A Musician, Pastor, and Travel Agent: A True Renaissance Man

by Manjot Singh

Let’s take it back.  Back to when music had substance.  Back to when fashion implied actual clothing.  Back to when movies actually made statements and expressed more than hot-headed mish-mosh.  The era I’m describing is clearly before the 21st century, but more specifically, the 1940s.  It’s a time when a musician would be born who would make his mark on society early.  Bill Vibe was born on August 4, 1946 in Bakersfield.  He had a normal childhood growing up and took an early interest in music.  He took leadership positions in his high school band and continued his passion when he went to Bakersfield College.  In fact, Bill states, “Playing music professionally is what put me through college.  It was the only thing I could find that paid me a full salary but I only had to work about 5 hours a night.”  He went on to marry his childhood sweetheart, Theresa Vibe.  They moved to Sacramento for Bill to attend Sacramento State University, in which he graduated in 1972 with a science degree in business marketing.  Being the proud father of two children, Bill instilled the importance and liberating nature of music on his children.  His daughter, Andrea now owns Vibe Performing Arts Studios, which she founded in 1990.  With over twenty-five instructors, and four hundred weekly students, VIBE has become the largest performing arts school in the Santa Clarita Valley.  His son, David was the manager there for many years.  He and his wife then decided to move back to Bakersfield where they became involved in the grocery business, owning and managing their own store for about 17 years.
But then the industry began to change and the day of the independent was coming to a close.  They sold off their grocery store and Bill and his wife decided they needed to change their vocation perhaps more tailored to their interests: helping people and traveling.  And so they bought the entire Uniglobe Travel Agency franchise.  Among the locations available was Santa Clarita, a good hour and a half from Bakersfield.  Although I personally view it as a huge sacrifice, when I asked Bill about it, all he said was “We did a market research study of the different and the different cities that were available and we liked Santa Clarita the best.”  After asking him to expand, he went on to say, “We liked the way it looked.  It looked like a community that was going to be growing.  We liked the fact that it was right on the edge of Los Angles but we didn’t feel like we were living in Los Angeles.  Because we travel so much, Santa Clarita was perfect because it’s in great proximity to airports to travel.  We felt like we were on the edge of living in the country.  If you look out my backyard here, we’ve got a hill and there are six coyotes that live on that hill.  There are rabbits and squirrels and hawks and raccoons.” 
When things began to slow in the travel industry, Bill decided to go back to his music and play professionally to help keep the business afloat.  He started playing with bands in Las Vegas and Reno casinos such as The Bellagio, The Mirage, Ceasar’s Palace, The Desert Inn, The Frontier, The Golden Nugget, Treasure Island, Arizona Charlie’s, The Peppermill, and Boom Town.  This is about the time he formed Bill Vibe Entertainment, which played numerous local functions around Santa Clarita.  He and his crew, some with Grammy Awards to their credit, used to play the Man and Woman of the Year function at the Hyatt ever year.  They also did a lot of gigs at the Valencia Country Club as well as at weddings and corporate parties.  Meanwhile, Bill and his wife felt they needed to give back to the same community that provided them so much.  He states with a tone of nostalgia, “Valencia was growing and so we were heavily involved in those years in the Valencia chamber of commerce and I personally was on the board of directors for the Valencia Industrial Association for several years.” 
While Theresa was running the Travel Agency, Bill decided in addition to his music, to pursue his religious interests.  He was ordained as a pastor and as a minister in music.  And after about ten years in Santa Clarita, he felt a calling to do more with the ministry aspect and joined an organization called Titus Taskforce.  His mission was to bring peace back to churches in conflict and get people operating as a team again, something he was trained to do earlier in college, just he did it on a biblical basis. 
So Bill had three vocations at that point: his pastor, travel, and musician vocation.  He went to work for a company called Wayne Foster Entertainment, which flew orchestras all over the country and as a result, Bill has visited about 20 states.  He described the experience as “a way more intense version of a high school band.”  At the same time, he and his wife dropped the Uniglobe affiliation and became part of an organization called Travel Leaders.
Even now, Bill still helps his daughter at Vibe Performing Arts Studios giving lessons though he doesn’t play keyboard as much as he used to.  His justification was much simpler than I thought.  “It weights like 1000 pounds and I’m old now.”  When asked about where he wants to be in the future, he responded, “Santa Clarita has been a great place to live and we think it’s going be a great place to retire.”