Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Joe Wilt, the Key West High School choir director who for more than 20 years inspired students to sing with heart and enjoy their performances on stage, died Friday at his home in Calhoun , W.Va.

He was 65.

"He was able to teach us to sing, showed us all through his actions and movements about stage presence, how to carry one's self on stage and how to perform in front of people," said former choir member Julio Barroso, now the public relations man for Keys Energy Services in Key West. "His example of love of performance and music helped me and my classmates in their careers as adults. He taught us all how to have a presence."

Wilt's Christmas chorus concerts were always filled to capacity as community members and snowbirds alike watched the yuletide program begin with a candlelight procession of chorus members entering the room. His concerts -- one in the autumn, one at Christmastime, a third for the snowbirds in late winter and the final concert in May or June -- were hallmarks to the school year, Barroso said.

"He compiled all the traditional songs at Christmastime, "Lamb of God," "Emmanuel," and you would look out in the audience and see half the people had gray hair; they were snowbirds who looked forward to the program every year."

The city of Key West officially declared "Joe Wilt Day" every May, giving him the moniker "Ambassador of Music." Then-Mayor Capt. Tony Tarracino described Wilt's dedication to bringing music to the hearts and souls of his students and people around him.

He also was named South Florida's Teacher of the Year in 1986.

A final salute to Wilt in spring 2005 filled the high school auditorium; some held signs reading "We will never forget you."

He developed four choral groups, Barroso said. There was freshman chorus for boys and another for girls, then in junior and senior years, boys tried out for the VIPs and the young ladies for the Misty's.

Wilt also helped with plays and musicals around town, including at the Red Barn and Florida Keys Community College's Tennessee Williams Theatre.

Wilt would credit former band master and musician Clinton Foster, a teacher in his youth, for inspiring his life of music, according to the online newspaper the Hur Herald.

"It was an exciting time in my life," Wilt said. "I remember playing the flute-a-phone under C.R. Yoho [in Pleasant Hill ] when I was in grade school," he said.

The newspaper interviewed Wilt when he returned to his hometown of Calhoun in 2006; Wilt described his experience during Hurricane Wilma.

After Wilma swept across the Florida Keys, Wilt told the West Virginia newspaper, he hunkered down on his porch. The wind had blown the roof from his house.

"I was clinging to a plastic bag with my papers, hoping for the best," he told the newspaper. One of his prized possessions, a baby grand piano, was completely destroyed.

"It was a great loss," he told the newspaper.

"Sleeping on a mattress on my porch with no electric and phone for weeks, I decided to move back to the hills of Calhoun County," Wilt said, remembering his youth and the few natural disasters that struck the mountains of West Virginia, provided you live on a hill.

He taught a generation to paddle like mad underwater while remaining calm above the surface, Barroso said.

"If you make a mistake, he'd say, 'Keep going on, the audience isn't going to know what the dance steps were supposed to be,' " Barroso said. "He was a great showman, showed me it was as fun to be on the stage as it was to watch the performance."

jguerra@keysnews.com