Principal Gets in Tune With His Students

For Gary Domnitz, playing the cello with the student orchestra in the annual spring concert at Loyola Village School and Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Center was similar to what the rest of the group of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders experienced.

Only Domnitz isn’t a student, or even a child. He’s 55. He’s also the school’s principal.

Wearing the standard orchestra garb of white dress shirt and dark pants -- but with a gray beard -- Domnitz played songs like “Little March,” “Pepito” and “Arapahoe Warriors,” shifting his eyes between the music and the instrument he began to study only last fall. He shared with the 35 other players the same look of determination to make it through the music -- and the same grins of satisfaction and relief with the crowd’s applause.

“I’m a learner this year,” he said. “I struggle. I practice with them on Tuesdays. I know what it’s like to play it well or miss a note.”

Domnitz has spent the last 15 years as principal of the Westchester school -- and his success there got him named the 2003 Assn. of California Administrators’ Elementary School Principal of the Year for the Los Angeles Unified School District. After years in the audience, he fulfilled a dream last week as “principal” cellist of the Loyola Village Orchestra.

It was a dream deferred for decades until last fall, when Domnitz finally decided to learn to play the instrument that had mesmerized him as a young teacher, three decades ago.

Domnitz, then a kindergarten teacher at Westwood Elementary, hosted the principal cellist from the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a music demonstration. Domnitz sat a few feet away from the player and said he could feel the vibrations.

“It’s a thrilling instrument. That’s when I decided I wanted to play the cello,” he said.

But Domnitz, a painter, sculptor and woodworker, was a visual, not a performing, artist. He’d never had any experience playing an instrument or reading music. For years, his dream sat on the shelf, a wistful fantasy that tugged at him whenever he listened to classical music.

Then last year, Loyola Village received a Los Angeles Philharmonic grant to improve the school’s music program. Among the benefits to the students: access to the performers, including hands-on tutelage and private recitals.

Domnitz was still on the sidelines until his wife, Leanne, brought his wish within his grasp last fall. For his 55th birthday, she bought him cello lessons at a local music store and rented an instrument for him.

The principal, she said, wanted to practice among his students as a way to connect with them through his new hobby.

“He wanted a special part of the day he could set aside to get closer to the kids,” said Leanne Domnitz, a high school counselor in Beverly Hills.

“He is like a 10-year-old in a 55-year-old body. When he does play something well with the whole orchestra, he honestly feels as happy as the 10-year-old sitting next to him. It’s brought a lot of joy to him as a person, not as Principal Domnitz.”

Mark Geiger, the orchestra conductor and music teacher, said that Domnitz’s presence was a novelty at first but that the principal quickly blended in.

“He jumped right into the orchestra, even though this is his first year. I don’t think they realized, actually, that he was learning along with them in the beginning,” Geiger said. The conductor said rehearsals have been business as usual, though the class “might sit a little more attentively, knowing the principal’s sitting in the orchestra.”

The consensus among his fellow players is that Domnitz isn’t half bad either.

“He’s good for a beginner,” said Scott Tolton, the fifth-grade veteran cellist who played alongside his principal and new friend this year.

Scott recalled his surprise when Domnitz first expressed to him a desire to join the group.

“One day, Principal Domnitz stops me in the hall and says, ‘What time is your orchestra class?’ I told him and he says, ‘I’ll be there.’ And he was. I was shocked,” Scott said.

“Then he sat down next to me and started playing. I was kind of surprised. When he first started, I wondered, ‘How’s he gonna do all his work and play the cello?’”

The two became fast friends as Scott helped his fellow cellist -- who actually plays second chair to the 10-year-old -- with everything from reading notes to starting on cue.

“I thought it was kinda neat. Not everybody has their principal sitting next to them playing the cello,” Scott said.

Domnitz added, “I tell people my best friend is in the fifth grade this year.”

Rather than being in awe of their principal, most members of the orchestra described Domnitz as just one of the guys.

“He’s funny and smart, and he helps a lot of the kids in the orchestra when they mess up,” said Hannah McDaniel, who learned along with Domnitz as a first-year violin player.

Tuesday after Tuesday for five months, Domnitz showed up for rehearsals and on Saturday took private lessons. His wife said he practices incessantly.

“He’s not musically inclined, so it’s not something that comes naturally to him,” Leanne Domnitz said.

“In fact, I told him, ‘Make sure two doors are closed between you and me when you’re practicing.’ But I am impressed that at 55, he can take on a challenge like this. Whenever I feel like putting the earplugs in, I just remember that,” she said.

PTA President Tiffney McLemore called Domnitz an inspiration. “It gave me a greater respect for him, seeing him take on something at a point where the learning curve is so much slower,” she said. “I played the piano as a child, and seeing him made me think about taking it up again.”

Cynthia Berlinsky, who came to watch her daughter, Logan’s, violin performance, said she liked the camaraderie Domnitz had with his students.

“They don’t see anything unusual about it. It’s like they’re so used to him being there,” she said. “When I was growing up, we were scared of the principal. He was untouchable.”