It’s often said that mountains don’t rise without earthquakes—and that phrase sums up the life of Jason Powell.
Born in San Diego, Powell lived in Northern California until the second-grade, when he was sent to live with his aunt in Morongo Valley. As a kid, he didn’t have a clear idea of what he wanted to do for a career. When someone told him the name Jason meant “healer,” he briefly entertained the idea of becoming a doctor, or possibly an artist.
Powell was studying culinary arts at College of the Desert when a friend asked him to ditch class and attend a percussion ensemble concert.
“It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen,” Powell said. “I had wanted to play music, and had been tinkering around on the guitar. The concert inspired me to take my first music class, which triggered a lifelong passion for the subject.”
Powell’s primary instrument is classical guitar, but he also sings and plays violin and percussion. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in music education, with an emphasis in classical guitar and a minor in percussion, from the University of Redlands. He then moved on to Boston University to pursue a master’s degree in music.
In January 2008, Powell was hired as a full-time music teacher at Palm Springs High School, and he’s been there ever since. But his involvement in the local music community doesn’t stop there: He plays percussion with the Coachella Valley Symphony and was later asked to conduct the symphony’s Buddy Rogers Youth Symphony.
Powell’s music students are in grades nine through 12, and they are often being introduced to playing music for the first time.
“When they come to me, many of them have never even seen a violin in person before,” he said. “I get to start them from absolute scratch. I think they take the class because they hear rumors from friends that it’s fun. I get very excited about music, which in turn gets the kids excited.”
Powell admits that listening to a beginning violin student practicing can be tough. “That’s the hardest part about being a music teacher,” he said. “You leave graduate school, and you’re at this level of just pristine music, and you think, ‘This is amazing; I’m going to play like this for the rest of my life.’ Then you get stuck playing what a 14-year-old can play. And it does sometimes sound like they’re murdering cats.”
For a while, the students screech along—but then there’s a breakthrough moment, when the student notices they’re starting to sound good. Then comes the first concert.
“Their parents have only heard them screeching when they practice at home,” Powell said. “They end up leaving the concert being so proud of their kid, because when several violins play together, it can sound like the angels singing.”
Powell said current high school students don’t get many chances to really prove themselves creatively.
“Everything they do is on a device,” he said. “If you make a TikTok video, you’ve done nothing. You’ve pointed and clicked, and the program has done it. Kids feel they don’t really have any creativity, so when they’re 100 percent responsible for the sounds that come out of an instrument, it gives them identity.”
One of Powell’s passions is travel. Every other year, he and his wife take a group of high school students around the world to experience different cultures. One year, the trip included Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. They went to the Esterhazy Palace, where Joseph Haydn was the conductor and composer. Later, one of the guitar students who’d been on that trip played a Joseph Haydn piece for his audition at the University of Redlands. The school was so impressed with his choice that they gave him a full scholarship, and he went on to a professional music career.
There was a great deal of abuse during Powell’s childhood. He was born while his stepfather was in prison.
“When he came home, he despised me, and wanted me dead,” he said. “For many years when I was young, my mother and I were not allowed to speak. We communicated only through sign language, because if you talked, people might call the cops.”
“It’s incredible how many people with this kind of background feel alone and isolated. Once they realize they’re not alone, it changes their lives.
Jason powell, on child-abuse survivors
The stepfather was heavily into drugs, Powell said, and physically and emotionally tortured the entire family. He eventually went back to prison, and Powell’s mother died shortly after that. While still in high school, Powell was given full guardianship of his sisters, then 9, 8 and 2 years old.
Powell buried these memories for years until his wife started pointing out that his experience was not normal. The two of them pursued their doctorates at the University of Redlands together. Powell did an “autoethnography”—an inward study, trying to figure out why some kids who are abused are able to break free and become productive citizens in society, while others end up shooting their peers. His wife studied the same issues, but from the lens of the foster parents and guidance counselors.
Powell eventually decided to detail his childhood trauma in a book, titled Red-Headed Stepchild. He published it himself and said the response has been amazing.
“It’s incredible how many people with this kind of background feel alone and isolated,” he said. “Once they realize they’re not alone, it changes their lives. I’ve also had teachers say they are able to spot signs of child abuse in their students much easier after reading the book.” As a teacher, Powell said he can immediately spot a student who’s having problems at home.
The book partly grew out of Powell’s two-hour “Power Peptalk,” which he gives to his seniors at the end of every school year. He talks about his experiences and offers insight on healing from trauma, and focusing on the positive in life. Many of his students were so inspired that they asked him to write it all down.
On Powell’s bucket list: Teaching for another 18 years, traveling more, and doing a book tour to create more awareness about child abuse.
His go-to saying? “If you look at a person for what they are, that’s what they’ll remain. If you look at a person for what they could be, that’s what they’ll become.”
Bonnie Gilgallon has written theater reviews for the Independent since 2013. She hosts a digital interview show, The Desert Scene, which can be heard on www.thedesertscene.com and viewed on Mutual Broadcasting’s YouTube channel. Learn more at bonnie-g.com.
