dr. davis giersch - favorite memories from np
TRANSCRIPT
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.”