Teacher Uses Music as Means of Inspiration

Eyes locked on the sheet music, the teacher waved off the music, like a carrier crew waving off an airplane flying on the wrong angle.

“No!” he said, looking up and into the eyes of the students. “You didn’t practice. You’ve got to get it individually first.”

Students at San Fernando High School call him Gig. He calls them babes and cats. Richard Gigger) Jr. has been a music teacher here for 15 years.

For the past nine years, the school’s marching band has won top honors for their division in a districtwide band competition. On Nov. 23, the band will compete again--under the watchful eyes of Gigger.

Prior to teaching, Gigger was a U.S. Army bandmaster. Sometimes his military training still shows.

“La da de dum, da de dum,” Gigger said. “Go.”

Throughout the session, the 67-year-old Gigger stopped the music, thrashing his arms in the air, correcting the students on tempo and triplets, eighth notes and sound levels.

“Don’t splatter,” he told the trumpets. “You know how when you dive into a pool and your belly busts it? Dive in clean.”

Originally from East St. Louis, Ill., Gigger joined the U.S. Army Band at the end of World War II, after working for a truck company. His Army career spanned 25 years and included an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” After retiring, he started teaching in New Jersey, where he met his wife.

“He’s my hero,” said his wife, Ellen Kaminer, who has worked with him at every school he has taught at during their more than 20 years of marriage. “He really lives what some people give lip service to.”

Before San Fernando, Gigger was band director at Dorsey High School. That was when Donald Dustin, head of the district’s performing arts program, first saw him in competition.

Dustin recalls asking himself, “Who the heck is this crazy guy, who was barking out orders and looked like he had ten tons of adrenaline in him?”

Former students often return to work with Gigger as fellow teachers and assistants.

“He’s a tough guy,” said Laura Fuentes, a 1987 graduate who now directs the drill team. “He pushes people to their limits. I’m glad he came out of retirement.”

The retirement, which would have begun this year, lasted only three days. He missed his wife and the students too much, he said.

When they are not practicing, Gigger is always inquiring into the welfare of his students, checking to make sure they have eaten. He and his wife have bought shoes and jackets for students.

Academics always come first, he said. He makes sure students make up classwork they miss because of band, and that they get the tutoring and counseling they may need.

“He’s like a second father to me,” said Dinah Perez, the 16-year-old drum major. Gigger has taught seven of her siblings. “There was a period in my life when I felt really down. He took me in here and talked to me and asked me what was wrong.”

Jo Aguirre, a senior from Pacoima, said she was scared of Gigger at first. Her junior high school teacher had warned her about him. “He’s just really hard to keep up with,” she said.

At first she struggled. But as Gigger kept on her, about the music and her grades, she improved.

“In the end, I was grateful to him,” she said.

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