Performing in front of a crowd of more than 1,000 people, most of them students of Hermosa Valley and View schools, famed jazz pianist and Pier Avenue School alumnus David Benoit played several tunes this week at the Hermosa Community Center in celebration of the School District’s 100 years of service in town.

Among the songs on his set list, Benoit (pronounced Ben-WAH) played Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy,” and a few of his own original pieces. He also gave a brief lesson on music theory, specifically on the importance of time signatures.

The School District’s centennial committee — which is a group of between 10 and 15 volunteers of former teachers, former School Board members, alumni and community members — invited Benoit to play a live concert for the students. The concert is part of a series of yearlong events that have and will continue to take place this year. The first event occurred in February and a culmination ceremony is tentatively slated for this October.

Because the theater only holds 500 people, Benoit played two different concerts to accommodate the large crowd. Committee member Mary Lou Weiss said he was fabulous in his approach to teaching the children a little bit about music and his life as a musician.

“David did a wonderful, wonderful job,” said Weiss. “Initially we wanted to have a fund-raiser concert but David said he wanted to play for the children and so that’s how it happened. He told the kids how he got involved and that it wasn’t until the age of 13 that he began taking lessons.”

The three-time Grammy nominee graduated from Pier Avenue School in 1967, about the time he said “Laugh In” was debuting on television. He then graduated in 1971 from Mira Costa High School. Benoit, who now lives in Palos Verdes Estates and has for the past 14 years, lived in the northern section of Manhattan Beach in the early part of his career.

“I didn’t really study formally, I just sort of picked it up by ear,” said Benoit about his training on the piano that began at the age of 7. “I did it the wrong way. I didn’t take lessons until later and then learned to sight read. I could never read when I was a kid, I could only play by ear.”

Benoit remembered forming a band as a freshman in high school and played at Live Oak Park.

“Yes, I got a trophy from that concert and I still have it somewhere.”

Benoit, who is on hiatus at the moment, will began touring at the end of June with Russ Freeman who is the bandleader of the Rippingtons. Benoit’s latest work is a duet album with Freeman scheduled for release in the near future. Some of his favorite jazz pianists are Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Vince Guaraldi. He also loves the work of trumpeter Miles Davis and composer Henry Mancini.

One of his most notable memories as a student in Hermosa Beach was when his drama teacher, Sherry Smith, asked him to write original music for the school’s production of “Tom Jones.”

“I learned how to put together the musicians and write music; she gave me the confidence to do that and I’ll never forget it. It was a great experience,” Benoit recalled.

Aside from writing music for his own records, Benoit has scored several films such as Clint Eastwood’s “The Stars Fell on Henrietta,” starring Robert Duvall. He also wrote the theme music for the soap opera “All My Children” and all of the music for the Charlie Brown television specials. He is currently working on an opera, a collaboration with two other composers. The opera is about the Manzanar War Relocation Center at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, which was that site and one of 10 camps where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. A world premiere of the music is expected to take place at UCLA’s Royce Hall next season.

“The gentleman who is spearheading the project is Kent Nagano, who is the music director of the L.A. Opera, and he and I have become very close friends,” said Benoit. “It’s actually called ‘Manzanar’ and he brought me in to develop some of the music for the big bands.”

Benoit recently became the conductor for the Asia America Symphony Orchestra. Aside from scoring films and recording albums, Benoit has also conducted for some of the most reputable orchestras in the country – Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London, San Francisco, San Antonio and San Jose symphonies.

“Conducting is very challenging, especially anything more classically oriented is very challenging whether I’m playing the piano or conducting,” said Benoit.

One musician Benoit hasn’t played with but would like to is the cellist Yo Yo Ma. He characterizes his relationship with the piano as a love affair.

“It’s the easiest instrument to play and the hardest instrument to play; it’s kind of an enigma,” said Benoit. “The range is just so large, a lot of notes.” Benoit suggests to anyone who wants to play the piano that they should since it’s what he defines as a very therapeutic experience.

“You just focus on that moment and it gets you out of everything else when you are playing Mozart or a little jazz piece.”

Benoit seemed at home with the large group of Hermosa students and that’s most likely attributed to his involvement as a guest educator with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation that has given him the opportunity to visit classrooms across the nation and talk about the world of jazz. Benoit is now finishing work on his first Broadway musical with lyricist Mark Winkler that centers on the life of Marilyn Monroe.