After Hicksville
After retiring from Hicksville in 2006, Don has remained quite active on Long Island, routinely performing in a variety of musical groups. In addition to working part-time in Islip and Valley Stream school districts, he has also been an adjunct professor at Adelphi University for several years. Only in the last year has Don decided to end his association with Adelphi. Don noted that this is the first time since kindergarten that he hasn’t been in school.
Don still maintains a busy schedule, however. He routinely plays drums and percussion at Theater 3 in Port Jefferson. He also plays with the Atlantic Wind Symphony and does frequent freelance work. He is involved in the Huntington Choral Society, playing percussion/timpani, and still does theatre work and performs in the pit orchestras for a number of musicals. Presently, he is working on the show, Annie, and has plans to play in the orchestras for Urine Town at Suffolk Community College, Godspell, and Young Frankenstein.
Although Mr. Larsen does not get back to Hicksville very often, several years back he attended the dedication ceremony at the Hicksville Auditorium for Charles Arnold. Although he got to congratulate Mr. Arnold, he missed out on a chance to meet Billy Joel, who was a surprise guest for the dedication. Don and Mr. Arnold still communicate from time to time. Mr. Arnold still continues to live happily in Colorado at the age of 94.
Don is now one of the last of that era of music teachers who inspired so many in Hicksville. We were taken by how connected Don is to his Hicksville roots. Don seems to remember just about everyone who came through the music department during our years there. He seems to know where everyone is and what they are up to (Don was aware of Tom’s nephew, who teaches music at Walt Whitman High School). And to a great extent has become the institutional memory for an entire era of Hicksville music. Don and the other Hicksville music faculty from the 1970s and 1980s gave us the life lesson to demand greatness and to constantly challenge ourselves in anything we do. Most of us did not end up in music careers, but what we learned as musicians no doubt has taught us valuable life lessons.
Marching Band 1977
** A special thank you to Tom Daly for helping to edit this article.
