The Foshay High School Band came from meager beginnings.

With only a few instruments — all of which dated back to the 1930s and ’40s — they were able to muster up enough noise to be heard around campus as they hummed and pounded their hands on tables to produce sound.

“We had a bunch of metal clarinets that are no longer made,” said Foshay Learning Center music teacher Vince Womack. “We had a lot of instruments that the kids didn’t like being seen with in public. But that’s how we started.”

On Tuesday, Womack was given the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation Award, one of only five teachers in the United States to win the honor. 

Awarded for their commitment to instilling a love of music in their students, each recipient will receive a check for $10,000, which will be presented during a performance by the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall in New York on April 16.

When he first took over the band, Womack immediately began reaching out to stakeholders, one of which was the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, encouraging them to invest in his students. Their sound was not perfect — mainly because they had to adjust to working together as a group — but they were well on their way. The foundation saw the students’ potential and as a result, today each of the 20- plus members of the full-symphonic band has their own instrument — trumpets, flutes, clarinets, baritone horns, French horns, trombones, tubas and percussion instruments.

As they sat Tuesday in the auditorium wearing jeans and T-shirts bearing the band’s name — not the attire normally associated with a professional band — it was “how we sounded [that] was more important than how we looked,” said Womack.

Their performance was flawless as they offered renditions of Duke Ellington pieces and John Williams’ scores from “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” As a tribute to Henry Mancini, whose daughter Felice is executive director of the foundation, they played a cluster of cartoon pieces, including “The Pink Panther.”

To these teens, music is not just a hobby. It is a way of life. In that, their outlook is not unlike that of their leader.

At the age of 1, Womack became enthralled with music. Besides having a mother who was a music teacher, he can clearly remember the day he posed with a plastic trumpet next to his two brothers, who were wearing band uniforms and also holding trumpets. Only theirs were real.

Later, when his mother could not find a pianist to fill in for the children’s choir, she began teaching him chords and how to harmonize melodies. That was all he needed.

Womack went off to the University of Michigan, where he majored in music and became a trumpet player by trade. He is also a skilled pianist, singer, guitarist, and at times, composer. In the latter role, he created the school’s alma mater, “Here’s to Foshay.”

“Music is the only thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “Music has given me comfort because there is so much anxiety that I think people experience in terms of where should I go and what should I serve and what should I do with my life and career. It’s given me that peace of mind, but when I was younger, around these kids’ age, I practiced a great deal. I practiced every day, and I had that confidence because once again at an early age I knew I was home with music.”

The time and dedication is grueling. At least six days a week, the music students spend at least two hours a day practicing and honing their skills. It is this devotion that keeps Womack working hard, said his wife, Jennifer Saporito-Womack, who teaches English at the school.

“He never lets us give up on ourselves even when we’ve had a rough time,” said senior band president Jennifer Lemus, who has been mentored by Womack since she was a seventh grader. “When we say ‘we can’t do this,’ he says ‘No, you have to keep trying.’ He is always encouraging us to do well — not only in music, but in the rest of our classes and in our lives. He really inspires us.”

Xesenia Maurice, a senior who plays the clarinet, had a similar experience. Working with Womack since the sixth grade, he has become “like a second father to me,” she said. “He’s taught me to never use excuses for a reason why I cannot do something, anything is possible no matter where we come from. He emphasizes that just because we live in South Central L.A. doesn’t mean that we have to fit in the status quo. We can excel from that.”

“I take that with me everywhere,” she added. “No matter where I go, I always remember Mr. Womack and think ‘What would Mr. Womack say?’ He would say, ‘Never use excuses for anything, always give it my all, everywhere, no matter where I go.’ And now it’s how I look at him, it’s how I look at the band, it’s how I look at life.”

Having been at Foshay since 1995, Womack had no plans to stay as long as he has, “but from the movie ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus,’ which borrowed a line from John Lennon, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” he told his students. “Well, you are my plans.”