‘She planted music in our hearts’: Former students honor teacher

What teacher wouldn’t treasure being told that she changed her students’ lives? And that her classes were “magic”?

Dorothy DiDomenico taught music at Acton-Carlisle High School from 1968 to 1996, a period that covers only part of her lifelong devotion to music education. And among her former students, such testimonials abound. 

On October 18, about 70 of them, mainly from classes in the 1970s, came from near and far to Trinity Episcopal Church to honor the teacher they called “Mrs. Di” and to sing for her once again. 

“We wanted to sing our thanks to a beloved teacher who taught us not only music but life lessons,” said Michelle Oram, who co-organized the event. A singer, author, and poet who lives in the Berkshires, Oram said: “A teacher can change your life and seal your destiny. We were blessed to have had that one teacher at an early age.”

At the tribute, DiDomenico, now 88, directed her former music students in a few choral pieces, one of which was “Try to Remember” from the musical “The Fantasticks.” And “remember” is exactly what her students did, especially when she paused their practicing to say with a small sigh, “I love you — but you’re not following.” 

During the event, DiDomenico was presented with a Governor’s Citation from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in recognition of her decades of “dedicated service, light, and guidance” she has given her music students.

Nancy Halpin, who attended the event, called her former teacher a “surrogate mother” and said she “always stressed kindness and caring.” DiDomenico walked not only Halpin but also Oram down the aisle at their weddings, as both had lost their mothers. 

CCHS alumnus Michael Beattie described DiDomenico as “a constant in our teen years, which were rough for so many of us.” Added the Arlington resident, who is a pianist and conductor: “We adored her. No one wanted to disappoint Mrs. Di.”

Besides teaching academic music classes and conducting choral, orchestra, band, and chamber groups, DiDomenico directed musicals and countless other productions that Oram said “brought gladness of heart to audience members, casts, and crews.” 

A consuming passion

Dorothy Govoni majored in music education at Boston University and studied piano. She taught music in her hometown of Fairhaven, married Joseph DiDomenico, and instructed middle schoolers in Lexington before joining the CCHS faculty. Under her tutelage, her choruses and orchestras performed at district and all-state music conferences, garnering many awards. 

Music education has been “the most consuming passion in my life, a reason for my getting up every day, and a motivation for keeping going when life dealt me crippling blows,” DiDomenico said.

Following her CCHS career, she conducted adult choruses. After moving to a retirement complex in Peabody, she took over its chorus and now directs other musical groups there, including a barbershop quartet. Working with “senior singers,” she said, “fills my life with meaning. They are no different than my high school students — except that their bodies creak!”

CCHS alumna Viki Brown, who calls DiDomenico “my best friend,” says the longtime teacher “wanted nothing more from her students than that they find their own passion and live it with integrity, truth, and love.”

When DiDomenico’s former students serenaded her with the lyrics to a song from “Wicked,” their affection was palpable. “Because I knew you,” they sang, some of their voices breaking, “I have been changed for good.”