The sound of music returns to students traumatized by the Eaton Fire

An Altadena family with four young children was awakened in the middle of the night by a firefighter’s urgent evacuation order. They fled their house with little more than the pajamas on their backs. The youngest child, a violinist, left her instrument behind. When the family arrived at the evacuation shelter, her greatest worry was whether her violin was going to be safe.

In the wake of the catastrophic Eaton Fire that swept through Los Angeles in January, many people lost their lives, homes and possessions to the flames. Many of the students at Altadena Arts Magnet and Eliot Arts Magnet lost not only their houses but also their school and the cherished musical instruments stored in the band room.

To a child, losing an instrument can feel almost like losing a loved one. That’s why it was so transformative when Guitar Center and Sony joined forces to put instruments back in the hands of these children.

“Children are particularly vulnerable, showing their fears through deep emotional responses to the upheaval,” said Natalie Jackson, executive director of the Harmony Project, a group that gives low-income Los Angeles students access to free music education. Eliot Arts Magnet is among their hubs. “When people support music programming, they are not just funding music lessons, they’re investing in stability, healing and opportunity for children, like our young violinist, who have faced and continue to face immense hardship.”

Myka Miller, executive director of the Guitar Center Music Foundation, spearheads disaster relief efforts, from Hurricane Helene to the L.A. fires. An oboist who has been playing since she was 12, Miller believes music can be a balm for crushed spirits, a key to unlocking resilience.

“Your instrument is a part of you, it’s an extension of our soul,” said Miller, whose initiative received about 1,000 applications and has given away 450 instruments so far. The Altadena music students have received about $200,000 worth. “You can imagine when you’re in a situation like that and you lose everything, that music is the one thing that’s constant in your life.”

Student musicians rehearse before a concert at Pasadena Unified School District.

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Courtesy Pasadena Unified School District

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Music has been a guiding light for Karen Klages, a music specialist for Pasadena Unified School District. While her Altadena home was saved by neighbors heroically battling the flames with garden hoses, the trauma still haunts her and her students. Many of her fifth graders, who are still not back in their homes, remain fearful of the future. Others are fighting worry with grit. A group of her music students banded together every day for three weeks to load and unload relief supplies. They became friends for life, she says.

“It’s been difficult for me personally and still is. Seeing my whole town burn down has been a shock to the system,” she said sadly. “Music has been a lifeline for everyone. Our band and orchestra is busy, and we all needed that focus.”

The arts have also been key to healing for Karen Anderson, the arts and enrichment coordinator for the Pasadena Unified School District, who has only now gotten back into her 1918 Altadena house, which was spared during the blaze. She has just begun the long, slow process of repairing the damage from smoke, soot and ash at her home while she tries to bring the sound of music back to the children.

“It’s been brutal. We made it through Covid, and then there were the fires,” she said, choking up with emotion. “But we were able to leverage a lot of arts programming for well-being. It’s super important to restore normalcy for children as quickly as possible. We didn’t want families to worry about instruments. We wanted to take care of it for them. One less thing to worry about.”

Anderson has been bound and determined to replace a cavalcade of instruments, including 74 violins, 39 flutes, 61 clarinets, 68 trumpets, 34 saxophones, 17 trombones, 8 french and baritone horns and one tuba. That’s on top of the rock and mariachi instruments. She also made a special effort to replace one of the arts teacher’s prized vintage guitars, a beloved instrument Eric Gothold lost to the fires, like the rest of his family’s earthly possessions.

“He was hugging it and he said, ‘You have no idea how much this means to me.’ I felt like it was the least we could do,” she said.

Anderson is doing her best to help students regain their equilibrium while still coping with her own pain. Like many of the district’s teachers, she has been so focused on helping others that she hasn’t yet had time to fully digest her own feelings.

“I’m grateful that we still have a house, you know?,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “But there’s a period where you almost feel guilty. Our house survived.”

Klages says that knowing that people care is helping the student community beat back the grief of coping with so much destruction.

Students at Eliot Arts Magnet received new instruments to replace the ones lost in the fire.

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Courtesy Pasadena Unified School District

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“It’s all part of the healing process, but frankly, everyone is still in a state of shock over so much loss,” she said. “There are rallying cries coming in from everywhere, and we hang on to that encouragement.”

The deep emotional reward of helping people in dire straits is something Miller knows well, but helping these children transcend their tragedy has been particularly touching for all involved.

That’s why Miller, who usually just ships gifts out to recipients, broke with tradition and met with a group of students at the Pasadena Guitar Center store to hand them their new instruments.

“There’s really nothing like that experience,” she said. “It’s hard to describe. It was really cool for them to meet all the other people in the same boat as them, and for me just to see all their faces light up. The gratitude was overwhelming.”

These shiny new instruments, she hopes, may bring the children and their families a note of optimism amid the ashes.

“Donors are giving students back not only their instruments,” said Jackson, “but their dreams, and a sense of hope that resonates beyond the music room.”