After national music award, the beat goes on for Charles Heck at Indian River

“This is my 43rd year,” Mr. Heck said Tuesday morning in his office at the IRCS high school, where he is music coordinator for staff of 16 K-12 music teachers and one dance instructor. “I came really close to retiring this year. But I said, ‘I can’t do it. I’ve got to go one more year.’”

When he does retire, it will mark 66 years that there has been a Heck teaching music education at Indian River. Charles followed in his late father’s footsteps, taking over for William C. Heck in 1980 after he had a fatal heart attack during the second week of that school year. He died on his birthday, Sept. 16, at the age of 53. William began his tenure at IRCS in 1958 when the district centralized. Before then, William taught for four years at Theresa K-12.

Mr. Heck’s mother, Marjorie Watson Heck, died in February at the age of 92. She lived on Aldrich Street in Philadelphia, and Mr. Heck had developed a routine. “Every day after school, I would finish my job here and then I’d go down and check on her,” he said. “My mind wasn’t thinking of retiring. I decided that next year, I wanted to go into the school year to say, right from the beginning, that this is my last year.”

But he did try to convince himself that this month would become his last at IRCS.

“And I couldn’t,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘If I’m trying to convince myself, then it’s not time. I did not want to leave the kids. I so enjoy working with them.”

He then mentioned something that had happened earlier that morning on Tuesday that gave some insight into that relationship with his students.

“I tell the students when I come into my rehearsal like we had this morning, I said, ‘Sometimes I’m dealing with stuff and I may not be in a great mood or whatever because I’m having to deal with bureaucracy and so on.’ But then, I come into the rehearsal and at the end, I’m a different person. It’s so good for my soul.”

It is those types of qualities that played a part in Mr. Heck becoming one of 24 honorees in the U.S. to receive the Outstanding Music Educator Award from the National Federation of State High School Associations. Just one nominee per state is accepted for the award, which was presented as a surprise to Mr. Heck during this year’s spring IRCS concert. Criteria for evaluation to win the award include organization and continuance of an activity program, significant and ongoing contributions to the field, years of both curricular and co-curricular service and contributions to the profession both in and out of the state.

“I was just blown away,” he said. “It’s such a humbling experience. Being with these kids and sharing my love of music with them is one of the greatest joys of my life. It’s very rewarding when we’re working on a difficult piece and they start to get it. I can tell by the look on their faces how proud they are.”

“His reach goes way beyond the music realm,” said IRCS Superintendent Troy Decker, a 1990 IRCS graduate and a former band student of Mr. Heck’s. “He supports athletics and academics. Mr. Heck is an absolute workaholic, supporting students in various ways, all grade levels, not just the high school. He really models the kind of conducting/directing if you will, that adults can do, and how that can then have a tremendous impact on our youth.”

Mr. Decker said that Mr. Heck is among the “incredible music educators throughout this region and beyond.”

“Mr. Heck is the leader of the department, but we’ve got a lot of hard working teachers that are making it all happen. But there’s no doubt, the maestro and the conductor is Mr. Charles Heck.”

Mr. Heck does much more than teach. He also plans and implements programs at IRCS and his various other duties, musical and otherwise, include being a state-certified bus driver for 20 years. He was an EMT for 25 years for South Jefferson Rescue Squad.

“He teaches CPR and first aid courses for us and the community,” Mr. Decker said.

“Another reason why I didn’t want to retire is that 16 years ago, we lost our fifth grade band and orchestra program in our intermediate school because of budget constraints,” Mr. Heck said. “I’ve been working on this, and next year, we’re going to bring back our instrumental program to our fifth grade. I wanted to see that through. I wanted to make sure that happened and to be here just to get it off the ground again because those kids deserve to have instrumental lessons beginning at that grade level.”

“Those students will reap the social and academic benefits, but also may find an interesting hobby and you never know, for some, it may become a career pathway,” Mr. Decker said.

Musical heritage

Mr. Heck, 66, graduated from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music in 1980 and received his master’s degree from there in 1986, with 36 additional graduate hours at Villanova Summer Music Studies in Pennsylvania. His senior year at SUNY Potsdam featured a highlight of his life when he and the rest of his college bandmates provided ceremonial music for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The band was on the ice when U.S. men’s ice hockey team members received their gold medals following their “Miracle on Ice” win over the Soviet Union and their clinching win against Finland.

“One of my claims to fame is that I played ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ with the band for the hockey team when they got their gold medal,” Mr. Heck said. “The whole place was over-the-moon excited. It was such an honor to be part of that.”

Music has been center stage for all his life, thanks to his parents. William joined the Navy during World War II and following his discharge, graduated from Ithaca College in 1950 and from Potsdam State Teachers College in 1957. In addition to his teaching duties, William played in the community with groups such as The Harry Spicer Orchestra and Jefferson Brass.

“My dad was a bass player and a trombone player,” Mr. Heck said. “He had tons of jazz records. I used to listen to them all the time, which was kind of weird because growing up, most kids were listening to whatever pop music and stuff. I liked to listen to jazz and still do today.”

He enjoys the creativity of jazz and the communication between its players. Among the groups that Mr. Heck is a member of is the Sacci Band, where he plays bass. The band opens up the annual Concerts on the Waterfront Series at 3 p.m. June 25 at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.

“When I’m playing with groups, especially smaller groups, we’re communicating back and forth,” Mr. Heck said. “A piano player will play a little riff and I’ll copy it.”

Mr. Heck’s mom, Marjorie, a native of Madrid, obtained a Bachelor of Music in 1952 from Ithaca College and a Master of Music from Crane School of Music in 1958. She taught band at Philadelphia High School in the 1950s and high school chorus at IRCS in the 1970s. She was the color guard and twirling instructor for the Indian River Marching Band and played the organ and directed the chorus at Madrid Congregational, Antwerp Congregational, Philadelphia Congregational, Philadelphia United Methodist and Evans Mills United Methodist Churches. She also played for numerous weddings and funerals throughout the north country.

Trips for the Heck family — Charles, his two siblings and parents — included summer music conferences put on by the New York State School Music Association. “All these adults would be hanging around, and here I was — a little scrawny kid playing the trumpet, at first. We used to sit next to all these music teachers from all over the state of New York. They just kind of embraced us, like, ‘OK. These kids are here.’ That was fun as a kid but that’s all I knew. When I was trying to think what I’m going to do as a career, there was no question about it. It just became natural that I was going to become a music teacher.”

But when he did become a music teacher, it was a bittersweet moment. When Mr. Heck graduated from SUNY Potsdam, he had many interviews. “But everybody wanted you to have experience.”

His dad had a heart attack in August 1980; one that preceded his fatal one a month later.

“He needed someone to take over while he was getting back on his feet,” Mr. Heck said. A week after his dad’s first heart attack, he took the IRCS band to the New York State Fair in Syracuse. Many of the band members knew him because he was a high school senior when those students were in seventh and eighth grades.

“I was ready to take over for him and get the experience on my resume, and he ended up dying on his birthday,” Mr. Heck said. “That was the second week of September. I had no idea I was going to be here. I thought I’d be someplace else in the state. But the day my dad died, my life changed because I needed to be in this area to help my mom out. So I did.”

INNOVATIONS WELCOMED

Mr. Heck has seen many changes — from technology that facilitates learning, composing and teaching to capital projects brought on by the expansion of Fort Drum, including the creation of IRCS’s Theatre of the Performing Arts, which opened in 1996 and which Mr. Heck helped to design. The 24,000-square-foot auditorium replaced the old theater and doubled seating to 1,400. It features state-of-the-art lighting and sound system along with a Broadway-sized stage. He also helped to design the music suite at the district’s middle school.

Mr. Heck has rolled with technological changes. IRCS uses the computer program MakeMusic Cloud, formerly SmartMusic, an interactive practice application featuring the world’s largest online sheet music library.

“It’s a chance for the kids to practice their music and hear the whole band with them, even at home,” he said. “For instance, a trumpet player trying to work on his part in band: If they don’t really know how it goes, how it fits in with the rest, they’re at home trying to figure this out on their own, and then they come back to school and they try to play it. But with SmartMusic, they actually have the capability of having the whole band in their house, in their room, when they’re practicing. They can speed it up, slow it down, hear just their part and hear the whole band and how it fits together.”

Mr. Heck wrote his first marching band tune on Finale, a music notation software program.

“It took me 80 hours to do that,” he said. “I was trying to learn the program. Now, I could probably do the same thing in probably about 10 hours. And it’s publisher-ready. If I write something out, which is what we used to have to do, all the kids may not be able to read my writing, but with Finale, it’s like you bought it from the publisher.”

The opening of the Theatre of the Performing Arts in 1996 motivated Mr. Heck to get a team together to help produce an annual musical at the facility. The first was “Oklahoma!” in 1996 and the most recent was “Punk Rock Girls!” in March. Mr. Heck produced them all and performed in many of the pit bands of the musicals.

Music education — from rehearsal chair to stage — greatly enhances a student’s overall academic career, Mr. Heck believes.

“When you think about it, you are looking at a dot on a piece of paper,” he said. “Your brain is trying to figure out, ‘OK, what is that? What is the duration of the note, what’s going to happen with your fingers, with your embouchure, your breath support?’ And then playing the instrument. There’s so much that happens instantaneously. That’s such a high level of cognitive brain function.”

He noted that studies have shown students who study music score better on standardized tests.

“It’s such a proven fact that students who study music score better on their SATs, on their college entrance exams, and a lot of times, it’s the musicians that you see as the valedictorian and salutatorian.”

Theresa resident Victoria E. Huffman, 2023 IRCS salutatorian, plans to major in music business at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, near Nashville. She’s active in chorus and jazz rock, plays piano, bass guitar and violin. Miss Huffman has performed in “Lockdown” and was the lead, Angela, in “Punk Rock Girls!” Last year, she took first place with her piano skills in the Orchestra of Northern New York’s 16th annual James and Katherine Andrews Young Artist Competition. Her piano instructor is John Spradling, Syracuse.

“A music education is really important in our schools,” Miss Huffman, daughter of James W. (“Wylie”) and Lydia E. Huffman. “It gives a lot of students, especially the more creative students, a way to express themselves.”

Miss Huffman said she has found the music and performing arts departments at IRCS offer a “safe place.”

“It’s a place where they want to go to feel relaxed, connect with their teachers, to have fun with their friends, or like when they’re having a bad day, that’s normally part of the school that those students want to go,” she said. “And Mr. Heck has really made that whole department a very safe and welcoming space for those students.”

She added, “He’s organized so many of the programs that we have and made many opportunities available to us students.”

Mr. Heck takes satisfaction that several of his former students have become music educators, or are involved professionally in music some other way.

“It’s interesting that I also have a lot of administrators in the area that were former students of mine,” he said.

In addition to IRCS Superintendent Mr. Decker, Travis W. Hoover, superintendent of LaFargeville Central School, and a 1992 graduate of IRCS, is one of his former students.

“I learned a great deal in stage band and in marching band at Indian River with Mr. Heck and much of it was not about music,” Mr. Hoover said. “Band was an area that I was not particularly very good at and I also was not as motivated as some others in the class. Even so, Mr. Heck always encouraged me and made me feel my role as the fourth trumpet was just as important as the first trumpet. Those lessons stick with me today. As a former teacher and current school administrator, I try to follow in Mr. Heck’s marching shoes by encouraging students to continue in areas they may not be the best at because there is always something to learn.”

Mr. Heck has a “bucket list” he plans to pursue once he does retire next year. But his wife, Kathleen, will beat him to retirement. The couple wed in 1981 and have been living in Watertown for the past 35 years. Mrs. (O’Reilly) Heck is retiring this month as a science teacher at Sandy Creek Central School, where’s she’s taught for nearly three decades.

The Hecks have three children. Charles described son Matthew as a “computer genius” who works in California’s Silicon Valley. Daughter Natalie Heck Barbosa is a professional photographer who lives in Pennsylvania. She has two children with husband Leo. Matthew and Natalie were heavily involved in Watertown High School music programs.

The youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Heck, Dylan, lives at home. In 1990, at the age of 2, Dylan was injured in a freak accident when a TV antenna pierced an eye socket and entered his brain. He was among the first youths selected for the local inaugural Children’s Miracle Network Telethon in 1990.

“He has an incredible voice,” Mr. Heck said. “He just sang ‘The Impossible Dream’ for my mom’s burial on Friday. He sang ‘Ave Maria’ at her funeral.”

‘THINGS TO DO’

In retirement, Mr. Heck will be able to pick from an ensemble of interests. He enjoys cycling, downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling and other outside activities. He’s also in demand as an upright bass player for school and community groups.

His legacy could be summed up in his national award.

“It was very humbling to get that award,” Mr. Heck said. “I had no idea that it was going on. I think part of why I got the award is because of how many years I’ve spent here and all the programs that I’ve been helping to coordinate and grow. Also, it had a lot to do with what I do for the state and All-Eastern.’’

All-Eastern Honor Ensembles honor the finest high school musicians from New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“I could have retired when I was 55,” Mr. Heck said. “But I had no desire. This has been such a big part of my life, I couldn’t imagine giving it up at 55 years old. I had things to do.”

“I know he’s going to enjoy his retirement at some point, but we’re also going to continue to enjoy and reap the benefits of his presence as long as he chooses to be here,” Mr. Decker said.

Meanwhile, those who studied under Mr. Heck will continue to take advantage of the echoes that have reverberated from a long career.

“When I think back on Mr. Heck, the first thing that comes to my mind is kindness,” Mr. Hoover said. “He’s known in school, and out, to be caring and giving with his time and his talents.”

“There are some lessons his colleagues have taken away from him, myself included, is that hard work, planning and tenacity really does pay off,” Mr. Decker said.