Choir director Robert Petersen heading for retirement

Robert Petersen is retiring at the end of this school year. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY — After 19 years, longtime Warren High School Choir Director Robert Petersen is taking his final bow.

Petersen, 61, has seen his music program develop and change over the years. This year he has three choir classes, known by their ensemble names The Bear Tones, Bel Canto, and Varsity. His audition-based seasonal Holiday Singers and Warren Singers perform community-wide throughout the first and last half of the year, respectively. His three guitar classes continue to pick up steam.

He even hosts “Café Desha,” a place where students can hang out and have more opportunities to perform during their lunch period.

Throughout his tenure at Warren, the choir program has garnered success, earning awards and seeing students make state honor choirs.

Still, Petersen is his own hardest critic, and he has never been quite satisfied.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the years, but I don’t know, I’ve always been a little bit frustrated with what we were able to accomplish,” said Petersen. “Maybe that’s a good thing, that you’re always just striving.”

There is no doubt that Petersen’s work with Warren’s choir program is palpable; a beloved teacher by the hundreds of singers who entered his classroom throughout his career.

It’s ironic, considering that he never thought about, nor necessarily wanted to be a teacher.

Originally pursuing a master’s degree in conducting at Azusa Pacific University, he really only got his teaching credential because he decided to “up my music degree to a music ed degree.”

“Even when I got my first job, I didn’t know if I wanted to do it,” said Petersen. “I said I’ll try this two years, see if I like it.”

His first official teaching position was at a middle school in Covina, where he spent over three years teaching choir and band. While he did eventually begin to have fun in his position, he was stifled by a principal who limited what he could do with his program.

Luckily, Warren’s then-band and choir director and Petersen’s former Azusa Pacific roommate Guy Holliday would recruit him to Downey Unified around 1997.

“He saw what I was doing at the middle school in Covina, we were still in touch, and he found out there was an opening over at West Middle School. Mid-year I came over,” said Petersen. “I wasn’t happy, in my three and a half years, I wasn’t real happy where I was, and I was anxious to come over here to feed his band program.”

Petersen spent several years at West (now Mary R. Stauffer). Finding the administrative support that he previously lacked, Petersen said he “went crazy.”

“I just started doing camps, doing everything, and the band was really successful here, really good,” said Petersen.

In 2003, Holliday would move on from Warren, and Warren’s band and choir director positions were split up.

While he says he wasn’t immediately ready to take over when Holliday left, Petersen would make the jump up to Warren two years later in 2005.

“When Holliday first left, I wasn’t ready to come over,” said Petersen. “Eventually, I was like, I was ready to move to the high school. I wasn’t unhappy at West, I was just ready for a change I guess, and wanted to come over here and try what I had grown up with, with singing.

“I grew up in choir, I didn’t grow up in band, but I had a lot of success in the middle school band, and I loved it, but I wanted to try choir.”

Petersen’s background in choir stems primarily in church and school choirs. He also played guitar.

“I remember in junior high, somehow I got involved in choir in junior high for the first time; it was my first experience,” said Petersen. “So, when I first moved to a high school, different area, I was playing guitar and singing in church choirs and had a little bit of experience at school choir, and then I just got into the high school choir.

“There, I had a really good choir director, and it just became home. My high school experience was all choir. I loved it, I lived it. Just like these kids that come in here, it’s their family away from home; I just had a great experience, and it really impacted me.”

While directing a choir program naturally comes with challenges, the pandemic and the resulting aftermath proved especially tough on Petersen. He admits that the pandemic was the start of his decision to retire.

“Covid really was a turning point too; I never even thought about retiring until Covid, and then when we came back from Covid, we were wearing masks, it was a pain in the butt,” said Petersen. “I hated teaching. I hated teaching during Covid, and I hated teaching after Covid, until I was able to grow the program back up.

“That is when I started thinking, ‘Hey, how close am I?’ And when I found how close I was, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then when I made the decision, there was no turning back.”

Petersen says “It’s just right.”

“I’m just tired. I’m tired of doing this same old thing,” said Petersen. “It’s a grind to get up and just keep doing it, so it’s just time to turn it over to somebody younger.”

In retirement, Petersen plans to move back to his home state of Kentucky with his wife to be closer to his mom and sisters. He is also expecting his first grandchild in July.

Other than that, his schedule is pretty open ended and could include everything from woodworking, to fishing, to joining a rock band, to traveling. While his students have expressed bittersweet reactions and emotions to his departure, he remains excited to take his next step.

He says Warren has been “a really good place for me.”

“I’ve learned along with the kids; learned about life, I’ve learned about a lot of things,” said Petersen. “DUSD has been a good place for me, a good home,” said Petersen. “I’ve discovered over the years that I’m a builder, and I like to build things… I’ve been here 19 years in this room, and everything you see has my hand on it, and I’m super proud of that. But I’m excited to move on and leave it to somebody else.”