dr. davis giersch - favorite memories from np

DR. DAVIS GIERSCHRetired North Penn music teacher, music department chair & choral director

Inaugural Class of the North Penn Knights of Honor, 2016

What are some of your favorite memories from your 29 years at

North Penn High School?

“When concerts went well.”

NPHS Chorus Concert, 1992

“When students, especially the ones who were not the musical superstars, would tell me that

coming to chorus rehearsal was the highlight of their day, that the chorus room was a place

where they felt safe.”

“When a student shared with me her college essay about the life-changing experience as she walked down the hall outside the chorus

room, hearing us sing, and the joy she felt joining the group.”

“Some time back, I had a student with a severe physical disability, but that never stopped him.

Watching him sing his heart out at every rehearsal and every concert, even though every note was a physical struggle for him

greater than any of us could imagine was a truly inspirational thing.”

“When the Chamber Singers would rehearse in the stairwell in F-Pod, with its cathedral-like

acoustics. For the same reason, when the concert choir sang in St John's Cathedral in New York City

with its unbelievable acoustics. ”

“When one student who as a sophomore could not make eye contact during a one-on-

one conversation, decided to become a teacher of the deaf in college which

obviously requires total eye contact. ”

“When listening to any one of many exceptionally gifted students sing so

beautifully in the spring musicals like West Side Story and Children of Eden. ”

“The constant support from the administration, teachers, staff, students and parents of

North Penn.”

“When one student in my music theory class understood a concept so well that he was

able to create a new teaching method that made the concept more readily

understandable to his classmates and other students after him.”

“When a gentleman attending a spring concert at North Penn was in tears of joy

after we sang a song in Russian - which was his native language when he was exiled

from Russia as a child.”

“When a student who recently moved to America with limited English, was able to

show me with a simple smile how proud he was to put on a borrowed blazer and join

the chorus on stage in front of an appreciative audience.”

“When you know that whatever you’re doing has a positive effect on students.”