Jason Chevalier of West Covina, the Mt. San Antonio College professor directing the college's award-winning Wind Ensemble and Wind Chimes, loves the discipline and spirituality of music. But the best thing about teaching and conducting collegiate instrumental groups is the fact music "connects people on deeper levels," claimed the 35-year-old Chevalier, a teacher since he was only 19 years old.
Herman Chevalier, Jason's father and owner of a property management firm; beautician Nancy Chevalier, his mother; and sister Paris, an advertising executive, aren't musically inclined. But young Jason's interest was piqued when a music teacher brought recorders to his third-grade classroom in Riverside.
So, a year later in the basic music program for fourth-graders, Jason picked the clarinet because it looked most like a recorder. The instrument and boy were naturally compatible. Playing the clarinet would later pay for his bachelor degree in music education, a master's in music and a teaching credential, all from Cal State Fullerton, and create cultural joy for the man who cannot imagine life without music.
Music opened social doors at his elementary and middle schools and Rubidoux High School for the man born in Orange and raised in Riverside. However, he had no intention of making music a college major or a career choice.
A teacher changed his mind, astutely assessing Chevalier's talents as a musician and his ability to pass on knowledge to others.
"My high school band director, Charles Gray, encouraged me to do the scholarship audition for Cal State Fullerton because it was his alma mater," Chevalier recalled. "He pushed me in that direction. And I ended up getting scholarship money. I hadn't planned on college, but I had the scholarship money. So I went."
Chevalier was only 19 when John Vorwald, teacher/director of Nogales High School's award-winning band program, hired him to coach the woodwind section of the concert and marching bands at Nogales and Los Altos high schools.
"It was challenging, but I realized I really needed to act like an adult," chuckled Chevalier, quickly admitting he had to overcome his youthful appearance and any immature behavior if he was to gain the respect and cooperation of teenagers only slightly younger than him.
"The first day I showed up I thought I was going to rehearse a small section," he said. "But he threw me in with the whole band. He later sent me on the bus with the pep band and squad for away games. It was great. the time I graduated from college, I had experience coaching, conducting and supervising bands." Ironically, Chevalier's first full-time job was at Upland High School, the school where Mt. SAC's choral activities director and internationally renowned conductor Bruce Rogers built an award-winning choral program. Chevalier's experience with Nogales' 150 student musicians and an additional 200 student players at Los Altos provided the foundation for him supervising Upland High's marching, bagpipe, two jazz and three concert bands, 200 students strong.
He was at Upland from January 1994 to June 2000. One month before he resigned to accept the Mt. SAC position, Chevalier took the teen instrumentalists to the National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis.
"There were probably 60 wind ensembles there," he said. "It's one of the top two events in the United States for that medium. The other one is the Midwest Band Clinic held in Chicago.
"Indianapolis was a nice swan song," said the man who also made the Upland marching band a formidable force ranked eighth in California.
Mt. SAC offered opportunities to build an adventurous and highly competitive instrumental music program, Chevalier said. He taught and directed the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds and re-started the jazz band that had folded when previous director Steve Wilkerson stopped teaching the program.
Jazz had been a strong tradition at the college and Chevalier breathed new life into the specialty band. Acknowledging his strengths laid in classical and contemporary music, he built up the numbers in the jazz band then stepped back. Jazz guitarist Tom Hynes was hired to lead the jazz group and soon the numbers merited starting a second jazz band.
There were only 20 students in the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds when Chevalier arrived at the college in August 2000. He tripled participation in the ensemble. In January, he formed a jazz combo with only six students.
The jazz sextet - trumpeter/student leader Daniel Delgado; electric bassist Russell Hartlieb, drummer Tim Talavera, tenor saxophonist Matt Robbins, electric guitarist Chang Su and trombonist Daniel Cook - went to the Reno Jazz Festival shortly after the group began. It was the first time in four years Mt. SAC had competed at the prestigious Western regional event.
"They did well and it was a good showing for their first time," Chevalier proudly said of his students' efforts at Reno.
The college's Wind Ensemble performed in concert at Carnegie Hall in March as part of the New York Wind Band Festival.
"Mt. SAC was the only community college and the first to do the festival," he noted. "Carnegie has great name recognition. It was a good motivator. And it was easy to explain to the administration when asking for help for the students."
When Chevalier came to the community college, none of the students in the bands were music majors. Today, approximately 50 percent are and he beams with infectious smiles when he talks about students' blossoming and their skills dramatically improving. He feels connected to students through the music and appreciates their willingness to work hard to achieve better results.
Music augments his life personally and professionally. He married Angelis Jerke, a pianist he met through mutual friends (their first date was to a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert). Although admitting music is integral to his existence, it is not all there is. He tries to impress on his students the lifetime benefits of being part of a musical group.
"In my classes, they all have to be there or call if they can't make it," Chevalier said. "They also have to be on time. They have to understand group dynamics and the sense of community that comes from working hard for the group.
"It doesn't matter if they have good or bad grades, rich or poor parents or where they come from personally and culturally," he continued. "It levels out because it's about community. They're working on an art form to express themselves, but they're learning communication skills as well.
"It's an exciting environment here at Mt. SAC," he asserted. "It's wonderful to see someone come in, step up to the plate and take ownership of their lives as their confidence in playing and interacting within the groups grows."
School administrators, faculty, staff and trustees are all supportive of the instrumental and choral music programs, Chevalier said, voicing appreciation for that overwhelming support. This greatly contributes to students' confidence and willingness to help younger students in area public schools, he added.
"We visit high schools, take performing groups to the high schools and bring teens on campus for the wind ensemble and jazz concerts," he said. "The reception is much better with the wind ensemble and Chamber Winds musicians along than when I go myself. I'm just another adult talking, but when they hear and see the enthusiasm of other young people it makes an impression. "I'm recruiting the smartest and most talented kids I can find, and the college musicians are helping me do that through their success and charisma," Chevalier concluded.