Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Wednesday, June 2, 1976, page 12 (of 33)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
Ponce musical mentor ends 26-year career
Band director Jesse Blum . . . is junior high institution By ERICA MEYER Staff Writer Jesse Blum has led Ponce de Leon Junior High's band for 26 years and now he's leaving. But he's not going far. After his final performance with his Ponce students at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at UM's Gusman Hall, Jesse will become head of the music school at Ransom-Everglades. He's looking forward to the lighter schedule, but his memories of Ponce are fond and far reaching. A resident of San Remo Drive in Coral Gables, Jesse remembers that when he first came to Ponce "it was a country school." He taught at Ada Merritt on SW Third Street before coming to Ponce, so he knew the territory and he said the area "always had that community feeling. "The band and chorus sparked the school. When I first got there, there were only two buildings. In 1951, there was a fire and we had to replace the "A" building. Except for those two buildings, everything was in portables. "The band room was an ant-infested portable shack and South Dixie Highway was a two-lane street, a country road," Jesse said. "The school didn't have any homes around it, but it had a marvelous community feeling." Jesse traveled a long road to get to Ponce. As a boy in gables news Brooklyn, N.Y., he took piano lessons on the sly (his parents thought that was an activity for girls) and paid 25 cents an hour for the privilege. After his parents learned he really wanted lessons, they encouraged him. He remembers being taken to Carnegie Hall often by his father. The family of five would buy standing room tickets to listen to Leonard Bernstein. Admission was 25 cents. "I just saw Bernstein perform on the Beach this week," Jesse said. "It cost me $15." Jesse attended New York University's Washington Square Music School and dropped out at one point to practice piano for six months. "I stayed in school and got my masters degree," he said, "because it was 1935 and you couldn't get a job, anyway." While at NYU, Jesse put $2.50 down on a Steinway Grand Piano and then, with the dubious salesman holding his deposit, Jesse talked an uncle into lending him $200 to begin purchasing the instrument. "I still have that piano," he said. "I paid a total of $750 for it, at $15 a month, for years. I could get $3,000 or $4,000 for it now." Jesse married a graduate of Newark Art School named Hannah, now his wife of 35 years, and together they brought his ailing father to live in Miami. After some traveling, Jesse got a job as a substitute teacher in Dade County for $5 a day and eventually landed his first permanent slot, teaching at Jackson High School for $900 a year in 1940. "I taught history, arithmetic, everything but music for six months and then the war came. I was a 4-F because I had polio as a child, and when the band director was drafted, the principal called me in to run the Jackson band," Jesse said. His credo in those years, when he knew music and knew piano, but really didn't know band instruments, was "You tell me how to do it and I'll teach you. "I learned with the kids," Jesse said. "I learned to see their way of thinking things through. "One of the most beautiful things is working with children," Jesse says. "I'm not going to retire. I just am going to a quieter life . . and where I'm going, they even have mini-buses to take the kids to concerts."
Graphic art his forte
Osmin Del Pino doesn't just teach his Carver Junior High School students how to use drafting equipment, drawing boards and printing presses. He teaches them self-reliance, pride and communication. Del Pino, a North Kendall Drive resident, recently named Dade County's Vocational Teacher of the Year, said a graphics arts class should cover management techniques, proper use of the language and the needs of industry for graphics. "The program must be relevant to my students," Del Pino said. "And I think it is." A native of Cuba, Del Pino has taught at Carver for six years. He holds a Bachelors degree in art and a Masters in industrial art. Through his coaching and willingness to let things take a little longer than they would if he did them himself, the Carver students have created a newspaper that is written, photographed, typeset and printed entirely by them. "Most people have the idea that vocational education is for the dumb group," Del Pino said. "In most of my classes, I have very talented students. And I learn along with the kids." - ERICA MEYER
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