Choral director's high school musicals were legendary

When John Pearce mounted musicals at Naperville Central High School, he wanted to immerse his students in a professional environment.

Consequently, when they performed "Annie Get Your Gun," Mr. Pearce obtained some of Ethel Merman's costumes. Likewise, when they staged, the "King and I," he procured some of Yul Brynner's regal outfits.

"At the time, we thought this was how everyone did things, to get costumes and sets from New York," says Margaret Neville Lambka of Naperville, who performed in both. "We had no idea how lucky we were."

On stage, he surrounded them with backdrops from New York, and he brought in professionals to help students learn to construct the sets and embellish costumes.

His classroom was filled with some of his favorite props, including masks his students had painted when they had mounted the operetta "The Mikado."

Mr. Pearce passed away on Monday. The former 43-year resident of Naperville who put in 20 years as choral director at Naperville Central High School, was 80.

"John set very high standards for his students, and he wouldn't settle for anything else," says his wife of 45 years, Elvina, a professional pianist and lecturer.

Mr. Pearce grew up in Terre Haute as one of five children, in a family that valued music. Both his parents were accomplished pianists, and they often played as a duet accompanying silent movies.

In college, he pursued a vocal performance major at Indiana State University, before serving as a chaplain's assistant in occupied Germany after World War II. After the service he attended the American Conservatory in Chicago, earning another bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in music.

While in Chicago, he was cast as a tenor in the Lyric Opera Chorus for five years, leading him to experience quality theater productions first hand, his wife says.

Mr. Pearce initially pursued the business side of music, working for the publishing house Summy-Birchard before ultimately deciding to teach. His first job was as choral director at Thornridge High School in Dolton.

After the couple married in 1963, they lived briefly in Princeton, NJ, before Mr. Pearce joined the Naperville Central staff in 1965. Back then the choral department consisted of two mixed choruses and they staged a musical revue every spring.

"It was a wonderful opportunity," his wife adds. "It was just fertile ground."

Within a year, Mr. Pearce mounted the school's first full-length Broadway musical, "Where's Charlie?" and the tradition grew from there.

"When we'd go to the school early before a show, we'd find the crowds stretching for a block or two just waiting to get in," Elvina Pearce says. "It got to a point where we had to have two weekends of performances."

Lambka performed with the school's Madrigal Chorus, its top ensemble, and she remembers a performance tour they made in the mid 1970s to California. They also recorded a Christmas album at Edman Chapel at Wheaton College.

"Mr. Pearce was very demanding, but that's what made him so good," says Lambka, a 1974 graduate. "He expected the best, and demanded it, but you came away a better person for it."

Karen Borg Van Iten of Naperville has been a music educator in Downers Grove and now Yorkville, and she credits her start to Mr. Pearce.

"I went into music education because of his positive influence," Van Iten says, "and now I'm trying to pass that along to my students."

In 1985, Mr. Pearce retired, handing the department over to Curtis Parry.

"I arrived to find a very large, vibrant program that offered a lot of opportunities for students," says Parry, who just finished his 23rd year as choral director. "It offered a very high level of musicianship for the kids. He really did a great job of building the department."

A memorial visitation celebrating the life of Mr. Pearce will take place from 5-9 p.m. today, at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home, 44 S. Mill St. in Naperville.