| Music Makes the Man
Photo by Fred Solowey Unhappy in his previous career, San Diego teacher Keith Ballard has found his calling: teaching mariachi music and heading up a steel drum band at a middle and high school just three-and-a-half miles from the Mexican border. Now 36, Keith Ballard spent much of his 20s selling pharmaceuticals to Phoenix doctors. "The job was monotonous, boring, easy, and decent-paying," he recalls. "I wanted something more out of life." So Ballard--who had experience playing percussion instruments professionally--went back to school for degrees in music and secondary education. Now Ballard teaches all five instruments used in mariachi bands--violins, trumpets, guitars, guitarrones, and vihuellas--to seventh and eighth graders. Last year Ballard started an Island Steel Drum Band at Montgomery High School. The band--one of the largest such groups in the country--has been a great hit, appearing on the nationally televised "Donny and Marie Show" last August and cutting a CD at Montgomery Middle School, which has a predominantly Mexican-American student body. "I believe that many of these kids feel better about themselves, thanks to mariachi," says Ballard. "They're not alone. I always wanted to do something that could make a difference in people's lives. I feel like I have one of the greatest jobs in the world." |
