Retired Pittsburgh teacher continues sharing love of music | KD Sunday Spotlight
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - An 87-year-old teacher from Huntingdon has been making an impact on the lives of countless students through music.
Natalie Ozeas has been drawn to music since she was a kid when she first picked up the clarinet.
"Today, when you get an instrument, you try all these instruments, when I was in 3rd grade I was given a clarinet and played it the rest of my life," Ozeas said.
She said teaching other people to play was her life's purpose and she has done that for decades with kids as young as preschool and all the way through college.
"I think the most important part of my music was that I shared it always," she said.
Two decades ago, she solidified a grant and is still director of the Urban Music Education Project. That gets drums and keyboards into classrooms and Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg schools as well as trains music teachers how to use them.
"We started with one school and 20 keyboards and now we're in about 20 different schools," Ozeas said.
She still keeps in touch with her students and often visits them in New York or wherever else they may have ended up.
"Just amazing students that I had at Carnegie Mellon that were in music education but now are all doing all kinds of things," she explained.
Even in retirement she is still teaching piano and said there's nothing like seeing a student connect with music.
"Very exciting," she said. "Sometimes totally frustrating, once the process is through, you see them enjoying it and therefore you enjoy it so much more."
Along with teaching, Natalie said she is excited to continue to use her engagement with the grant program throughout the Pittsburgh area, giving the gift of music to different age groups.