
Laura McAdams is a junior at Lake
Oswego High School who writes an
education column twice a month for the
Lake Oswego Review.