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Hitting all the right notes
Kurtis J. Wood/Post-Register
Mike Silk has been a music teacher in the Quincy School District since 1998. He can play a variety of instruments capably, but professes that the trumpet is his favorite.
Mike Silk has been a music teacher for more than 20 years now; currently he’s the band director at Quincy Junior High School.
Ironically enough, Silk’s love for music and passion for teaching were instilled in him by his own junior high music teacher, Frank Grijalva.
“He’s why I picked junior high,” Silk said. “He put that spark in me.”
The spark quickly evolved into an inferno. By the time he graduated high school in suburban San Francisco, Silk could play pretty much any instrument in the orchestra. After a three-year stint with the Marines and a stay at Sacramento State University, he taught music for 12 years in California before accepting a position in Quincy in 1998.
“I like to show kids there’s more to life and education than reading and writing and math,” he said. “Not to say those subjects are unimportant, but I think it’s important to broaden their horizons. A lot of schooling is text-focused, and it’s good to take them out of that element a little bit and have them think in a different way.”
Silk said his role as a junior high band mentor is not unlike that of a coach.
“I have to pick up on something and run with it,” he said. “I teach a lot of fundamental elements. I kind of teach them how to play the game, so to speak. I’m coaching as much as I’m teaching.
“Then, when they learn more, they can play more music. If you have a better group with more experience, they’ll start to understand something, and it will just click, and they’ll start to get goose bumps. It’s a good feeling.”
Silk and his wife, Lisa, were living and working in Oakland when they decided to seek out a more family-friendly environment.
“The kids were real young, and there’d be gunfire at night,” he said. “Between the gunfire and the helicopters flying overhead, we just didn’t want to live there anymore. I enjoy the peace and quiet here. We live out in the country, and there’s a lot of trees. It’s nice to go home to at night. You don’t have all the distractions of city life.”
He does miss one thing about big-city life, though; when he was in California, Silk would routinely play with symphony orchestras or catch on with small jazz bands.
“I don’t get a chance to play as much as I’d like to,” said Silk, who claims the trumpet as his main instrument. “It is more of a big-city culture thing, but I’ve been able to play a little bit here and there.”
As might be expected, Silk’s listening preferences vary.
“I’m mostly a jazz and rock kind of guy,” he said. “But I’ll listen to anything. My iPod is full with over 5,000 songs and has an eclectic mix. I’ve got all sorts of stuff, from classical to hard rock.”
Silk likes to keep busy in the summer, so during the hot months one can find him in the Quincy Realty office. He’s a part-time real estate agent, and enjoys it.
“It’s kind of an altruistic thing for me,” he said. “I like to help people by doing the right thing. A house is the biggest purchase of your life, so I really like helping people find the right fit. It’s tough to be a nice guy all the time, though, with the way the economy is. It can be pretty cutthroat.”
Silk has two children — Caitlin, 14, and Russell, 12. Both are athletically inclined (Caitlin plays softball and Russell plays soccer) and have dabbled in music — Caitlin will be a member of the high school’s Spectrum choir this fall, and Russell will be a first-year band student under the direction of his father at the junior high.
“I think he’s looking forward to it,” Silk said with a smile. “He’s going to play his great-grandfather’s cornet.”
