JAY – Sherry Gilbert started taking piano lessons in the third grade. Then, she tired of practicing in the fourth grade and wanted to quit, but her mother wouldn’t let her.
Eventually, she majored in piano at the Northern Conservatory of Music in Bangor.
On Tuesday, Gilbert sat at the piano and accompanied her Jay High School students as they sang “Sing Alleluia.”
Usually Gilbert is out in front directing the 21-member female chorus, but she did a little bit of both this day.
Students had already run through their voice warm-ups and were rehearsing a song for the spring concert that was presented Thursday night.
It was Gilbert’s last spring concert.
After 38 years of teaching music, 35 of those in the Jay school system, Gilbert plans to retire in June.
After a couple of stops and starts during rehearsal of the song, Gilbert clapped her hands lightly from behind the piano.
“Oh, you sound so good,” she said, as she handed a box of battery-operated glow wands to a student to pass out. The chorus stood and began to sing, with the singers and lighted wands moving to the rhythm.
A few more songs, some with choreography and others without, and Gilbert stepped from behind the piano to direct the students in “Elijah Rock,” which they were to sing a cappella.
When the singers hit the high notes, Gilbert clapped.
“Perfect, you’re right up there,” she said.
As the girls continued singing, Gilbert said, “Yes, yes, that’s what you need to do.”
“You were great,” said Gilbert, of Oakland, when they finished and the classroom emptied of students.
Gilbert started teaching at a New York school after college.
“I believe in God’s guidance,” she said, “I came back home to Maine and went to the education department.”
She told people there that she was looking for a job as a music teacher. The Jay school superintendent at the time was there – and he was looking for a music teacher. They made the connection, she applied, and the rest is history.
She has taught at all levels, and started a handbell choir at the elementary school and began the Melody Makers, which sang on television in 1993. Both groups were active for more than a decade before dissolving.
The decision to retire was a difficult one to make, Gilbert said.
“I debated it 20, 30, 40 times,” Gilbert said, “because I still love what I do.”
But after talking with her sister, whose husband died the year before he planned to retire, she decided earlier this month that she would retire while she still enjoys what she does.
She expects that the day when she says goodbye will be tough, she said.
“I love every single student and they’re all mine,” Gilbert said. “I’ll miss them terribly … but I’ll have these grand memories.”
When her retirement was announced at a School Committee meeting Tuesday night, School Committee Vice Chairman Mary Luce-Redmond said to Gilbert, “Thank you for 38 years of wonderful service” and for sharing the gift of music with the students of Jay schools.
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