Young Teacher Award
Ernestine Whitman, 1984
"This year, the award goes to a teacher who is able to carry her instrument in a small briefcase, but whose performing ability is able to attract a full house.
Ernestine Whitman was invited to join the Lawrence faculty in 1978 because we recognized her achievement and promise as a performer and believed that she would be an excellent teacher and valuable colleague. She has fulfilled that promise. The standards of musical excellence she sets for herself she also sets for her flute students, who have been accepted for graduate study in performance by the nation's finest music schools and most sought-after master teachers. She recognizes too that artistic excellence involves more than proper embouchure and fingering techniques. It calls upon the intelligence and spirit cultivated best by liberal learning. Her pursuit of intellectual and personal growth serves, then, to integrate the goals of professional music education and the liberal arts. In the music theory classroom as well as the studio, students respect her knowledge and her ability to communicate that knowledge. As a performer, she has delighted numerous audiences as soloist and chamber musician, including performances with Charles Treger and on the series presented by Wisconsin Radio, 'Sunday Afternoon Live from the Elvehjem.' As a gifted artist-teacher, she evinces a love for her art and a concern for liberal learning that inspire colleagues and students alike.
Ernestine, we are delighted to honor you as an outstanding young teacher of the Lawrence faculty."