MARIA PRIESTLEY From the warming melodies of her mother's piano playing to her aunt's uplifting vocals, June Clifford associated music with happiness from early on in life.
"I remember going to my aunt's place in Hastings and she was always singing - while she was baking, cooking, cleaning. I loved hearing that. Her happiness, her lovely singing. I loved that it was a happy sound she made."
So it's no wonder June's life has centred around that thing that made her so happy - and sharing it with others.
This Friday June, Napier Girls' High School head of music, is retiring after working there for more than 40 years.
Last night, a function for past students, family, friends and staff kicked off a week of farewells and celebrations.
June had become a legend, creating the huge amount of musical activity the school was known for, and inspiring "thousands of girls", principal Mary Nixon said.
"Everybody loves her to bits. She's a really good mentor for both students and teachers. She has taken music here to an outstanding level with such a high quality.
"She's fun, she gets them excited about music."
It's easy to see why she connects so well when you talk with June. She's friendly, energetic, funny ... and rather modest.
"It's been amazing," she said of her time at the school.
"What will I miss the most? The people. The staff and the girls. You make life-long friends."
She was "up to the grandchildren now" of the girls she had taught in her early days.
"It's interesting to see what people are like through the generations."
June grew up in Napier, as an only child. After being surrounded by music, at age 7 she decided she wanted piano lessons.
"I persuaded my parents ... I was determined! Later on I learnt viola and I sang in the church choir from about 10 years old.
"I had quite a strong background with music and I just always had it in my mind that was what I would do in my career."
Her time as a Napier Girls' pupil "was inspirational". She was the head girl and Shand Cup (the school's highest honour) winner.
Her daughter, Megan, was also head girl and Shand Cup winner, and son Tony was Napier Boys' High School head boy and won its equivalent of the Shand Cup (the Ashcroft Cup).
Megan is in her first year as a trainee teacher at Napier Girls'. She was there at the same time as June's last term, which "was lovely", June said.
After leaving school, she taught piano and studied music further at the Sacred Heart College convent, Napier, and taught PE. When a Napier Girls' job came up in 1955, she got it.
In 1963 she left to bring up her children but was back fulltime in 1976. And she's been there since.
"I've seen huge changes. The exam system, six principals ... "
And the girls, have they changed much since 1955? "Well basically, no," she says and laughs.
"They are still the same really, in many ways ... television and computers and those sorts of things, I think, have made them more sophisticated, more aware of the world. More savvy."
June's commitment has resulted in an established musical environment at the school, including a 70-strong orchestra, 25 chamber-music groups, two choirs, a string quartet and a concert and jazz band. On top of that, music assemblies see June lead the school's 900 girls in singing.
Locally famous events include the school prizegiving, in the Municipal Theatre, where the whole school's singing is accompanied by the orchestra, and the biennial productions shared with Napier Boys' (June's last being this year's Chicago).
Her long list of accolades includes a QSM for service to music (1989), Woolf Fisher Fellowship (1994) and Multi Serve Education Trust Award (2003).
And her contribution hasn't been only within education. She began the Napier Youth Orchestra in the late 1950s, one of New Zealand's first youth orchestras. Since 1973 she's been involved with Chamber Music New Zealand, of which she's chairwoman.
She's also chair of the Advisory Board to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at EIT and a committee member of Creative Hawke's Bay and the Hawke's Bay Cultural Trust, which she helped form.
So what's the secret of her success?
"I've been lucky I've got a huge amount of energy," she says.
"This week will be a real celebration with people I've been fortunate enough to know."
But what June doesn't say is how fortunate the thousands of pupils and teachers have been to have worked with, learned, played or laughed with her.
"It's been wonderful being a part of the girls' lives."
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