Undermountain School Mourns Beloved Music Teacher
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While the exact cause of the accident is under investigation, Olds' students and colleagues are left to grieve for his passing and ponder his 12-year legacy at Undermountain Elementary School, in which he opened the world of music to students young and old. According to Courtney English, the district's 5-12 music and band teacher, Olds was not only a master musician (he won the 1985 New England Guitar Championship and was an accomplished fiddle player) but a master teacher as well.
"I only knew him these last three years, but the was the best elementary music teacher I have ever worked with," she said. "What he did with these kids, and what they knew by the time I got them in fifth grade was amazing. I really enjoyed watching what he was doing with the kids. I remember walking into his class during a fifth-grade free time where the kids could learn whatever they were interested in — guitar, piano, violin, composing, drumming — anything they were interested in and he would help them. The room was packed with kids and they all loved it. He was always so excited about what he was doing with the kids and very proud of them."
Olds taught everything from folk songs to drum beats to musical history to his students. One parent, Caitlin Hotaling of Sheffield, expressed the sentiments of many in the small school community, saying it was a "sad, sad day" and that she is heartbroken over the loss. Superintendent Michael Singleton said in a letter to parents that a district-wide crisis team has been brought in to work with staff and students in order to better-handle this loss.
"Homeroom teachers shared the information with the students this morning," he said. "The schools will maintain as normal a routine as possible."
Much like the empty desk syndrome that teachers often experience with the loss of a student, Undermountain students now face a silent classroom where the teacher they loved can no longer be heard whistling through the walls or wailing out a tune on his well-worn fiddle. Olds even took on adult students. I know because I was one of them. Every Friday afternoon my daughter Anna (now 10) and I would have our weekly lesson together. While our violins (her little one, my old one) screeched wildly he just tapped his foot, roisined his bow, and played along with the patience of a saint. In between songs, we chatted about raising kids, getting gigs (him for his bluegrass band, me for my poetry) and the frustrations of hearing loss. Olds was rapidly losing his hearing; I had just lost hearing in my left ear due to a car accident. He said it was fortunate that I, a veteran pianist, had taken up the violin.
"This is a perfect instrument for us," he said. "Even if we can't hear it all the time, we can still feel it when we play."
Anson Olds will be sorely missed by all of his students, young and old. His longtime colleague, district choral director Nancy Loder, said that his teaching life will extend far into the lives of the school's many young musicians.
"Anson was a good teacher who left a long legacy of music for children to take with them into their future," she said.
