Mac, as his middle school music teacher was affectionately known, would wrangle tickets to the opera, and the symphony, and the art museum, and the Broadway musical, for young Efrain Solis and his classmates. “She was trying to expose us to everything, to get us to think beyond our small home town,” said Solis, who grew up in Santa Ana. “In many ways, she really awoke this curiosity in the arts in me, and in a lot of her students.” Solis got free voice lessons from Mac — i.e., Jeanette McMahon — while at Saddleback High, working on art songs,...