Musically inclined
Instructor keeps on teaching piano and guitar amid wavering interest
SAN LUIS, Ariz. – For 15 years Damian Noriega has sought to instill a love a music in youths and adults and teach them to play instruments.
Since 2008 he has been a guitar and piano instructor at the city’s Cesar Chavez Cultural Center, though some years have seen him struggle to do so amid wavering interest among his pupils.
Noriega, who also oversees some athletic programs for the city parks and recreation department, studied art at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Sonora, graduating in 1985. He went on to become a dance and painting instructor in San Luis Rio Colorado, but ultimately music became his first passion.
“I immigrated here in 1986, and I worked in the fields for several years, and at the same time I was an instructor of contemporary dance and painting at the House of Culture in San Luis Rio Colorado. Then, because of my children, I began to get involved with soccer in (the) parks and recreation (department), and it wasn’t until several years later when I got the opportunity to teach music.”
Noriega previously was part of a stringed ensemble at Arizona Western College and played as a member of Chai Pei, a band from San Luis Rio Colorado, Son. But he says his greatest satisfaction comes from seeing his students, young or old, play their first notes on a guitar or piano.
“The classes (at the Cesar Chavez Cultural Center) have had their highs and lows. There was one year that I have only one student, but I was there – because it was my responsibility, because the child wanted to learn and I needed to teach him.”
Today, says Noriega, that student plays the keyboard in his church, and has become skilled in playing the guitar, the bass and several other instruments.
Noriega started out this year with 16 students in the music class he teaches, but he figures that number will gradually fall as some of the students find out playing instruments is not as easy as it looks.
“Kids sometime come one day to class and then don’t return. Their parents buy them instruments and then they give it up. But if they learn, it serves them well. Maybe they won’t make their livings from music, but it serves them in their lives.
“I try to teach (students) as little or as much as I know, and my satisfaction is seeing them learn,” he added. “If they continue playing the guitar or the piano, great.”
Noriega urges youths to take advantages of city recreational programs in sports as well as music, “because it’s going to help them a lot intellectually and for their development. Besides, (the classes) are low-cost. They should take advantage of them.”
He said he will continue teaching music classes for the city as long as he can.
“It’s a very big satisfaction for me practicing what I like and what I studied.”