Rachel Eubanks, 83; Music Teacher Set High Standards for Her Students for 50-Plus Years

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Times Staff Writer May 13, 2006 Among the first students to study piano under Rachel Eubanks were her two younger brothers, who learned in the living room of the family home during the Great Depression.The boys soon discovered that their teacher was aiming high. She expected her students to focus, use proper hand position, appreciate the work of the masters — never mind that they were only 6 and 9 or that she was just 12. She wanted to direct us to a high standard," recalled Jonathan Eubanks, who was 6 when he began studying with his sister. "She was a disciplinarian. In other words, don't waste her time. We couldn't sit there and decide to play boogie-woogie if she was teaching us Beethoven."For more than 50 years, Eubanks taught music in Los Angeles in much the same manner. Many of those years were spent on Crenshaw Boulevard near 48th Street, where two converted houses served as the campus for the Eubanks Conservatory of Music and Arts.At its height, the nonprofit institution was accredited by the state and each year offered hundreds of students classical training, pushing generation after generation to strive for musical greatness. Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-eubanks13may13,1,7232316.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true