Pardeeville High School Choir Director Taya Larson wins Crystal Apple award

PARDEEVILLE, Wis. (WMTV) - Whether it’s a well-known theme song, a show tune or classic rock, Pardeeville High School Choir Director Taya Larson makes sure her audience is entertained and her students are engaged.

“It definitely creates a little family, I would say,” said Larson, “A lot of students in both band and choir they might be struggling in other classes, but this is what they love to do, and they come here and excel.”

But when Larson started working in the Pardeeville Area School District in 2010, it took some time to find the program’s rhythm.

“I was the third person in three years for some of those students,” explained Larson, “The superintendent, he said before I came, choir was almost number one on the chopping block. The numbers were dwindling and the enrollment was going down.”

Larson started to build the program by adding a show choir in her third year of teaching there.

This year Larson took a record 11 events to State Solo & Ensemble, and she brought back the spring musical after almost 40 years.

“This group of students, they pushed and were like, ‘We want to do a musical!’”

Pardeeville High School senior Braydon Schoeffling added, “I was the lead in it. I was Seymour Krelborn and without Ms. Larson, plainly the musical wouldn’t have happened.”

“Little Shop of Horrors” debuted in March.

“Opening night it was... it took me hours to get to sleep that night,” reflected Larson. “I was on such a high. It was incredible to see that.”

“I’m going to school for music theater,” said Schoeffling, “I couldn’t have made it my career without both her and Mr. Evans.”

Mr. Dan Evans is the school’s band director. They collaborate throughout the year.

“If you’re around her, you have fun,” explained Evans, “I think that’s one of the most important things about being a music teacher. You have to make it fun for people.”

But Larson’s life has also had its down notes.

“I was diagnosed in 2017 with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma,” said Larson.

Pardeeville High School junior Natalie Olson recalled the moment she found out, “I’d only known Ms. Larson for a year but she still, like music made a big impact on my life. And hearing that the one teacher that I knew was making an impact was leaving, it was just really hard.”

“They planned this whole assembly when they knew I had to leave,” recalled Larson as she started to get emotional, “They sang songs to me and… I’m going to cry again.”

Larson was sick for a year and a half.

“I was able to see Taya few times when she was really sick, " said Evans, “And they don’t know how awful it was for her.”

“I didn’t even know this, because I’m a person that doesn’t like to know all the details of things, but my husband needs to know everything,” shared Larson, “When I was finally considered in remission, he broke the news to me that I had a 10% chance of survival... and through the whole thing one of my biggest concerns was what was happening with this program, because I didn’t want it to die!”

“Music is one of those things you can take with you the rest of your life,” said Larson, “I hope they’ll remember some of the songs that they have done, and when they hear them on the radio, they start dancing to them or singing along with them. I hope that they take these friendships with them and know that music can always be a part of their life in some way.”

Larson will be five years cancer free this September.

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