Beloved SLO choir director Gary Lamprecht dies at 78, leaving a legacy of musical harmony
Beloved choral director, teacher and San Luis Obispo Vocal Arts Ensemble founder Gary Lamprecht — whose work impacted the lives of thousands of students and local performers — has died at the age of 78.
Lamprecht died Wednesday night, numerous sources confirmed.
In a statement posted to the San Luis Obispo Vocal Arts Ensemble website Thursday, Executive Director Kate Albert detailed Lambrecht’s unique legacy and impact on the region’s performing arts culture.
“His song selections were legendary,” she wrote. “The music — a combination of traditional and classical songs sprinkled with surprising delights from past centuries and other lands. His concerts built bridges of understanding between people.
“Gary believed that music could bring people together, calm our anxious hearts and bring hope for a better world.”
Lamprecht established the SLO Vocal Arts Ensemble in 1977, and as its musical director for the past 47 years, helped develop it into an internationally acclaimed choir that has performed around the world numerous times under his direction.
He was also a longtime teacher and choir director, teaching for more than 34 years at both the junior high and high school levels in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
During that time, Lamprecht took a combined concert choir from San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay high schools to perform in prestigious venues and conventions around the country.
According to Albert, in 2003, he and former San Luis Obispo High School assistant choir director Cricket Handler traveled with 144 San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay students to perform in front of nearly 6,000 delegates at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention. They returned in 2005 with 122 students, she added.
Lamprecht also established the Central Coast Choral Festival, which brought together high school and junior high school choirs from across California to perform at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, Albert said.
“Touching the lives of thousands of students, and giving them a voice amongst their peers, Gary believed that music could heal the spirit,” she said.
During his tenure, Lamprecht had the distinction of winning the San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s first-ever Teacher of the Year award in 1984, a recognition he won again in 1997 before he was ultimately named San Luis Obispo County’s Teacher of the Year in 1998.
After winning his first Teacher of the Year distinction in 1984, Lamprecht told the then The Telegram-Tribune, “when I was first told, I almost started to cry.”
“I have such respect for teachers in this district,” he said. “I always knew I was respected, but I didn’t know to what extent.”
In a profile of Lamprecht ahead of his retirement from the school district in 2007, he described his love of music and what it was like leading choirs whose performances could often bring both audiences and singers alike to tears.
“It’s really hard to put into words what a person feels when they’re making music with other people,” Lamprecht told The Tribune at the time. “(The feeling) becomes like the top of a mountain. You’re as high as you can get. It’s close to heaven and close to God.”
‘Rest in peace, dear Gary:’ friends, former students share memories of Lamprecht
Numerous former students have lauded Lamprecht’s career and the impact he had had on their lives.
In an Viewpoint published in The Tribune on May 27, 2007, former student Matthew Umhofer described his former choir director as “legendary.”
“Each day and in everything I’ve done since singing with Mr. Lamprecht, he’s stayed with me in the inestimable confidence that comes from doing something well and right,” Umhofer wrote. “Most of all, he’s stayed with me in that moment before the song began, and the moment after it ended, in his invitation to really listen, to be fully present, to enter completely into life with those around me and then to stand with them in awe and humility of the beauty and wonder of it all.”
In 2018, Lamprecht went on to found the Gary and Patricia Lamprecht Music Education Endowment through the San Luis Obispo Vocal Arts Ensemble, which awards yearly scholarships to San Luis Obispo County seniors “who excel in choral musician and orchestral strings,” according to Albert.
As news of his death spread, the vast network of his former students, choral members and friends shared memories of their beloved director online.
“Gary shared with us his love of choral music and brought us the gift of song to enrich our lives,” Albert said in her statement. “He built a family in vocal arts, one that will carry on his memory. He taught us that together we can create a more harmonious world by singing from the heart. Rest in peace, dear Gary.”
San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica A. Stewart on Thursday said she was “heartbroken” at the loss of Lamprecht, who she described as a “friend, mentor and internationally acclaimed choir director.”
“This county and this world has lost a loving, talented and wonderful person,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “May the Lord bless his family and give them peace.”
Memorial sing-along planned to honor legendary choir director
Albert said services for Lamprecht were currently pending as of Thursday night, though she noted donations could be made in his name to the SLO Vocal Arts Ensemble.
Those should be mailed to Vocal Arts Ensemble, PO Box 4306, San Luis Obispo CA 93403. Albert asked that donors specify whether the donation should go to the Vocal Arts General Fund or to the Gary and Patricia Lamprecht Music Education Endowment.
A memorial sing-along will also be held in Lamprecht’s honor on Saturday at Mission San Luis Obispo.
The event will go from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
“Everyone is invited to participate: fans, former students, current and former singers — no singing talent required,” Albert said in her statement.
An optional gathering at Giuseppe’s bar and back patio will follow the sing-along.
This story was originally published February 23, 2024 at 11:49 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)