Esther Gwynne has been singing at Valley for over six decades

At 80 years old, the choir member has projected her voice across campus since the early '60s with no plans to stop anytime soon.

By: Gabriel Gomez, Staff Writer

Esther Gwynne caught in mid verse of "Fly Me to the Moon." The 80 year old student has been attending Valley since 1963 and remembers when it was stil ok to smoke on campus.

Where does the fusion of music and that elusive human soul originate?  

For Esther Gwynne, the two became inextricably linked when she was introduced to Bach’s “All Breathing Life, Sing and Praise Ye the Lord” in her high school choir. As she spoke of this piece, her hitherto temperate demeanor was suddenly washed over by a seemingly somber and joyful remembrance. “It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard… It blew me away.” 

And what – one might ask – was it she admired about that illustrious Hun? 

“First of all, it's the polyphony. He had the voices mathematically tuned so they came in really, really well. The other thing is the melody and counter melody. He starts out with a little melody going and layers another melody on top of it. They are both beautifully synchronized and just gorgeous.” 

Born in a Van Nuys hospital on July 8, 1945, Gwynne spent the following eight decades as an 818 local. In 1963 she was a freshman at Valley College. Tuition was free then, she said, and most of the student body was caucasian – split relatively equally between men and women. Esther spent almost all of her time during these years in the music building on the north end of campus. The then music professor Richard Knox hired her to run errands and perform menial tasks for himself and the music faculty, which she seemed grateful nonetheless to have been selected for. “He taught me a lot about music and interval singing.” 

Equipped with only a budding contralto voice at the time, she braved an audition with Paul Salamunovitch – later the conductor for the LA Master Chorale – for his choir that practiced at UCLA upon her transfer there in 1965. “Your voice isn’t very big, but you sure read well. So come on in,” she recalled him saying with amusement. After graduating as a Bruin in ‘67, she used her Spanish major and music minor to teach both disciplines at a Burbank middle school. 

She returned to the Valley eveningtime Philharmonic in ‘77 after establishing her career and family life in the years she spent away. For the next 46 years she would be a steadfast member of the group and witness the coming and going – the unending perpetual ebb and flow – of the vast multitudes of students and faculty alike. 

I wanted to know what changes she had witnessed. “The music department was excellent back then, and it seems to be excellent now. A few years ago the Philharmonic was cut out of the budget… Woe is me!” 

After reaching out to the choir conductor, Professor Glen Carlos, I got a second perspective on how deeply embedded she is in this community: “Esther Gwynne is one of the most thoughtful, kind and talented people in my life. She has sung in the choirs at LAVC for decades. One of the displays of her thoughtfulness is her patience. When new students enter the College Choir every semester, there has to be a little period of time where I help students who are new to reading music to work on their music literacy. Someone with Esther’s robust musical experience could easily be frustrated by this period in the semester. But not Esther. She also helps the choirs by taking these fledgling music readers and patiently helps support them in their music reading skills so that they too can more fully engage in the whole performing experience…Esther is a gem among people!” 

As a new octogenarian, Esther shows no lack of vigor or vitality. One could find her singing tenor in Valley’s College Choir (after the demise of her beloved Philharmonic) or Christmas carols with her troupe de chant known as the “Ha’ Penny Singers,” wherever they may be booked this coming holiday season.

Due to an editorial error, Esther's age in the deck and caption was mistakenly written at 90. She is 80 years old.