Long before students understood advanced orchestral techniques like musical phrasing or expression, many learned something simpler from Mr. Gumpper: what it felt like to be encouraged by someone who truly believed in them. Now students are trying to understand what it means for that presence to suddenly disappear.
For many, Mr. Gumpper shaped the way they saw music and themselves at the same time. Students repeatedly characterized him as someone whose passion was impossible to miss.
“Mr. Gumpper was one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met about music,” junior violinist Leyao Huang said.
That passion mattered because students mirrored it. In school, students can usually tell when a teacher is simply doing a job and when they genuinely care about what they teach. Several students said Mr. Gumpper’s enthusiasm made orchestra feel important, even on exhausting days when rehearsals dragged or pieces became frustrating.
“He was a lot more lively and a lot more passionate about what he taught than pretty much all the other teachers I’ve had,” sophomore bassist Rowan Pigott said.
Students described rehearsals where Mr. Gumpper would stop to show them professional performances he loved or demonstrate passages himself on the violin. Huang said watching him play could completely shift the energy in the room.
“He just seemed so immersed in whatever he was doing, which was very inspiring,” Huang said.
Students are mourning a teacher, but also a source of momentum in their lives. Passion like his changes the entire atmosphere of a classroom and drives students to care deeply too.
Teenagers often hesitate to show excitement openly, especially in school settings where enthusiasm can feel embarrassing or vulnerable. But students say Mr. Gumpper taught with so much visible investment that caring became normal around him.
That influence extended into students’ confidence as musicians as well. Junior violinist Oishee Kar said Mr. Gumpper constantly encouraged students to push themselves further, even when they themselves were unsure of that ability.
“He would always encourage us to go above and beyond. That kept me motivated to keep playing the violin,” Kar said.
The impact of encouragement can be difficult to measure from the outside because it often looks small at the moment. Nevertheless, Mr. Gumpper convinced every student that they are always capable of more, to always reach for the stars.
Pigott still remembers a compliment Mr. Gumpper gave him in seventh grade.
“He complimented my bow stroke,” Pigott said. “It was something small, but it stuck with me for a while.”
Students also defined him as someone who made orchestra feel personal. Rehearsals were frequently filled with stories: memories from childhood, observations that sometimes seemed unrelated to the piece students were working on until somehow they connected back anyway. Huang, Kar, and Pigott all remembered how often those stories appeared during class.
“Sometimes it might’ve seemed like his stories were tangents,” Huang said, “but I think it just goes to show how much of an experienced person he was in life and also within music.”
Kar said those moments made students feel closer to him.
“He would always tell us little stories. And he’d make jokes too. That would always make us laugh.”
Those stories have become some of the memories students are holding onto most tightly now because they revealed so much of his personality. Students remembered him counting them off in German and speaking about music with the excitement of a kid sprinting down to an ice cream truck.
Outside of music, students said Mr. Gumpper paid close attention to who they were as people. Huang said he regularly asked students about their lives beyond orchestra and genuinely listened to the answers.
“He always cared about what I was doing with the rest of my life outside of music,” Huang said.
Kar recalled hearing that he rarely took sick days or vacations because he wanted to be present for students.
“I could tell that he cared so much about us,” Kar said.
A conductor’s job is to shape sound. Mr. Gumpper did so much more than that over the years he spent teaching at both Shen and the Empire State String Orchestra. He shaped confidence in students who doubted themselves, the atmosphere of the orchestra room, and the way many young musicians learned to care about music in the first place. His rehearsals have ended, but the impact he had on students continues forward.
Please feel free to share your own stories about how Mr. Gumpper impacted you. Comment on the story, or email them to [email protected].
