The worn hallways of the El Camino College Music Building echo with squeaky clean floors and thin walls, but the department’s soul comes from within.
The music program will lose two faculty members this semester as two colleagues wrap up decades of work.
Joanna Nachef, fine arts professor, has worked alongside Kenner Bailey, ECC piano accompanist—also known as a collaborative pianist—for more than 20 years.
“It is not easy to walk away,” Nachef said.
Nachef began working at ECC part time in 1989, and full time in 1996. Her journey started long before that as a 16-year-old immigrant from war-torn Lebanon who came to the United States in the 1970s.
“She embodies the American Dream,” Bailey said.
El Camino College’s former chorale director, Jane Hardester, discovered Nachef when she was an 18-year-old ECC student.
Hardester recognized Nachef’s talent and encouraged her.
The two shared a deeper connection. When Nachef went back to Lebanon, Hardester contacted her.
Nachef would eventually return to teach at ECC and sits at the same desk Hardester occupied during her 28-year career.
“She [Hardester] is from the old school,” Bailey said. “A lot of people were taught that [tyrannical] way in the 60s and 70s. Joanna is the opposite. She gets people to respect her through her caring.”
Former ECC student Erick Hernandez-Picazo met Nachef in her choral class. After graduating, a friend introduced him to the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers, and when a position to be her assistant became available, he reacquainted with Nachef.
“I had just graduated, so I was looking for a job. And I was like, well, that would be perfect, you know? It still involves music and I didn’t want to find a job where it didn’t incorporate music in a way,” Hernandez-Picazo said.
After Nachef and Bailey leave, the administration will fill their positions with part-time employees.
Current music major Josias Canul-Marchand said that replacing Nachef and Bailey with part-time faculty will impact the program.
“I just feel like it won’t be as cohesive without Joanna. Joanna has been an influential part of my career here. I’m returning next semester and I am a little nervous,” Canul-Marchand said.
If it were up to Bailey, he would stay for another four or five more years, but the college offered him a Supplemental Retirement Program incentive.
“I’m a team player. I realize if I take this, it’ll benefit me. I’ll get more now. It also benefits the school, they’re going to save money—or at least that’s their perspective of it,” Bailey said.
After the departure of the previous orchestra professor, Dane Teter, Nachef filled the full-time position.
“You need full-timers to run this job who have the drive that [Nachef] has. She was really hungry to make this program really grow into something big,” Hernandez-Picazo said.
She brought the chorale and orchestra class, in addition to her professional singing group, the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers, to Carnegie Hall in New York City last spring semester.
“I don’t only invest my time, my teaching, and my effort, I invest my finances, too, so I can see everybody receive the same amount of support, especially when I take a huge group to Carnegie Hall— that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Nachef said.
Moving forward, both Bailey and Nachef will continue to work.
Bailey will migrate his work to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, a private arts institution, while Nachef will focus more on JMNS and also have time to rest.
The future is uncertain for ECC’s music program, but their legacies leave the program on a high note with all its achievements over the years.
“Life is not a rehearsal, but a performance,” Nachef said.
