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College Music Teachers Thrilled by Students' Learning |
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About teaching music, Judith Dewell, BVM (John Marie), associate professor of music at Loyola University Chicago, enjoys the teaching of it. “I love trying to figure out how students think, how they make sense of it.” For Eliza Kenney, BVM, also associate professor at Loyola, when students experience “the comprehensive heartbeat of music...the thrill in their faces is just incredible.” And Dorothy Dwight, BVM, assistant professor of music at Loyola, experiences her greatest joy when combining music with liturgy. BVM Therese Fassnacht feels energized by teaching voice and conducting at St. Mary of the Woods College in Terre Haute, Indiana, where she is in her second year as music instructor. She hopes “to challenge students to do more, to push themselves, and to think of themselves as musicians.” About her life as voice teacher and choral director at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, LaDonna Manternach, BVM, currently assistant professor and doctoral student, exclaims, “I cannot imagine doing anything else!” A while ago, I had the privilege of interviewing these five BVMs currently engaged in teaching music to college-age students. Nothing in my Clarke College music appreciation class of 1958, wonderful though it was, prepared me for what I experienced as I listened to these women talk about their ministry. As one who regularly attends the symphony, I’m still learning about the great composers. My love of music (Which of my 50 favorite songs will they play at my wake?), or my growing up in a family that sang at every party and special occasion, didn’t make a musician out of me. My appreciation of poetry does not enable me to distinguish well between the fine and the trite or sentimental in music. The teacher in me has not a clue about music pedagogy. What I learned, however, during the course of these interviews, will remain with me as I continue to sort out my hopes and desires for my own students and wrestle with the challenges of teaching in this relatively new 21st century.
Loyola Faculty These five women all attest to the transformative power of music. The seventh floor music studios of Loyola University’s lakeside campus, where Judith, Eliza and Dorothy created the music department at Loyola after the Mundelein/Loyola affiliation in 1991, have become home for 40 music majors, scores of minors and other interested folks. Many of Loyola’s undergraduate music majors are also pre-med students who discover that music indeed soothes and balances. Students come to a greater understanding of themselves and experience changes within, alleges Eliza, who has worked in the music department at Mundelein/Loyola for many years. She contends that music enables students to discover “far beyond the melody.... It touches students’ souls in ways they don’t often experience.” A pre-med student, Andrew Loehrer, wrote of such transformation in a final essay in Eliza’s beginning piano class. He notes that, unlike other disciplines, “…learning to make music is almost a spiritual practice that can manifest inner peace....” Eliza Kenny, chair and program director of the music department, has been playing piano since the third grade; she holds an MM degree from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches music history and piano. She, with Judith and Dorothy, both former students of hers, are the backbone of the music department at Loyola. They work with ten part-time faculty who teach voice, piano, guitar, theory and band. “There is no rivalry among us,” the threesome note. Quietly proud of their accomplishments in pioneering Loyola’s music department, they feel certain that music helps students gain self-confidence not only as musicians but also as persons. They insist, “…Students feel a joy and an excitement in music-making.” When Judith mentions the 180 students who participated in end-of-year music performances at Loyola, she adds, “We have students who cannot imagine their lives without music.” Judith Dewell earned her doctorate in music from Northwestern University while she was still teaching at Mundelein College. She currently teaches piano, organ, music pedagogy and keyboard. Judith notes that many students relieve their stress by learning to play an instrument. She recalls the student who burst into her studio just after taking a tough test and announced, “I have to play the piano!” Judith insists that parents should allow their children to follow their passion, in this case, music. “Many parents are amazed that students are so involved in their music,” she says; and she contends that teaching music enables one to observe students arriving at another level of freedom in using their abilities; it’s through music, she states, that “…students gain self-confidence and begin to claim their personal gifts.” Unlike her colleagues, Dorothy Dwight did not grow up wanting to study music, to teach it, or to perform. Although her family sang at home and she played piano and organ (she insists that she never practiced) and sang in the high school chorus, she was not interested in a career in music. Her first loves were biology and languages. She wanted to be a doctor like her father. When the BVMs sent her to Indiana University to pursue a music degree, however, she became excited when she realized that she would have to learn three languages. She still loves working with other languages, and especially relishes the poetry of French and German art songs. Besides her MM in music from Indiana U., Dorothy also holds a degree in liturgy from Notre Dame and an MA in religious studies from Loyola. Dorothy currently teaches voice, music theory and chorus at Loyola. She performs at the cantor level and is affiliated with the National Association of Pastoral Musicians; she has canted at national conventions and gives workshops and presentations in canting. Having worked for many years training cantors for the Archdiocese of Chicago’s cantor program, she claims, “One of my greatest joys is combining music with liturgy in my work with cantors.” Clarke Musician When she was in fourth grade, LaDonna Manternach begged her parents for piano lessons because she had discovered that those who took music lessons received Christmas presents from their teachers. In spite of having no piano at home for the first three months of her lessons (the family later procured one for $18!), LaDonna advanced rapidly; by the time she was in eighth grade she had also taken guitar and organ lessons, and was singing descants and creating harmonies for class musicals. She speaks modestly of having been permitted to direct the seventh grade musical for which she taught everyone the parts. As a BVM, LaDonna taught in a variety of grade school music programs. At St. Anthony’s grade school in Des Moines, the children gave up recess twice a week to be in the choir. She still directs one women’s choir at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, where she also teaches voice and chairs the music department. With a master’s degree in music education from Holy Names College in Oakland, she is currently pursuing doctoral studies at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford where she plans to graduate with a doctor of musical arts degree. LaDonna relates, “I love it when students come to an understanding of what I’m trying to teach them, breathing, for example.” She hopes students will become more inclusive and widen their vision of music. “They need to expand their desire to include varieties of song and different styles of music,” she continues; moreover, “singing musically rather than prettily is so important for them.” LaDonna adds that this entails students’ becoming less self conscious and moving beyond themselves and into the music. New to Indiana
Therese, however, did not feel as confident about her musical gifts and decided to earn an elementary education degree at Mundelein College. Subsequently, she taught kindergarten at St. Thomas Aquinas in Chicago for three years and spent six years at St. Pius teaching fourth grade. In each area, Therese surprised herself by spontaneously including music in much of her teaching. Eventually she involved herself in planning the music for school liturgies. Later, she took voice lessons and joined Chicago’s archdiocesan cantor program. When her voice teacher suggested she go on for study, Therese did so, earning an MM in sacred music with a concentration in choral conducting and voice from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. Most recently she was the music director at St. Francis Xavier Parish in LaGrange, Ill., where she directed four choirs and selected and planned the music for all liturgies. Currently, Therese finds conducting and teaching voice and music appreciation at St. Mary of the Woods fulfilling; she enjoys seeing the multiple possibilities for college-age students, and she wants to help them make healthy choices about music and their involvement in it. She hopes to give them new perspectives, which means new music. “As artists, we have the responsibility to teach good music,” she insists, “not just what’s in the marketplace.” Therese urges her students to “learn as much as you can about music; don’t simply master the notes on a page.”
Challenges for All Challenges abound for these five women committed to music education. Most teach several courses as well as give private lessons. They advise majors, sit on committees, chair departments. While private lessons are expensive and faculty are asked to teach more and more “group” lessons, the one-on-one work is crucial to a student’s growth and development musically. Then, “there is always the tension between expectation and reality in terms of space and time,” muses Dorothy. For example, how does one find time for personal practice? To be an effective teacher, “I need to keep myself inspired,” reminds Therese; “I have to go to performances and practice myself and, by the way, it’s good for students to hear professors practice,” she adds. Success for the music teacher, as for the musician, depends on practice. As Judith insists, “One must work daily on one’s music; it’s a regime of practice.” At the end of the interviews, I found myself thinking about dilemmas similar to my own when I attempt to teach writing:
As LaDonna said, “A long time ago, I learned that it’s never going to be perfect; this may be the best students can do right now.” Critical listening? Critical thinking? Both need to be taught throughout the curriculum. I am awed by the enthusiasm of these women and I am re-energized for my own teaching ministry as I identify with so much of what these BVM teacher-musicians articulated about theirs. As Therese concluded, “For me, the most satisfying aspect of teaching music is watching it all come together for someone, the student who works hard and finally does it. I can see music coming out of them!” About the author: Pat Nolan, BVM (Frederick Mary) is on the English faculty at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa. Return
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When Therese Fassnacht was
in grade and high school, her mother, herself gifted musically, encouraged
Therese to take music lessons and sing in the choir; sensing her daugh-ter’s
abilities, she further urged her to pursue a career in music.