RANCHO PENASQUITOS -- Standing in front of his students in the band room, rehearsing the orchestra that will play the final performance he will conduct for Mt. Carmel High School, music teacher Warren Torns suddenly turned to his right and brought the musicians to an abrupt halt with a wave of his hand.

"A, all the way through," said Torns after hearing a celloist deviate from the score over the sounds of about 40 violinists and violas in the room.

That keen ear has helped him dissect countless scores, take home too many trophies to recall and teach an estimated 2,000 students over 39 years. He retires this month after 18 years, and he will begin his new job as director of the Poway Community Symphony Orchestra next week.

After launching his teaching career in his native New York, Torns came to San Diego in the 1970s and worked as band director at Patrick Henry, Grossmont and El Capitan high schools become coming to Mt. Carmel in Rancho Penasquitos in 1991. At 65, Torns is passing the baton next semester to assistant band director Garry McPherson, one of Torns' former students.

Other past students have joined symphonies, worked as professional musicians and gone on to be band directors themselves. For those who don't find careers in music, Torns hopes they will take something else meaningful from their experience in his class.

"You're kind of a father figure in a lot of cases, teaching them as much about life as anything else," he said about being a band director. "They need to learn to schedule their time to work with people they may not get along with. Marching band is the ultimate team sport."

Indeed, there are no other sports that require 170 players to be on the field at one time. As marching band director, Torns led a band as large as 375 in 2000, the year before Westview High School opened to relieve the bulging population at Mt. Carmel.

Keeping such a large number of students in order requires a military discipline, which Torns acquired from his years in the Merchant Marines between 1966 and 1970. Former student Chris Lewis said she remembers his strict manner from her days as a clarinet player in his band at Patrick Henry High in 1980.

"He impressed us quite a bit," she said. "He comes from a military background and runs a tight ship. He had high expectations. He wasn't afraid to call you out if he thought you weren't doing something correctly in front of your friends, so you had to be prepared."

Lewis, who has stayed in touch with Torns over the years and is helping plan the reception following his final Mt. Carmel performance, said she believes the discipline he taught helped her and other students become better people and learn to work together.

Mt. Carmel violin coach Maya Ginsberg has worked with Torns for 10 years and said the experience helped make her a better teacher.

"I've learned a lot from him as an educator from Warren," she said. "This isn't an 'extra' to him. It's as important as an academics class."

Ginsberg said students rise to the level Torns demands of them, and that she often hears back from past students who say they didn't know how well they played until performing in other bands.

The Mt. Carmel trophy case backs that up with shelves packed with the spoils of various competitions, photos from appearances in the Rose Parade and even a Grammy won in a special school category in 2001. Inside the band room, a few tables are full with trophies won from just 2007 and 2008. It's not that the band is showing them off, but there just isn't enough room for them anywhere else. An unused side room in the band building is filled, wall to wall, with trophies from past tournaments. Older trophies have been given away to students or just thrown away.

Torns said his decision to retire was in part because of budget cuts in the Poway Unified School District, as his pay would have been reduced by 40 percent if the school were to retain two band directors. Past and present students aren't happy to see him go, and they have created two Facebook groups, Mr. Torns is Retiring, which has 362 members, and Torns Controls the Weather, which has 136 members.

"Mr. Torns really brought out our best," wrote Gabriel Taijeron on one page. "He was the one who, I believe, made sure that all of us put forward our best effort. That kind of effort truly changes lives, and has helped make all of us better people. Congratulations, Mr. Torns. You have inspired all of us."

The final Mt. Carmel concert under Torns will be at 7 p.m June 2 at the Poway Arts Center. Lewis said a reception will be held around 8:30 p.m. on the patio outside, and a reunion is planned with students who played in each school where he taught in the county.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at 760-740-5410.