Carrington Hall aptly honors remarkable teacher

Carrington came to Redwood City in 1907 as an art and music teacher. He eventually became the head of the music department at Sequoia Union High School. It has been said that he was very effective working with young people. His students did so well that Carrington felt in 1912 they were ready to perform operettas for the public. He found very little music available for that purpose. Operettas were short amusing musical plays that were quite popular at the time, but they were all written for the voices of professional singers, not school children.

Seeing this need, Carrington wrote his first operetta in 1912, "The Windmills of Holland.” Over the next 22 years he wrote at least 40 operettas suitable for school productions. He tried them all out on his students at Sequoia. Fourteen were written with Christmas themes. With the help of B. E. Myers, a commercial arts instructor at the high school, he published and distributed his work as "Carrington and Myers, School Operettas.” His works were sold as sheet music and achieved some degree of popularity. At least one, "Love Pirates of Hawaii” a 1918 light opera in two acts, is still listed on the Internet. It was a particularly popular work even in schools in Hawaii. Carrington had never been to Hawaii.

Music critics rated his work quite highly, and one called him "the leader in the operatic field of music education.” He was the only California composer to make such a contribution to this field. Over 25,000 productions of his works were performed worldwide. Carrington was responsible not only for the music, but also the lyrics of these productions. The reason for his success in this field, according to one critic, was that he understood the limitations of young singers and worked within those limitations.

Aside from his regular academic work, his composing and performing, Carrington found time in the 1940s to establish and direct a women’s chamber singing group called the Treble Clef. He wrote many religious hymns and one anthem, "Redwood,” that extolled the virtues of Redwood City. For relaxation, he painted watercolors of seascapes or Redwood trees.

Carrington was born in Oakland on July 18, 1884. He went to school there and then attended the Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco. He had dreams of being an artist. At some point his interest shifted and he studied both vocal and instrumental music. He trained under many famous musicians of the time. He married Alma Nobs, a graduate of Sequoia High, and they had five children and eight grandchildren. In addition to his work at Sequoia, he performed as organist at the grand lodge of California Masons. He taught for 43 years before retiring in 1950. Copies of his original sheet music and a painting of Otis Carrington have been presented to the school. An Otis M. Carrington Music Scholarship was established in his name. Sequoia High is right in honoring this multitalented man who gave so much to the musical education of its students as well as students everywhere.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 2200 Broadway, Redwood City.