At the conclusion of this school year, one of Windham’s most beloved and dedicated music teachers, Charles Oehrtmann (Mr. O to his students), is retiring after 45 years of teaching music.
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| Manchester School music teacher Charles Oehrtmann is retiring at the end of the school year and after decades of inspiring Windham students to love all kinds of music. He has spent 45 years teaching music in his career. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Even though this part of Mr. Oerhtmann’s life is coming to a close, it all began when a young Mr. O fell in love with music, listening to primarily classical records with a smattering of Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, and Lena Horne. This adoration of music expanded to the love of creating it when he joined a school band as a trombone player.
While it was difficult at first, Mr. O credited his parents with supporting him through times when he lacked motivation. From this foundation at home, Mr. O became the diligent and persistent person he is today. This support system at home was very much needed because Mr. O’s high school didn’t have an orchestra, only a small band and chorus.
This saddened and inspired him to major in music at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), in hopes of building great music programs as an educator. When he graduated, Mr. O began teaching music in New Jersey. He said that he tried to create a “top-notch” music program but soon realized that this dream was not serving his students as well as it should have.
After a switch to teaching general music, Mr. O learned a lesson that he would take forward with him for the rest of his career. He described this lesson as being able to “have high expectations, but those expectations have to be tempered with a kind heart.”
In 1997, after seven years of teaching in New Jersey as a band and orchestra teacher, his loving wife Deirdre Clark, who sadly passed away in 2024, urged Mr. O to move to Maine, so he did.
When he first arrived in Maine, Mr. O taught in Waterville, Old Orchard Beach, and at Deering High School before he settled in Windham. In Windham, Mr. O served as an orchestra teacher at Windham High School, a choir teacher at Windham Middle School, and a general music teacher for grades K to 5.
Throughout his time in Windham, Mr. O has held a passion for teaching his students the beauty of string instruments as well as for the co-workers at his side. He said that one of the things he will miss the most when he retires is his fellow music educators, his second family, as they “share ideas, share some laughs, share some tears, and rely on each other when the going gets tough.”
Mr. O’s involvement with the local music community doesn’t stop with teaching. He has performed with the Plainfield, New Jersey Symphony, the Bangor Symphony, The Bates College Orchestra, the Maine Music Society, the North Shore Philharmonic in Danvers, Mass, the Maine State Ballet, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra in Topsham and the Southern Maine Symphony at USM in Gorham.
In these ensembles, he has sung and played cello and double bass. Mr. O has also been on the administration side of different musical organizations. He has “served on the Executive Board of the Maine Music Educators' Association as manager of the All-State orchestra for six consecutive years and he was manager for the District 2 Elementary Orchestra sponsored by Maine Music Educators Association, the state affiliate of the National Association for Music Education.”
After his retirement from teaching at Manchester School, Mr. O intends on continuing with his participation in local orchestras as a double bassist. If you would like to see him perform, he will be with the Midcoast Symphony, the Bates College Orchestra, and the Southern Maine Symphony. He also intends to fill his time by gardening, traveling across the U.S. and doing whatever strikes his fancy. <
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