Tillamook piano teacher still going strong 60 years on

There’s just something about teachers. Teachers are often some of the most influential people in a person’s life. Many teaching careers, from beginning to retirement, span three decades. In that time, just one person can touch countless lives. Now double that, and add piano into the equation, and you have Marianne Gienger, who has been teaching piano for over six decades.

Her studio where she teaches piano has photos of her students’ recitals spanning decades, a testament to her dedication to music and her pupils.

But it isn’t just chords, keys and tempo that have made Gienger’s lessons impactful for her students; the patience and care she has for her students has stood the test of time. Her former student of twelve years, Ryland Pampush, views Gienger as a motherly figure. “I think she really brings two things to the table,” said Pampush. “One of which is a genuine love and appreciation for piano and classical music, and the other being sort of a motherly mentor, caretaking figure.”

Music has always been important to Gienger. As a child, Gienger and her sister, who grew up in Portland, would spend part of their summer with their grandparents, who had a piano, in Goldendale, Washington. “I really looked forward, each time to going up to our grandparents’ house where I could play the piano. I didn’t know how to play. My grandmother did, and she worked with me every summer that I went up there,” said Gienger.

At 17, Gienger graduated from Girls’ Polytechnic High School in Portland. After graduation, she worked for US Bank and started taking piano lessons. When her piano teacher wasn’t feeling well, she asked Gienger to fill in. Though surprised, Gienger agreed, and her teacher set her up for music theory classes at Portland State University to prepare her. “And that’s how I got started on this,” Geinger said of teaching piano.

Her decades-long career began in 1964. In 1966, she became a member of the Music Teachers National Association and the Oregon Music Teachers Association. She taught in Portland for a year before relocating to Beaverton where she stayed for 20 years.

One night Gienger went to a restaurant with friends. There were some men from Tillamook there, and one of Gienger’s friends knew one of them. The two groups began talking, and that’s when Gienger first met her husband, Ron.

Ron was working at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York but was returning to Tillamook to work on his family’s dairy farm. Eventually, the two married, and in 1980 Gienger moved to Tillamook. Being a dairy farmer’s wife did present one issue: she was allergic to cows, so she kept her distance from the barn.

But there was still music. It didn’t take long for news to spread that a piano teacher had just moved to Tillamook. “Word gets around really fast because I had just gotten here. Within a week, I got phone calls from people who wanted to start piano lessons,” said Gienger. And so, Gienger’s Tillamook chapter began.

Gienger’s teaching philosophy is to individualize how she approaches each lesson because no student is the same. “I can’t teach the same way to each one because they can’t, they can’t do it the same way. And that’s one of the things I like about it,” said Gienger.

Throughout the years, her pupils have competed in festivals, with many winning trophies. “In my studio, on the walls, I have pictures taken of my students holding up their trophies,” said Gienger. “And usually, I would have anywhere from five to eight or nine or 10 students a year getting trophies. So, I enjoyed doing that too, and they enjoyed getting a trophy.”

To many, Geinger has been an anchor in the community. In addition to being a piano teacher for hundreds, for over 20 years she was the director of the Monday Musical Club, bringing in renowned mutual talent, like the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

She has had to slow down. Two years ago, she broke her neck in a fall, and, while fortunate to have survived the injury, it has slowed her down. But teaching is a melody that may always continue for Gienger. She currently has eleven students–far less than the 60 she used to teach weekly—and is hoping to get up to 20, her version of slowing down.

And she still inspires. Blake Poplador, a senior at Tillamook High School, has been her student for twelve years, since he was four. “It’s really hard to imagine a life without piano at this point because my earliest memories are when I’ve already been taking lessons,” said Poplador. Poblador, who says he feels piano is what he’s meant to do, would eventually like to teach piano as well. When asked if Gienger influenced his desire to teach piano, he answered one word: “Definitely.”

Geinger is glad that she has made a life in Tillamook doing what she loves. “Through the years, I became attached to so many kids, and they became attached to me,” said Geinger. “I think the people who live here are great people, and I feel very fortunate that I’m able to stay here and teach.”

Geinger’s teaching has struck a euphonious chord within Tillamook, one that has reverberated for decades.

A special thanks to Annette Pampush for suggesting to the Tillamook Headlight Herald to write about Geinger’s many years of teaching piano.