Janet Haas 1960-2019

A musical memorial service was held at Lexington High School for Janet Haas, an exemplary music teacher and accomplished musician, who collapsed in school in early December and was rushed to the hospital. She died a month later of a brain tumor. She was born in 1960 and was planning to retire in June. As one colleague said, “This should have been her retirement celebration.”

The service included a short video and beautiful music, played by her music students, from fourth graders through high schoolers, alumni, and colleagues. It including “Nimrod,” from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, “Over the Rainbow,” played by a string orchestra of elementary students, and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The Adagio is a great favorite of mine. It accompanies the David Whyte poem, "Well of Grief" that I wrote about 17 months after David died.

I hardly knew Janet Haas. An avid garage sale customer, I once found a violin for $25. Senior year, our daughter R’el, who played the flute and sang, decided to take it up and joined Mrs. Haas’ intermediate orchestra. To me she seemed a stern taskmaster: at one concert she announced that they would not be playing one of the pieces: it wasn’t ready.

I was pleased to hear of her gentler side, the extra attention she gave students, her interest in early music, figure skating, and gardening. The video showed a home movie clip of her smiling and patiently teaching a little boy how to move on figure skates.

According to Lexington Wicked Local, when Mrs. Haas began teaching in Lexington the high school orchestra had 17 string students. Thirty-one years later there are nearly 200 string players in three orchestras.

The announcement in Lexington Wicked Local reads like the obituary of Doc Graham (Field of Dreams), full of love and admiration for a life well lived:

Haas is remembered not only as a brilliant musician, teacher and colleague but also as a woman of the highest professional, personal, and musical integrity. She deeply wanted her students to experience the fullest passion for music. When she saw a need among her students or in a program she quietly rose to address that need. If a student wanted to learn to play bass at a school that was not in her schedule she would find a way to fit them in. She was a living example to her students of commitment, honesty and perseverance. Praise from Ms. Haas was a precious gift that meant her students had done something special and important.

After the service, we spoke to some of the other music teachers. Mr. Leonard, the music director who worked with us when we donated some of David's insurance money to buy new choral risers, pointed out John, with a bushy red beard, clearing the stage. He said that John was very careful handling the risers and made sure the brass plaques with David's name on them always faced out. Jim and I went up on stage to thank John for his care. We shook hands. It was a sweet moment.

David played the clarinet. He sat near the back of the section, stage right. I can see him intently blowing into the clarinet, or chuckling with another student. He graduated in 2006, thirteen years ago.

It was a bittersweet afternoon.