CeLEBRATinG 100 YeaRs By Jillian White
of Instrumental Music at Heights High
I
t takes a single conversation with a graduate of the Cleveland Heights High School Instrumental Music Department to realize that the program is truly beloved. Aside from producing generations of distinguished professional musicians, whether they played strings like solo cellist Alisa Weilerstein ’99, woodwinds like bassoonist Loren Glickman ’41, or even percussion, as did jazz vibraphonist Ceclia Smith ’78, the department has provided mentorship and fond memories to alumni who pursued careers outside of music. The 2021-2022 academic year marks the 100th anniversary of the Instrumental Music Department (IMD). The IMD’s founding is fully documented in the 1922 yearbook. The volume records that in October of 1920, three students petitioned Principal Russel Burtt to form an orchestra. Mr. Burtt acquiesced, stating, “Starting an orchestra in the school is an admirable venture. Prove yourselves to be in earnest and credits will be given for orchestra work.” And prove themselves they did. The orchestra made its debut performance in the fall of
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THE HEIGHTS MAGAZINE
1921 under the baton of Mr. E.B. Downey, a science teacher at Heights. The group existed as an extracurricular activity until February of 1926, at which point the first full time music director, Mr. Percy, was hired and the orchestra became an accredited course. The orchestra even performed at the 1926 opening of the school’s current home on Lee Road. The next decade heralded a flourishing of Heights’ instrumental music program. While at it’s 1921 founding, the orchestra had numbered only 15 members- a motley array of instruments lacking the requisite sections for standard repertoire (for instance, the group possessed neither violas nor celli), by 1929 it had grown large enough to be divided into a separate band and string orchestra. This year also marked the entrance of a new director, Mr. Mark Hindsley, under whose tenure the instrumental department
