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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us May 31, 2005 A teacher’s new tune By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Pam Vellutini plans to take a year off, after a quarter-century teaching music in the Rogue Valley, to learn more about Taiko, a Japanese form of athletic musicianship. Parents and students surprised her by showing up in fan-club shirts at the last concert of the school year. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings The “Pam Rocks” T-shirts really caught Pam Vellutini off-guard. The general music teacher at Helman Elementary School noticed one kid wearing the oversized black shirt with a photo of Vellutini screened on the front while she was organizing students before the last all-school concert of the year on May 19. It took her a moment to realize more than a dozen students and parents had slipped on the fan-club shirts that Kathy Peterson, the volunteer coordinator of the school’s parent-teacher association, had made for Vellutini’s maybe-last show at the school. “She’s an extraordinary music teacher,” said Peterson, whose 9-year-old daughter, Haley, is one of Vellutini’s students. “It’s absolutely amazing what she’s done with the kids.” The concert was a good-bye of sorts for the 51-year-old Santa Cruz, Calif., native. Vellutini will begin a one-year professional leave of absence from the Ashland School District next month to enhance her knowledge and skill in Taiko, a form of Japanese drumming she has been practicing for several years. “Taiko has become my new passion,” Vellutini said during the end-of-the-year Helman School concert where two groups of students performed Taiko pieces they had learned from her. The longtime music instructor has taught at Phoenix, Briscoe, Walker and Helman elementary schools on and off for 25 years, in addition to the private Congo drumming, guitar and Taiko lessons she has taught over the years. For the past three years, Vellutini has taught general music classes at Helman and, during two lunch recesses a week, meets with groups of second- through fifth-graders to practice Taiko. “I hope that I’m fostering a love of music in children,” Vellutini said. “I want to have a place where children feel comfortable to pursue music.” The good-bye Parents and friends of Helman students attended the end-of-the-year concert on May 19. It will be hard for Vellutini to leave the school next week, in part because she doesn’t know where she will be assigned after her year absence. The leave could send her anywhere in the district where her expertise — she has a masters in musical instruction from Lewis and Clark College — can be employed. However, she says she’ll be back to visit the students at Helman and, even if she doesn’t return to the school, the kids can continue to practice Taiko with her during the mix-age classes she teaches in the evenings. Polly Griest and her 10-year-old daughter, Robin, have both been to Vellutini’s evening lessons and perform in a group of students and adults in the area who’ve learned Taiko. The group played to open the Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at Southern Oregon University in January. “Anyone can recognize a good teacher, particularly when you work in the profession,” said Griest, a college literature and writing professor. “All my life, [music] has been a driving interest, so Pam sort of helped me fulfill a lifelong goal.” Vellutini started the evening classes three years ago — about the same time she began teaching the drumming to Helman students — because she wanted others to experience the music she loves. “I know I’m just a baby in it and I know I’m just learning it,” Vellutini said. “I want to share what I know.” An avid cyclist and runner, Vellutini likes the physical fitness necessary to perform the drumming. The movements and rhythm melded together into Taiko are almost like drumming while practicing Tai Chi, Grist explained. During the 25-minute lunchtime Taiko classes at Helman, students do pushups and jumping jacks to get warmed up to practice drumming with the heavy oak sticks used on the instruments. “It is so athletic, it allows me to bring music and sport together,” Vellutini said. During her one year away from the district, Vellutini will go on a 12-day trip to Japan with a group of Taiko players to tour the country and study folk dance, song and drumming at the Kodo apprenticeship center on Sado Island, about 200 miles north of Tokyo. Vellutini will also spend more time working with her Taiko instructor outside of Santa Cruz, Calif. She will continue to teach evening lessons over the next year, when she’s not traveling. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. 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