Music Teacher

Harbor View Elementary School's longtime music teacher, Linda Messenger, was honored with a standing ovation at the recent holiday program - her last school-wide musical assembly before she retires in June. "Harbor View has always been proud of our musical program," said Principal Charlene Metoyer. "This is due to the fabulous direction of Mrs. Messenger. I don't know if anyone can take her place. " Messenger has worked at Harbor View for 11 years, and she also has taught at Whittier, Newport Coast and Newport elementary schools, teaching thousands of students instrumental and vocal music as well as dance.

Marisa O'Neil Police are seeking possible victims of a private music teacher accused of molesting a local girl. Newport Beach Police arrested Aaron William Hallas, 54, of Garden Grove last week on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child. The arrest came after the elementary-school-aged girl saw a video about child molestation and told her parents that her music teacher had done that to her, Sgt. Steve Shulman said. Police have not identified the girl because she is a minor.

The UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans are gearing up for a huge battle Saturday. And as many in Orange County are aware, the county is SC fan territory. But the Bruins refuse to sit on the sidelines in this crosstown rivalry. So in the name of healthy competition, Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, a UCLA alumna and a devout Bruins fan, helped her two young boys and their friends get back at their music teacher. Nick St. Royal, Sonora Elementary School’s music teacher and band director, is a die-hard Trojan fan. Foley said that on the first day of class, St. Royal told his students: “I graduated from the greatest university on the planet, do you know which one that is?

UCI professor helps unearth Lennon files Jon Wiener, a history professor at UC Irvine, scored a long-awaited victory this week, as the FBI released a group of files on former Beatle John Lennon — 25 years after Wiener requested them.   A member of the American Civil Liberties Union and the author of "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI File," Wiener obtained the release of most of the 300 pages in Lennon's FBI file in 1997 and used them as material for his book.

In 2002, Salman Farshchi began taking lessons with music teacher Loghman Adhami. But soon after, Farshchi decided to take another road. He began instruction with another music teacher, but quickly realized that he should have stuck with his first instinct. At Adhami's Costa Mesa International Music School, Farshchi had private instruction. At his new teacher's, he played in a mixed-level class. But the lower price and the smaller class size wasn't the only thing that drew Farshchi back to the International Music School.

Suzie Harrison If one mixed music, waves, sunshine and fun, they would come up with the Fabulous Nomads, who claim to be Orange County's oldest surf band. "We formed the band a long time ago," lead guitarist John Daffron said. "I was a swim coach at the YMCA Newport, a father was in a surf band that needed a guitar player; I started playing with them 16 years ago." Based in Newport Beach, they play up and down the coast, from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Deirdre Newman It's the day of the first vocal concert of the year and music teacher Jon Lindfors is conducting a morning class with the precision of a drill sergeant. "Sing out -- don't be a wimp," Lindfors says, encouraging the 30 or so girls to give it their all. The girls respond enthusiastically, as their harmony fills the room. Lindfors, who has been teaching music at Costa Mesa High School for almost as long as these girls have been alive, was recently recognized in the top echelon of Orange County Teachers of the Year for 2002.

Elementary students throughout Newport-Mesa are taking the stage this week, as schools gear up for their annual holiday music programs. Officials at schools across the district said their student bodies were hard at work on their upcoming holiday shows, with special schedules this week to get the last bits of rehearsal in. At Newport Elementary, the hundreds of kids involved took the last couple of hours of school Monday packed into the...

When Megan Malloy was in middle school at Sierra Vista in Irvine, her music teacher took his students to see a production of "Blast," which combined elements of a marching band with dance and Broadway-style razzle-dazzle. Meggie, as her friends and family call her, was transfixed. "I got my mind blown," she said. "It was musical and theatrical, and entertaining enough for people who don't know anything about marching bands to be entertained. " That fascination lay dormant for the better part of a decade.

Audrey Seidman is a big fan of recess. The music teacher, who leads classes for all grade levels at Kaiser Elementary School, encourages students to run around and stretch their limbs on the playground. It isn't just for the sake of exercise; it also improves their pitch. "We do all these physical stretches at the beginning of class to get the oxygen flowing," Seidman explained during the fourth-grade class on Friday. "You'd be amazed how good a class sounds when they've just come in from recess."

Harbor View Elementary School's longtime music teacher, Linda Messenger, was honored with a standing ovation at the recent holiday program - her last school-wide musical assembly before she retires in June. "Harbor View has always been proud of our musical program," said Principal Charlene Metoyer. "This is due to the fabulous direction of Mrs. Messenger. I don't know if anyone can take her place. " Messenger has worked at Harbor View for 11 years, and she also has taught at Whittier, Newport Coast and Newport elementary schools, teaching thousands of students instrumental and vocal music as well as dance.

When Megan Malloy was in middle school at Sierra Vista in Irvine, her music teacher took his students to see a production of "Blast," which combined elements of a marching band with dance and Broadway-style razzle-dazzle. Meggie, as her friends and family call her, was transfixed. "I got my mind blown," she said. "It was musical and theatrical, and entertaining enough for people who don't know anything about marching bands to be entertained. " That fascination lay dormant for the better part of a decade.

COSTA MESA — Sitting in on a second-grade class trying out the xylophone might make one reach for Advil, but not that's not the case in Suzanne Rivera's class at Paularino Elementary School. With six students poised in front of different sized xylophones, and the rest sitting "criss-cross apple sauce, pepperoni pizza sauce," Rivera challenged them to use their creativity and create their own tunes on the first try. "I want you to think of your own melody," Rivera told her students.

ORANGE — I've always found the viola to be the most mysterious and misunderstood member of the orchestra. It doesn't have front-and-center showboat status of the violin. Or the slippery slope of sound from a sliding trombone. Or the lyricism of a solo oboe's seemingly endless phrasing. So when I asked Bob Becker, the principal viola for the Pacific Symphony since 1982, how he chose to play the mystifying viola, he laughed. "It was actually pretty simple," he said. "Look at my wingspan.

NEWPORT BEACH — At 17, Michael Fleming has written the musical score for the upcoming "Our Town" production, which will open Friday night at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa. A junior at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Fleming put together the music in less than a month after reading Thornton Wilder's three-act play of the same name, finding inspiration in the plot. "Our Town" is about a small community in New Hampshire called Grover's Corners; and although, in general, it's about the townspeople of that era, the story focuses on one woman, Emily Webb.

The UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans are gearing up for a huge battle Saturday. And as many in Orange County are aware, the county is SC fan territory. But the Bruins refuse to sit on the sidelines in this crosstown rivalry. So in the name of healthy competition, Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, a UCLA alumna and a devout Bruins fan, helped her two young boys and their friends get back at their music teacher. Nick St. Royal, Sonora Elementary School’s music teacher and band director, is a die-hard Trojan fan. Foley said that on the first day of class, St. Royal told his students: “I graduated from the greatest university on the planet, do you know which one that is?

A crowd of students, administrators and union officials crammed the hallway and burst into the teachers’ lounge at Early College High School, ready to blindside biology teacher Candace Leuthold with flowers and congratulations. That’s how the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers announces its districtwide Teachers of the Year. The federation honors one elementary school teacher and one secondary teacher. Leuthold was joined by elementary music teacher Scott Fitzpatrick as this year’s winners.

Elementary students throughout Newport-Mesa are taking the stage this week, as schools gear up for their annual holiday music programs. Officials at schools across the district said their student bodies were hard at work on their upcoming holiday shows, with special schedules this week to get the last bits of rehearsal in. At Newport Elementary, the hundreds of kids involved took the last couple of hours of school Monday packed into the...

With his jazz standards and show tunes, piano man Richie Fauno takes guests of Villa Nova's piano bar back to a more leisurely past that for many exists only in memories. For Sharon Sills, listening to Fauno play is the highlight of her week, and she has been doing it since he first started playing the Newport Beach restaurant more than 26 years ago. "The atmosphere of the piano bar is very special," said Sills, 59, who often provides the vocals to accompany Fauno's tunes when she comes to Villa Nova.