By Kathleen M. Murray
Dean of the Conservatory of Music and Professor of Music
Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2003
I am sure that most of you are familiar with the quote from George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman that declares, "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."
Performer/teachers enrolled in the music education program at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music are engaged in the "doing" of music and the "teaching" of music throughout their undergraduate careers. The members of our music education faculty are dedicated to the philosophy that one cannot teach what one cannot do and, therefore, that our future music educators must be among our best performers, in addition to being among our best teachers.
Our students seem to agree, often choosing Lawrence because of the strong emphasis on performance within music education and on teaching within the performance programs. More and more of our students are electing to fulfill double majors in performance studies and music education.
Duffie Adelson, C'73, executive director of the Merit School of Music in Chicago, highlighted the value of this synthesis in one of her responses on the recent Conservatory Alumni Survey:
"I have always admired Lawrence's insistence on high performance expectations on one's major instrument for music-ed majors."
A strong music education program is not new to Lawrence. Training for public school music teachers has been part of the curriculum since 1895 when, according to A History of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, by Stephen Busch, C'53, a one-year normal curriculum was offered in the voice department.
Lawrence has a history of maintaining stringent requirements for its music education students. In 1922, the number of years required to earn a diploma in public school music was raised from two to three, three years before the state requirement was raised to that level. When the state raised the requirement to three years in 1925, Lawrence developed a four-year course in public school music that culminated in the granting of the degree of Bachelor of Music.
Today's music education majors enroll in the Bachelor of Music degree program and are able to choose from among five teaching emphases: general music, a combination of choral music and general music, instrumental music, a combination of instrumental music and general music, or a combination of all three — choral, general, and instrumental. All of these programs lead to certification to teach kindergarten through 12th grade.
When early versions of these curricula were being developed during the 1920s, students were required to complete 40 clock hours of observation and 40 clock hours in practice teaching. Today's students spend a minimum of 150 hours observing in the schools and an average of 18 weeks practice teaching.
Typically, they begin the music education curriculum in the sophomore year; the core curriculum is basically the same for all first-year music students regardless of major. All have been admitted to the Bachelor of Music degree program through an audition process that is identical for all prospective students regardless of what their ultimate major might be. Many colleges distinguish between performance and music education majors at the entrance audition, allowing somewhat weaker players to be admitted to the education major. At Lawrence, both the performance and the education faculties support the idea that all of their students must be strong performers. In addition to a rigorous set of course requirements, music education majors must successfully complete two performance exams in the first two years and a 30-minute recital in the third or fourth year.
Students are guided in their music education course work by an exceptional faculty of artist/scholars who cut their teaching teeth in the school districts of Mequon and Ripon, Wisconsin; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Commerce City, Colorado; New London, Texas; Rolling Meadows, Illinois; East Grand Forks, Minnesota; and Watertown, South Dakota. Full-time faculty members involved in music education include Brigetta Miller, C'89, department chair, Richard Bjella, Nick Keelan, Steve Jordheim, and Phillip Swan. Their efforts receive critical support from Appleton Area School District music specialists who teach part-time in our program. Faculty like Gary Wolfman and Austin Boncher, C'63, share valuable insights from their many years of experience in school classrooms, rehearsal halls, and administrative offices.
Steve Hancock, C'90, worked most closely with Nick Keelan and Gary Wolfman in his instrumental music education program. Currently orchestra director for grades 3 through 12 and chair of the performing arts department at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, Steve came to Lawrence knowing he wanted to pursue music education. He acknowledges that he grumbled about the amount of detail required for music education assignments, such as annotating state contest repertoire lists, but in the same breath expresses his gratitude for the preparation that work of that kind provided as he entered his first job in Indian Prairie School District 204 in Illinois. In addition to his music education course work, Steve also completed all the requirements for the violin performance major. He has done freelance playing throughout his career and feels that his current interaction with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians helps to raise their level of respect for the music education profession.
Jennifer Hillbrick O'Connor, C'94, wears many hats in her "part-time" position in the high school in Mequon. Following her Lawrence training in choral music education, her first position was teaching general music and choral music to seventh through 12th graders in the Cochrane-Fountain City Community Schools in western Wisconsin. Her titles in Mequon include music specialist and assistant choir director. Her responsibilities include directing the freshman choir, teaching a special education music class and a fine arts survey course, and assisting with all of the other choirs and with the orchestra and band. Her pre-college performance background as a violist has served her well. Jenee believes that her career preparation was enhanced by the fact that her education course work took her into school classrooms as early as her sophomore year and by the unique opportunity she had to direct the seventh through 12th grade choir at Appleton's First United Methodist Church for all of her college career.
One of 100 Wisconsin teachers to win the Kohl Teacher of the Year Award this year, Paul Speiser, C'98, is director of choral studies at Xavier High School in Appleton. He was nominated for this prestigious award by his principal at Xavier and selected by a statewide committee. At Lawrence, Paul pursued a double major in music education and performance. He had done some teaching as a high school student and knew he was comfortable in the teaching role. Once he started college, his interest in teaching was encouraged by Brigetta Miller and Rick Bjella, and he found himself impressed by the fact that, at Lawrence, teaching is not a "fallback" position for students who cannot make it in the performance world. Lawrence's education students must demonstrate their drive to be teachers through their performance in the classroom and in the context of an extensive interview process prior to being admitted to the music education major.
We are confident that our approach of training future educators as both teachers and performers is working. Back in 1969, Lawrence President Curtis Tarr wrote:
"Yet, the most effective teacher of music is the person who can demonstrate brilliantly as well as teach, and often it must be admitted that demonstration is an inspiring way to teach. The better teacher would be a performer as well."
Music education alumni responding to this year's Conservatory Survey, many of whom are still "in the trenches" teaching, were asked to offer advice to current students. Their most common suggestions were:
Practice (in several instances expressed as "practice your butts off!"),
Take advantage of every performance opportunity available to you, and
Attend all the concerts you can.
Music education is alive and prospering in the Lawrence Conservatory. Enrollments have grown and continue to grow, placing significant pressure on our staffing capabilities. Even so, the quality of the "product" continues to improve.
The folks charged with the responsibility of hiring new music teachers clearly respect what we are doing, since our students who complete the music education program and seek a teaching position enjoy a 100 percent job-placement rate.
Lawrence music education graduates are exceptionally well-prepared as teachers and performers and are widely sought-after to fill teaching positions across the country. What Charles Breunig wrote in A Great and Good Work about the conservatory of the '50s and '60s remains true today:
"One of the primary functions of the conservatory has continued to be the training of music teachers for public schools. The music programs of many high schools [and middle schools and elementary schools], particularly in Wisconsin, are now staffed by liberally trained graduates of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music."
Sidebar: Sun Prairie success story