It was Friday, April 26th, 1991 … and I awoke that morning to read disturbing headlines in that day’s Kenosha News about how Gateway Technical College was about to enter into talks with Wisconsin Public Radio to explore the possibility of the radio station where worked, WGTD, being turned over to the state network – a move which would surely include massive layoffs of the staff. It was a terrifying turn of events, and to hear about it through the newspaper article rather than through proper channels made it even worse. But in some ways what made it even worse was that it was bad news wrapped up in all kinds of uncertainty, which made it harder to process and deal with.
Here’s the amazing part. That very evening, Kathy (whom I was dating at the time and would marry a few months later) and I were having supper with her sister Polly. Quite off- handedly during the meal, Polly said “by the way, Dr. Smith from Carthage wants to get in touch with you – something about possibly doing some voice teaching there this fall.” At the moment when I was fearing that my radio job was going to slip away into oblivion, I suddenly found myself being offered an exciting, new opportunity … and although I was to come to find out that it was indeed an offer for one, single semester of teaching, it felt somehow like it might be the start of something much bigger than that. And indeed, that offer to fill in for Dr. Richard Sjoerdsma while he was on academic leave was just the beginning of what has become in many ways the heart and soul of my professional life – and 22 years later, as a full-fledged member of the music faculty, I am grateful beyond words that this door opened up to me …. and that it opened exactly when it did. And in a further miracle, the radio work never disappeared – it just shrank from a full-time to a part-time position almost in perfect tandem with my increasing responsibilities at Carthage. Not a day goes by that I don’t feel profoundly thankful that all this unfolded as it did, sparing me the wrenching loss that so many people experience as victims of downsizing.
Anyway, the chance to teach voice at Carthage was thrilling and most welcome . . . but terrifying as well. I had never taken Vocal Pedagogy (the official study of how to teach voice) … and I my experience as a teacher was pretty much limited to a single person – a woman from the Philippines named Pura who called the Lyric Opera of Chicago because she was interested in studying private voice and had no idea how to find a voice teacher. Her request was passed on to the Opera Center, the apprenticeship program with which I was associated back in 1985-86, and I gladly seized on the idea …. although I did so mostly for the extra money, not out of any sort of professional inquisitiveness or to lay the groundwork for more such work. I just did it in the moment, and am SO glad I did it. This woman was a joy to work with (how I wish I knew her last name, because I would love to track her down and tell her how much I owe her for helping me to discover the joys of teaching voice.)
I may have had only one voice student in my whole life before I started teaching at Carthage – but I found reassurance in two facts: 1) Even as experienced and renowned a teacher as Dr. Sjoerdsma at some point began with their first student. Everyone starts somewhere. It’s no crime to be a beginner. and 2) I may have lacked official training, but I had been incredibly blessed to have been taught by a succession of superb voice teachers: Cherie Carl, David Greedy, Richard Grace, and Donna Harler – each one unique, each one demonstrating their own array of lessons on how to be an effective voice teacher. And beyond that, as a tireless accompanist both at Luther and at the University of Nebraska, I was constantly playing piano in the studios of other voice teachers, which allowed me to witness a whole host of teaching styles and approaches.
Still …. to actually be the teacher rather than the student or an observer marked a gigantic step into the unknown, and as I began teaching at Carthage, I saw myself as a place-holder of sorts, there to keep Dr. Sjoerdsma’s students progressing but not radically reshaping anything that they were doing. And I was very grateful that his veteran students – Jane Thompson, Anne Thompson, Kim Smith, among others – were patient and receptive, even as I’m sure they longed to have their real teacher back, for whom they would have walked through fire …. and vice versa! (My teacher at Nebraska, Dr. Grace, went on leave during my last semester- which was also the semester of my graduate recital – so I could identify with their sadness and frustration. And while I had been blessed to shift over to Donna Harler, who was an amazing teacher in her own right, Dr. Sjoerdsma’s students were being handed over to someone as green as me!)
There were two students in that fall of 1991 who made me feel like a real voice teacher rather than an imposter. One of them was an upperclassman whom I’ll just call B, who had really struggled for a lot of different reasons, including his own emotional fragility. But somehow, he and I really hit it off and he flourished. Fast forward to the spring, when Dr. Sjoerdsma returned, but I was kept on as a part time voice teacher – and Dr. Sjoerdsma handed this particular student over to me with his blessing, knowing that in some cases it’s chemistry between teacher and student (rather than know-how) that can make all of the difference in the world.
The other student who made me feel like a true blue voice teacher was a freshman that fall named Bill Mains. (So his Carthage career and mine began at exactly the same time.) He was the son of a Lutheran pastor serving a church in the little town of Orfordville, five miles away from where my dad was serving the Luther Valley parish in rural Beloit. . . so Bill and I had some things in common. One thing we did not have in common is that Bill was both a fine singer and a fine athlete (an all-conference safety on the football team, and a track star as well, if I remember correctly.) I probably prattle on more than I should about guys who are both musicians and athletes, but it springs from my own admiration laced with envy of those who excel in both arenas. On top of all that, Bill was an intelligent and thoughtful student and a thoroughly good person. (He is the oldest of twelve children, believe it or not, and I remember thinking more than once that a mom and dad couldn’t ask for a more sterling role model for their younger children than Bill.) He was not a music major but he loved to sing – and of all of the students I taught that fall, I don’t think anyone came to their lessons more thoroughly prepared or more eager to learn than Bill. And because we hit it off so well and I felt so successful with him, it was those particular lessons with Bill which gave me a much more powerful sense of confidence that I should think of this as more than a temporary gig… but rather as the start of an exciting new chapter in my life.
And indeed, that’s what it turned out to be. Carthage experienced an upward spike in enrollment that fall – and I had 20 voice lessons to teach rather than the projected 12, which also meant that even after Dr. Sjoerdsma returned for the spring semester, there were enough voice students that I was still needed. So I stayed around- and 22 years later, I still haven’t found the exit! (Or been shown the exit!)
Last night at the Carthage Christmas Festival, I was absolutely delighted to reconnect with Bill, who was there from faraway Fresno, California – attending his very first Carthage Christmas Festival since graduating back in 1995. I had seen him one other time a few years back at an event in Racine, and we are Facebook friends …. but this was the first time I got to see him back at Carthage, where I had the great joy of working with him so many years before. And as we first spotted each other in the packed front lobby of Siebert Chapel right after the concert, these incredibly warm happy feelings swept over me, and I realized that for as delighted as I was to see a whole lot of people this weekend, I was thrilled most of all to see Bill. I only wish that in the few minutes we had to chat, I had managed to say to him what I’ve said here … that having him as one of my students in my first fall at Carthage made all the difference in the world. And for as grateful as I am for all of the students I’ve been blessed to teach in the years since, I probably owe the biggest thanks to him – for helping me realize, once and for all, that I was meant to be a voice teacher.
I think most of us are acutely aware of the mentors in our lives who help us discover who we are and who we can be. Bill Mains is a reminder for me that we can be guided just as much (or sometimes more) by those to whom we are mentors. They’re the ones who really help us know what our greatest gifts are, and where our greatest joys are found.
Pictured above: with Bill Mains after the Saturday night performance of the Carthage Christmas Festival.