Janice Timm: A local treasure
Janice Hawthorne Timm has been on nearly every stage in town. She’s directed the choir at Mendocino College, acted at Ukiah Players Theatre and played with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra—momentary zeniths on a mile-long list.
But for her, the capstone of her musical career in Mendocino County has been her work with the School of Performing Arts & Cultural Education (SPACE).
Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, Timm was six years old when she started taking piano lessons and discovered her aptitude for music. “Too young,” she says. “My mother loved that I took piano and saw to it that it continued.”
Early on in school, Timm joined the choir and steadily developed her love of singing over the remainder of her education. As an undergraduate, she accompanied as a pianist in professional voice and violin studios while still continuing to sing in various choirs.
After graduating with her bachelor’s, Timm pursued a master’s degree in choral conducting and from there, commenced her career in church choral music.
In 1988, Timm and her husband moved to Mendocino County. With a blossoming family and evergrowing adoration of music, Timm quickly became involved in the music community as a choral director at a church in Cloverdale.
“For a long time, I didn’t do much here,” Timm says, referring to the Ukiah community. “It was hard to break in.”
Timm finally found her place in Mendocino County when SPACE Co-Director Paulette Arnold called Timm up in the early ’90s— “pre-internet,” Timm says with a laugh—and asked if she would be interested in working with the performing arts school.
“I don’t know how Paulette heard of me and I can’t remember how we met,” Timm says. But she can recall the details of her first production with SPACE and the names of every cast member.
Timm, Arnold and SPACE’s current executive director Laurel Near worked alongside each other on the production, bringing “The Jungle Book” to life on the Little Theatre stage at Mendocino College.
Since then, Timm has musically directed 12 shows with SPACE, according to Near.
“It was quite extraordinary to watch that,” Near says. “Musical theater is her thing. She has incredible knowledge about musical theater shows, not only the content but the historical context of different shows.”
By early 2010, several other doors in the Ukiah community had also been opened to Timm, including the doors of the Ukiah Players Theatre.
Her original experience with the theater occurred in 1996, when she was cast in their second production of “Quilters.” Timm fondly looks back on the performance as one that “really showed me what UPT was” and as a treasured highlight of her life in Mendocino County.
When Jenny Peterman took over as the theater’s director, Timm was thrilled with the opportunity that
was extended to her to become regularly involved.
“If there is one person that’s so reliable and there for the community in terms of musical theater and directing, it’s Janice,” Near says.
Timm continues to be a part-time faculty member at Mendocino College, where she has remained choir director ever since the retirement of Les Pfützenreuter. She also works closely as a piano accompanist and mentor to the choir at Ukiah High School, which is under the direction of Joshua Small.
While Timm has been teaching children and adults to sing for 40 years, she gives credit to Arnold and Near for instilling in her the teaching methods that she has carried with her through the years.
“Everything I learned about teaching, I learned from SPACE,” Timm says. “It’s this way of teaching and being that respects the entire person.”
Arnold and Near’s focus on neurodiversity and behavioral encouragement at SPACE was a novel teaching model for Timm when she was first introduced to it.
SPACE continues to work in the same model today, being a partnership between parents, students and teachers to guide children to “express who they really are through art of all kinds,” according to Timm.
As an accomplished music director, most of Timm’s studies have revolved around how the voice changes with age. She applies her knowledge of a child’s changing voice as she works with SPACE students to develop their voices as they grow.
However, Timm has ventured slightly outside her comfort zone for “Nora’s Ark,” the upcoming SPACE show under her musical direction.
“Nora’s Ark” is a jazz musical—a style that SPACE has yet to feature in a production as well as a style that Timm has never taught to children before. While her expertise lies in traditional musicals, her ability to teach and encourage students to be vocally vulnerable remains the same.
“I have been so amazed and thrilled to watch 22 kids learn jazz from Janice,” Near says. As rehearsals got underway, Near would occasionally peek in and observe Timm teaching the cast complicated jazz riffs and techniques of how to musically bend notes. “This one is the next level of musical sophistication that I’m really impressed with,” Near adds.
The cast of “Nora’s Ark” ranges from age nine to 13, with many having little experience on stage. Despite how intimidating jazz can be to learn, with its different tempos and styles that often leave room for improvisation, Timm has complete faith in her cast.
“Twenty-two kids and they’re all off the charts amazing,” Timm says. “I still get chills just thinking about it.”
Timm is working with director Evan Gaustad to bring the acting aspect of the production together with the vocal side of it. To support the children’s jazz education, Timm also brought in jazz pianist Barney McClure to teach and play jazz with the cast.
“Nora’s Ark” will be the first in-person SPACE production since the onset of COVID-19 and Near is excited to open up the theater with something “fun, really positive and really jazzy.”
SPACE is welcoming schoolkids from the Ukiah Unified School District for special weekday performances, providing an opportunity for many of them to experience live theater in a real theater for the first time.
Especially for kids who may not be involved in the arts and for those who attend SPACE productions for pure enjoyment, it has been Timm’s continuous desire to share and promote the arts among the Mendocino County community.
“I consider myself an ambassador for all the arts, from the symphony to everything else. We are so lucky here in Ukiah, with so many talented artists,” Timm says.
Though the scope of her own work as a music director has extended beyond SPACE and into the community, her heart for teaching remains fueled by SPACE and its innovative leaders.
“If you asked me what was the one thing, it was meeting Paulette and Laurel and learning a different way of teaching and being an artist,” Timm concludes. “It was truly life changing for me and it’s been life changing for everyone that I have taught since, I hope.”
There are four public performances of “Nora’s Ark” at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Jan. 22 and Jan. 29. Tickets are available at the Mendocino Book Company or the SPACE Box Office. For more information, visit spaceperformingarts.org.