List of 14 frequently asked questions.

  • My primary roles at Thacher

    Chair of the Arts Department and director of the Music Program.

  • What my students call me

    Mr. Haggard.

  • I knew I wanted to work at Thacher when

    I drove up and smelled the orange blossoms in the morning.

  • Favorite Thacher teaching moment

    Too many to mention. But they can be summed up in the moments that students feel that they have really mastered a piece of music or a concept. The “chill factor” moment in a Chamber Singers performance.

  • Favorite job perk

    Week-long backpacking trips!  I have to (get to) research new music all the time!

  • When not in the classroom I can be found

    Rehearsing with students for various musical projects. Writing and playing music in my home. Hiking in the Ojai foothills.

  • Since you asked me to brag, here are the professional accomplishments I am most proud of

    Starting the AP Music Theory program here at Thacher. Developing one of the first high school electronic music programs in the country. Being an adjudicator for the Southern California Vocal Association. Leading the Chamber Singers to “superior”-rated performances at festivals. Starting the international travel and musical exchange program with the Chamber Singers.

  • Hardly anybody knows that

    I wrote music for the Mickey Mouse Club.

  • My favorite place at Thacher

    My house that sits behind the Gymkhana Field and overlooks the Ojai Valley orchards.

  • Favorite place in my imagination

    A big upstairs room with wood floors and a beautiful grand piano, probably in Spain.

  • Favorite places on earth

    Pine Mountain Lodge in the Sespe. The High Sierra. Carnival in Trinidad. The rice fields in Bali. The Camino de Santiago.

  • The book, movie, work of art, or piece of music I cannot imagine life without

    So many, but here’s a few… Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, Beethoven's Sonatas, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker’s music, King Tubby’s music, Bill Leeb’s music, Derek and the Dominos - Layla, Massive Attack - Blue Lines, Middlemarch, Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Norton anthology of Poetry. Rothko.

  • What I wanted to be when I grew up (when I was 10)

    An archeologist.

  • What I wanted to be when I grew up (now)

    Pretty much what I am.
A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
5025 Thacher Road
Ojai, California, 93023
Tel: 805-646-4377 Fax: 805-646-9490 Email: info@thacher.org 
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.