Helena Jack was a successful jazz musician, playing and traveling with distinguished jazz artists like Nancy Wilson and Eddie Fisher. She recalls that as a child, music was what kept her going — staying in school, being motivated and having fun — so she went back to school and got her credential to bring jazz music to students of Oakland. In the episode “Master Teachers,” Spark follows Jack and her school’s award-winning jazz band in preparation for an upcoming jazz festival, from fundraising to performance.
In 1995, Jack became the director of the music department at Elmhurst Middle School in the Oakland Unified School District, where she developed a program of instrumental and choral instruction. Jack found that once she had worked with the students in the junior high most went off to Castlemont High School where there wasn’t a music program. Not satisfied with that arrangement, she began splitting her time between the two schools, becoming the only instrumental music teacher for a total of 2600 students.
In a neighborhood plagued by poverty, Jack finds it important to provide the students with music programs, but also to take them to outside activities and events like jazz festivals and competitions. Since many of them have never gone much further than their own homes and schools, it gives the students exposure to other people and places as well as other music styles, genres and methodologies. They get to experience working with renowned jazz musicians, competing against other bands and performing for the public.
In 2002, she founded Standing Ovation Performing Arts (SOPA) with the mission to provide quality jazz music education within a nurturing environment to East Oakland youth. SOPA is dedicated to fostering aesthetic growth as an essential part of a child’s total education by providing scholarships, creating enrichment programs and funding a summer school music workshop. Performances and active exchanges with other schools are developed throughout the year, culminating in an annual trip to a music festival.
Teaching the students to play and having them play together is something that is important to Jack. Though the schedule and the budget can be a challenge, she would hate to see the programs die in the district. The students need to have a creative outlet, so Jack keeps going. “What keeps me going and coming back as tired as I am, is looking at the kids and seeing the success … It gives you energy!”
SOPA (Standing Ovation Performing Arts)
Where: 7933 Hillmont Dr., Oakland
Phone: (510) 685-3636
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