After teaching for four school years at the school, choir director Beth Nitzan will be leaving in search of a new teaching position in Humboldt County. Currently, she teaches the five choir levels and AP Music Theory. Previously, she taught the Philharmonic Strings orchestra class.
The change comes as a result of her husband’s acceptance of an offer to be a professor of wetlands and wildlife at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
“Even though it’s very hard for me to leave a job that I love so much as this one, for him and for most PhDs, they have to go wherever the job is,” Nitzan said. “They don’t get a lot of choice in where they want to live if they want to do that career path. I’m really excited that he managed to get a job in such a great place, even though it does take me away from this really great place.”
Coming from a choir background — receiving a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and a master’s from San Jose State in choral conducting — Nitzan joined the school in the middle of the 2020-21 school year teaching an online choir class. She previously taught at a high school, a middle school and several elementary schools in North Highlands, Calif.
“My first real adult job was teaching. I always knew I wanted to go into music education, so [choral conducting] is what I studied for school,” Nitzan said.
Later, Nitzan became deeply involved in the music program, beginning to teach AP Music Theory and orchestra. She recalled the 2022 summer Europe tour — during which flight cancellations left students stuck in airports for several days — as one of the most memorable experiences throughout her years of teaching at SHS.
“We were just on the floor of the JFK airport for two days,” Nitzan said. “At the time it was pretty miserable but they call that ‘type-two fun.’ It wasn’t fun at the moment but afterwards, you’re like, ‘oh yeah, memories.’ It was the first summer that people were really traveling after COVID and it was the most fun chaos ever.”
In her years at the school, Nitzan has been involved all over the campus. She participates in annual events like Homecoming quad day and Pancake Breakfast and hosts the weekly lunchtime Falcon Choir on Fridays. Her choral conducting has also served the drama program in musicals, including last year’s “Something Rotten.”
As a music director and teacher, she has also attended, conducted and organized the many choir and Philharmonic Strings concerts throughout the years. These include local holiday performances, concert festivals to which students travel, senior night performances and end-of-year concerts.
Nitzan said all the concerts are memorable in different ways but the end-of-year concert is one of the most significant each year as that is when she says goodbye and celebrates seniors.
“I think about those moments and that joy and also a little bit of bittersweet feelings that happen there as we say goodbye to people but also have a huge celebration,” Nitzan said.
Leading up to her move to Humboldt, Nitzan is still searching for teaching positions in the Northern California county, where she hopes to build a program that is “even a little bit like the Saratoga music program.”
“It has been so nice for me to come into this department with [Michael] Boitz and [Jason] Shiuan and [Sean] Clark and learn from them, as teachers, the wonderful ways in which this department works and functions,” Nitzan said. “If I can emulate, even a little bit of that in my future position, I’d be very happy.”
