Teacher Katie Linza Jazzes It Up!

story being told through the lyrics. I thought that the words were just there to go along with the lovely notes, but that wasn’t true. When I realized that the song was about the other characters’ anger towards Evan, I started crying. I hadn’t expected the song to affect me that much, but it did. Something about the way the characters expressed their emotions had touched a part of me that I didn’t know existed.

Fast-forward to this winter when I went to see “Dear Evan Hansen” for the second time. This time, I took in prior knowledge from the first show and the discussions I had had with others. I went in with a more mature view; this time, I knew what to expect. As the show progressed, I was able to take note of details I hadn’t noticed before and understand how the writers weaved in societal issues such as addiction, social media, and mental health.

I discovered that the lyrics “On the outside always looking in, will I ever be more than I’ve always been? Cause I’m tap, tap, tapping on the glass. I’m waving through a window,” signify Evan’s feelings of isolation regarding human interaction — not him actually waving through his bedroom window. Analyzing these lyrics mean has helped me understand there is more than what’s on the surface. Perhaps this is why I love “Dear Evan Hansen” — it’s not just a show; it’s a message to society.

By ARETHA LIU Staff Writer

As a head of the Pinewood Performing Arts department and the teacher for various Pinewood music classes, Katie Linza has been guiding and teaching young singers at Pinewood for about eight years now. However, she also has a background immersed in music outside of school.

Prior to teaching at Pinewood, Linza owned a private music studio, teaching singing and piano to both kids and adults. Although she enjoyed coaching students privately, Linza found that she especially loved teaching in a classroom environment.

“I love putting on concerts and plays [at Pinewood],” Linza said. “I still [work] with my students individually. It’s just that I prefer the bigger picture.”

Linza’s love for music stemmed from a young age. At just four years old, Linza was already discovering her passion for music on the piano. This passion only grew when she began to sing the pop songs that played on the radio.

Jazz is Linza’s favorite genre of music and her forté; she began listening to jazz in high school and studied it in college.

“I like [jazz] because . . . people think of a certain swing to music from a certain era [when thinking about jazz], but jazz is infused in so much music today,” Linza said. “There’s a complexity to the rhythm and harmonies in jazz that’s just so beautiful to me and so challenging . . . I love the dissonances, the harmonies and the rhythm.”

Linza’s jazz career further extended when she became the director for the Oakland Jazz Choir, an adult choir, for a couple of years. She also taught at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley. While it was fun teaching adults, Linza said that she finds teaching music to high schoolers more enjoyable.

To Linza, music is like a lan guage that she can use to con nect with people.

“[Music] helps me process emotions and say what I can’t say,” Linza said. “It’s like a common language that [people can] use to express something together, and I think that’s super powerful.”