Middle School Guitar Virtuoso Entertains Newtown’s Young & Old

By Jeff White

Musically speaking, Erik Bagger is a hot commodity around town. Guitar in hand, he is playing gigs at C.H. Booth Library, is booked for at least two birthday parties each month, and is staging his first performance at the senior center this week.

He is only 12.

The middle school student has been playing the guitar for that last three years, and so far he has not been content to just settle for lessons with a coach.

Earlier this month, he kicked off his stint as host for the library’s Musical Monday program for children. During those last two Monday mornings, Erik has plucked his guitar and led as many as 45 children and 20 adults at a time in renditions of popular sing-a-long songs.

With the poise of someone used to performing, Erik laughs when he talks about his time singing with children. “It’s fun, and it’s important to me,” he says. “And it gives them something to do. If I smile and am having a good time, then they will have a good time.”

He has a substantial repertoire from which he draws during his performances. There’s “When the Animals Come Marching In,” a fun remake of a popular song that allows children to shout out their favorite furry friends as the verses proceed. “Oh Susannah” also proves popular, as does “Shake My Sillies Out,” which involves a lot of shaking, jumping, and clapping, Erik muses.

Other times during his Musical Mondays performances, he overhears children talking to their parents about their favorite songs, and he tries to see if he knows the tune.

Erik did not simply fall into his role as entertainer of young children, the role came to him by default.

A few Christmases ago, Erik’s guitar instructor was asked to lead sing-a-longs at Merryhill Nursery School on Commerce Road. Trouble was his guitar teacher simply had too much on his plate, so he passed the job to Erik.

Word started spreading about Erik’s prowess on the guitar soon after he started at Merryhill, and it was not long until the library was asking if he could perform regularly throughout last summer. This year, with Musical Mondays, his following among Newtown’s little ones has grown.

Thanks to word of mouth, parents call Erik and book him for their children’s birthday parties. And although his Musical Mondays performances will end next Monday, Erik hopes this week’s Senior Center debut will materialize into a regular gig.

He probably never thought that at so young an age he would make money off of his guitar playing, but with Merryhill, his birthday parties, and the senior center, he has a good amount of change clinking in his pocket.

“They’re all pretty good,” he says of his three guitars. Besides sing-a-longs, Erik says he specializes in jazz and classical guitar. When he is playing jazz, he opts for his hollow body electric guitar, the one he plays the most. When he is in more of a classical mood, he picks up an acoustic guitar with nylon strings. He has a fourth guitar, “for messing around.”

And he does not just revert to standard songs when he is performing. Erik says he writes some of his own music, and although he has not tried out his songs during his library performances, he has performed some of them at Newtown Youth Services’ annual talent shows.

Erik is cutting back on his library performances because he is off to New Milford on July 25 to participate in a National Guitar Workshop. Although such workshops are held in California, Nashville, and as far afield as Germany, Erik says the major one is held in Connecticut each year.

During the three-week intensive course, students have the opportunity to take classes that span the many different style disciplines for guitar playing. Erik says he plans to focus on jazz and classical guitar playing as well as a class on song writing.

The practice of taking classes and performing in front of audiences (along with the one to two hours he practices at home) no doubt will serve Erik well as he enters into eighth grade in the fall. He has been a member of the middle school’s jazz band since sixth grade.

Has all the fame gone to Erik Bagger’s head? No. Most of the time, he says, he does not even think about his performances. Although guitar playing is his primary hobby, he says he enjoys riding his bike and talking online with his friends.

Still, he would not trade his time on the strings for anything.

“It’s definitely something I want to keep doing, because it’s time away from everything else,” he says. “It’s free time to have fun and not worry about anything.”