9 minute read
Featured Pros: Making Music With
ILONA SAARI
ANNA & BILL WAGNER
ANNA SINGING
“Love is friendship set to music.” Jackson Pollock
Anna Cho was born in Culver City, California, the former home of MGM Studios, the magical movie lot that housed “more stars than in heaven,” but she was raised, along with her younger sister, Irene, in Walnut, a suburb of L.A. County. Anna’s dad, Samuel Cho, a graduate in foreign languages from a university in Korea, found work in the U.S. outside his field of expertise at a machinery factory.
Her mom, Charlene, who had studied accounting and vocal performance in Korea, worked to put her husband through community college and later had a career in administration for a Korean supermarket.
Both parents loved to sing and they passed that love on to their girls. Anna spent a majority of her youth studying piano (“which I hated!”) and singing in many choirs (“which I loved!”). Most of the family’s singing was done in church. “I loved singing in group settings because of the blended harmonies, shared emotions, and, since I’m an introvert, not standing out,” claims this Ojai standout.
Bill Wagner, the son of Dorothy and John Wagner, was born in Illinois, but grew up in star-studded Hollywood not far down yellow brick road from MGM in Culver City. He
dreamed of becoming a baseball player or, perhaps, an architect. His dad, a Lutheran minister, served as a church pastor for a year in New Jersey before his ministry led him to work with social service organizations, including the National & World Council of Churches and serving as Executive Director of the Lutheran Social Services in Southern California. Dorothy was a music major who studied the organ at Oberlin College in Ohio before becoming a nurse and administrator at Kaiser Hospital.
Music was part of Bill’s family life as well, influencing both him and his brother, Bob, more so than his sisters, Lynne and Joy (Bob eventually went on to Juilliard in New York City and is now the principal bassoonist for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra). Bill began learning the trumpet in elementary school, and, as his expertise grew, started playing in church, school ensembles, youth orchestras, even a marching band, and spent ten summers working at the Hollywood Bowl, where he was able to see the rehearsals and performances up close.
After high school, Anna attended University of California Irvine, and studied vocal music, then went on to the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music to continue her training.
Masters in hand, she had no desire to perform professionally and moved back home to look for music-related work, but ended up in Pasadena as a fundraiser at a school for children with special needs. A colleague
BILL CONDUCTING
who had left to work for the Ojai Music Festival (OMF), told her that a position had opened there. Anna had never heard of Ojai, but after meeting with the Festival team and exploring the valley she leaped at the chance and is now the festival’s Director of Development.
are “sitting around the piano singing with my family —my mom is a wonderful pianist, still playing and composing at 90…” and, “… watching my brother play in local orchestras when I was just beginning trumpet.” These moments, plus his playing with music groups in high school (and, later in college) ignited Bill’s passion for music. After attending Hollywood High, Bill went to California Lutheran College for two years, then transferred to Oberlin, his mother’s alma mater, finishing his education with a Bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance and a Masters of Music Education. He worked for the International Music Festivals in Kalamazoo, Michigan, organizing festivals for high schools and colleges, where he traveled and worked closely with college music professors.
After four years, Bill returned to California and worked in banking administration, though he continued to play with several orchestras and small ensembles, and scored some recording gigs, including playing trumpet for the television movie, “Studs Lonigan.” While working with the Merenblum Youth Orchestra in L.A., Bill heard of an opening in Ojai for a high school music teacher at Ojai Unified. “I had actually performed in Ojai with the Cal Lutheran Orchestra and really liked the area” he says. “I knew it would be a great
community to be teaching in — especially with the local Ojai Music Festival.”
With Anna now ensconced in her position at the OMF and Bill teaching music at Nordhoff High, the two were bound to meet. Anna saw Bill at the annual OMF Imagine Concert for the BRAVO education program. She had noticed him at the concert the year before, but he’d never approached her and she was too shy to approach him. But, not this time. She waited until the evening wound down, then said the only thing that sprang to mind: “Hi.” They chatted, but the evening ended with no mention of a future meeting. “I don’t know what made me then send an email to ask if he was interested in hanging out,” she said, but she did. Bill suggested they go for a bike ride and without thinking it through, Anna said yes. Later it dawned on her … she hadn’t ridden a bike since she was 16, didn’t own one and, more importantly, she had no “biking clothes!”As their date drew near, Anna confessed and suggested they meet for coffee. That was in 2009. They married in 2010. And, a year later, their daughter, Charlotte, now a student at Mira Monte Elementary School, was born.
Anna’s Masters’ program had been difficult for her. She lost confidence in her ability to sing and stopped for seven years, though she was able to stay connected to music when she began her work in arts administration. But it wasn’t until she started attending Holy Cross Lutheran Church (now closed) with Bill that she began to sing again. The church needed a singer and Anna volunteered. “I sang that first song, and it was a homecoming for me,” she says. As the Director of Development at the OMF, Anna has also volunteered at the Ojai Education Foundation and the Ojai Women’s Committee. Fighting her stage fright, she now shares her vocal gift in concerts such as the Ojai Performing Arts Theater (OPAT) holiday shows where Bill serves as the musical director.
Bill manages MAESTRO, a non-profit that supports Nordhoff’s music department and serves on the OPAT board. He was also a founding director of the Ojai Summer Band, director of Ojai Camerata, and a founding member of the Ojai Brass Quintet.
Like many American families, the Wagners have sequestered at home through this pandemic. Anna works in their bedroom. Charlotte Zooms school in her room. And Bill teaches and works from the dining room. Mom and Dad are thankful their daughter is thriving and that they are still employed and able to work from home. Teaching music on the internet, however, is not easy. “I’m proud of my students for hanging in with this whole Zoom thing.” Bill says. “We are definitely working on presenting a musical this year, although it will be a little different because of Covid-19. This year’s show is ‘The Theory of Relativity’ and will be live-streamed in mid to late May.” As for the OMF? Anna is excited and overjoyed that the Festival is returning — live — from September 16-19th! In addition, there will be small music gatherings in June, during the time the Festival normally takes place. All Covid protocols will be in place, of course, but the prospect of having a live festival again is music to her ears. “To miss the arts for this long is so difficult and we need to bring back the heart of our society soon.”
Love, friendship and music all strike beautiful chords in Anna and Bill’s relationship and Ojai is all the better for their shared harmonies.
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