This family has taught music in Philly schools for 74 years. Until now

PHILADELPHIA — For nearly 75 years, there has been at least one Kauriga teaching students music in the Philadelphia School District.

First, there was Paul, who taught strings at schools around the city, beginning in 1951. His sons — Gregory, Dimitri, and Paul — and Gregory's son, another Greg, followed.

The streak ended this month, when the younger Greg Kauriga retired after 32 years in the district, and 14 years at Loesche Elementary in the Northeast.

A few days before his retirement, he stood on the stage that functioned as his classroom for several years and said the looming departure was bittersweet.

Being a music teacher in the district felt baked into his DNA, said Greg Kauriga, 56.

"It's our identity," he said. "It's who we are. It shaped so much of all of our lives."

'There was always music'

Music was the heartbeat of the Kauriga house. Paul Kauriga Sr.'s parents were Russian immigrants who settled in Northeast Philadelphia before World War I, and he learned to play the balalaika — a traditional Russian stringed instrument — as a child.

That set him on a path: The Kauriga patriarch would form the Kauriga Balalaika Ensemble (also known as the Kovriga Balalaika Orchestra), a group that would play at Carnegie Hall and have its recordings enshrined at the Smithsonian Institution. He sometimes played mandolin with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

"My father played in all these musical groups," said Greg Sr. "There was always music at the house."

After studying at Mastbaum High School and the Curtis Institute, Paul Sr. became a teacher, spending 30 years juggling work as a professional musician and teaching. He retired from the district in 1981.

By that time, all three of his sons had followed him into education, and into city schools. Kaurigas led All-City bands and orchestras. They taught in elementary high schools, junior highs, middle schools, and high schools. They were instrumental specialists, traveling to schools around the city giving lessons, orchestrating concerts and shows.

"It was a nice job to do, and we enjoyed it," said Greg Sr., who taught from 1965 through 2002 at schools around the city, from the old Shoemaker Junior High in West Philadelphia to Meehan Middle School in the Northeast. "It was the golden age of music education in Philadelphia."

Dimitri Kauriga didn't think he would become a teacher — he wanted to be a performer, and attended a precursor to the University of the Arts, concentrating on flute performance.

But there was a teacher shortage when he graduated, and the district was hungry for substitutes, too.

"I went and subbed in a school as an itinerant teacher, and loved it so much that I went into education and stayed there," he said.

He began teaching full-time in 1963 and taught for 36 years, spending the bulk of his time at Girls' High.

Asked about his former students, he gushes: how talented they were, how hardworking. He's proud of the ones who went on to become professional musicians, studying at Curtis, Juilliard, Peabody, and other acclaimed arts schools, and the ones who just enjoyed making music at school and in life.

"I loved every minute of my tenure in the Philadelphia school system," he said. "If you do something you love, it's almost like not working."

Dimitri taught in perhaps 25 schools, he said, but he never took a supervisory role because that would have taken him away from the thing he liked best: daily interactions with students.

Nominating him for a Philadelphia Youth Orchestra award in 2017, Elisabeth D'Alessandro — a current music teacher at Girls' High — said he had inspired her career path.

"Mr. Kauriga was a model of commitment and dedication," D'Alessandro wrote. "He got to school early, stayed late, and rarely took a break. He embodied the work ethic which he demanded of his students. He inspired generations of students to achieve above and beyond what we thought we could. His faith in our ability gave use the confidence we needed to excel."

'An amazing career'

The last of the Kauriga music teacher dynasty began performing in childhood, just like the rest of the clan. He studied trumpet and originally had dreams of becoming a sound engineer, but rerouted to the family business, studying music education at Temple University.

By the time the third generation of Kaurigas became a teacher, things could get a little odd at times.

"When I finally started teaching, I knew all these people who were teaching me — I knew them outside of school, by their first names," Greg Kauriga said.

(It was also slightly strange having to be taught by his dad or uncle; like Greg Sr. and his uncles, he attended Lincoln High and participated in All-City Band as a student, and would occasionally come into contact with family members that way.)

Kauriga connections have followed him for years, he said.

"I used to run into people who my grandfather taught," he said. "We used to have somebody here who my uncle taught."

Over three decades, Greg saw much during his time in the district; art and music programs can fall victim to budget cuts when times are tough. But despite challenges, it was gratifying to see a focus on — and resources for — music in the district over the last decade, he said. Technology has advanced music teaching, too.

"This wasn't even a dream when I started," he said, pointing to the smart board he uses to help with lessons. "Back in college, we had to do everything by hand."

At Loesche, he helped the school's students put on countless choir concerts, staged multiple full musicals, ran sound at events, and pulled from his stable of dad jokes to keep his students laughing.

Once the Kaurigas retire from teaching, they don't stop playing. Greg Sr. still leads a band and Dimitri plays in orchestras and works as a church music director; Greg plans to take the occasional trumpet gig, but he's concentrating on digitizing the 100-plus Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian, and Polish folk melodies his grandfather compiled. He wants to work on orchestration, too.

"I want to look into the creative side," he said.

But he also can't fully disengage from the educational side; Greg is planning on making guest appearances in Philadelphia classrooms as a substitute teacher.

And though Dimitri knows on paper the family district dynasty is formally ending, he is holding out hope that one of his nephews, a bassist, might find his way to a classroom.

"It's an amazing career," he said. "You couldn't do better."