Right before Lewis and Clark High School senior Reagan Smith went on stage with the school’s 16-member Chamber Orchestra for the state competition, director Angus Nunes had nothing but confidence his students would do well.
“I think he does a bit of a mindset where it’s like, ‘You will play well,’ if that makes sense,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like manifestation, and I think that’s really important to students because it’s like he already feels 100% confident we are gonna do well.”
After 29 years working in Spokane Public Schools as a music teacher in 27 different elementary, middle and high schools, Nunes is retiring, finishing his career as the Lewis and Clark orchestra director.
While Nunes’ orchestra students won’t find him standing at the front of the half circle of folding chairs and music stands next year, the unwavering assurance he had in his students’ abilities will not be soon forgotten.
Kari Choo, a 2025 Lewis and Clark graduate and former Chamber Orchestra student of Nunes, said she always felt like he pushed the students when they needed it and was real with them if they weren’t doing well. Choo remembered Nunes saying it wasn’t “if” they made it to the state competition, but “when.”
“He really has had such an impact on my music and my life, just like many other students and (now) grown ups,” Choo wrote in a message to The Spokesman-Review.
Originally from Trinidad, Nunes moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1981, where he toured and played music, primarily the bass, with the late jazz organist Jack McDuff and singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte through the ’80s and ’90s.
In Trinidad, Nunes’ mom was an avid music lover. Though she never played an instrument, she constantly listened to the radio and sang in the house. Luckily, Nunes had an aunt who had a piano.
Nunes learned to play without the benefit of music classes in school. That’s why, he said, it’s special that elementary students learn – often from Nunes himself – how to play instruments.
Nunes, now 72, began his career in the Spokane school district in the fall of 1997 after graduating from Eastern Washington University with a major in music and a minor in Spanish. As his first job, he took a position at Linwood Elementary School, where he taught chorus, instrumental music, band and orchestra for students in kindergarten to sixth grade.
From there, Nunes jumped around to several different elementary and middle schools over the course of his career. At one point, Nunes taught at nine different schools per week – spending his mornings teaching at two schools and then driving to two or three more after lunch.
“I put a lot of miles on my car,” Nunes laughed.
One of the most gratifying parts of his extensive career in the school district has been the amount of people – both parents and former students – he encounters who tell him about the impact he has had on their lives.
Because Nunes taught for so many years in elementary schools, when he started at Lewis and Clark, over half of his classes had students he once taught in fifth or sixth grade.
“That was so gratifying to see them here continuing to play,” Nunes said from the orchestra classroom at Lewis and Clark. “And then those students played all the way up until they graduated.”
Sophia Dwyer, a freshman at Lewis and Clark, had Nunes as a teacher at Spokane Public Montessori in fourth and fifth grade s and as her Chamber Orchestra teacher at LC.
“In elementary, he was basically teaching us the basics in how to learn an instrument, like how to use the bow or which notes or how to read music,” said Dwyer, a violinist. “And now instead of learning the basics, he’s helping us conduct the orchestra.”
While Nunes doesn’t expect all of his students to become music teachers or performers, he hopes what they learn from him is an appreciation of music.
“You know, not everybody’s gonna go into music and make it a career,” Nunes said. “But if they continue playing, now we are creating people who know about the music. They know enough to value it.”
Nunes teaches three different orchestra groups at Lewis and Clark: the Concert Orchestra, the Symphonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra. He coordinates performances for all three groups. With students now in the orchestra classroom by choice, Nunes said he’s inspired by the high school musicians’ excitement and talent.
“They just watch me, and it’s infectious,” Nunes said. “I tell them stories and try to motivate them, but a lot of these students, they come to school – they’re ready.”
The school also has a partnership with the Spokane Symphony through the Young Musicians Excelling Program, which has classroom partners in 31 middle and high schools in the region, according to Jason Moody, the director of education and community engagement and associate concert master for the Spokane Symphony.
The program sends symphony musicians into the classroom to help students learn more intensive skills and techniques, Moody said.
Moody said while Nunes can come across as quiet and understated, there is a culture of mutual respect that makes Nunes’ students open to new things and ready to pull together to form something great.
“We’re really blessed in this region to have robust music education,” Moody said, “and Mr. Nunes has been one of the pillars of that.”
Because it’s clear Nunes cares about the whole person, Moody said he’s had an impact on hundreds of students throughout his career, but he’s also affected both the schools he’s taught in and the broader city of Spokane.
“It’s not just teaching students,” Moody said. “He’s shaping the musical identity of the region.”
Intern Julia Pentasuglio can be reached at juliap@spokesman.com.
