The May 12th Chicago Tribune had a wonderful Mother’s Day essay by Heidi Stevens that included these perceptive words: “I know mothering is wonderful and exhausting, gratifying and soul-crushing, electrifying and tedious. I know it is not for everyone.” As I read those words a second time, it occurred to me that they apply just as much to Teaching … especially if one teaches in a situation that is uncommonly complicated and challenging (which is more and more often the case these days, especially for people who teach in public schools.) Certainly, this past semester at Carthage has been a complicated stew of deeply satisfying joys and maddening frustrations for me. I’m teaching several students who are among the hardest-working and most dedicated that I have ever taught; on the other hand, I have a student who announced halfway through the semester that his heart wasn’t in it anymore and he could not bring himself to pretend otherwise, and has not come to a lesson since. It’s a reminder that Teaching- like Parenthood- is not all smiles and rainbows. And like Parenthood, Teaching is a venture that sometimes highlights our strengths but quite often shines a beacon on our shortcomings as well.
I say all this during a semester when I had to assemble a huge e-portfolio in order to apply for promotion at Carthage … the first time I have made such an attempt after 23 years as a full-time faculty member. It meant looking back and assessing what I have done as a teacher- writing about the impact that I believe I have had- and assembling the testimony of people from both inside and outside of the Carthage community to affirm my work as a teacher. It was an incredibly grueling but ultimately satisfying experience- and reading the letters of recommendation I received made it feel a little like I had managed to live long enough to attend my own funeral. And although the whole point of it was to garner a promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor – which the committee in question ultimately recommended – it was probably most valuable to me as a means to re-examine why I am a teacher and what being a teacher means to me. And it was good to be able to do this at a time when I find myself increasingly aware that I am a La Traviata-type-Teacher in a Hairspray/Hamilton World. By that, I mean that I am teaching classical voice at a time when that pursuit seems increasingly overshadowed by other kinds of vocal pursuits and it is really easy to feel like what I do does not matter as much as it once did- or at least does not matter to as many people as it once did.
And this is why I am so incredibly thankful for several experiences last weekend in which I have been blessed to hear glorious performances by both past and present voice students of mine … performances that left me feeling affirmed in the most profound sense of the word. The first was my annual trek to Solo & Ensemble, where all four of my high school private students earned I ratings – and one of them, Ethan Wilkins, actually scored what is called an Exemplary Rating, which is the very best that one can do at state. (Each judge is able to give a small number of such awards to the best singers they heard that day.) His performance of “Sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat” from Guys & Dolls earned him that exemplary rating, and I could not have been more proud -although it’s fair to say that his pizzazz as a performer in this genre has much more to do with his own natural gifts than anything that I have taught him. But I am happy to take at least a sliver of credit for his first-rate singing in this and his classical piece, “O del mio amato ben” by Stefano Donaudy. I was equally proud of my other private students, who not only sang well- but also carried themselves as mature young men who are serious about singing even while having fun doing it. I deeply appreciate the pleasure and privilege of being a teacher to Ethan, Josh, Irving and Noah. It is a blessing I do not take for granted.
The next afternoon was the spring performance of Carthage’s Opera Workshop – and this in case, it was a concert that began with operatic favorites by Mozart and ended with a plethora of bon bons from the world of operetta. We had a small but mighty group of students – Grace Riemer, London Roysden, Sarah Jenkins, Cory Pollard, and Austin Merschdorf – and thanks to their hard work as well as the hard work of my colleagues Allison Hull and Elena Batmann, they managed to deliver an absolutely splendid performance that had the audience on their feet cheering at the end. I could not have been prouder of all five students, who really dug into the material and made it their own. I want to especially single out Grace, London and Sarah for singing so beautifully as the Three Ladies in the opening scenes of Mozart’s The Magic Flute as well as Cory Pollard’s convincing, charismatic performance as the Prince Tamino.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to talk about the one senior in the group, Austin Merschdorf, for whom this performance amounted to his farewell to Carthage Opera Workshop, barring any future guest appearances. Austin has been Rodolfo in scenes from Leoncavallo’s La Boheme, Bob in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and one of the kidnapped/murdered Israeli athletes from the 1972 Munich Olympics in my own Black September, written with Matt Boresi. Austin also rattled off “I am the very model of a Modern Major-General” when we did scenes from The Pirates of Penzance and was also a big part of our Gilbert & Sullivan gala during J-Term of this year. And back in the fall, for our Schubertiad titled “To Schubert,” Austin was entrusted with portraying Johann Michael Vogl, the superb baritone for whom Schubert composed many of his finest songs. That is quite a legacy – and over the course of all of that, Austin has grown as a singer and artist in all kinds of impressive ways. In particular, Austin grew to become one of the leaders of the workshop- a singer whose dedication and hard work set the bar for others to match. In this most recent performance, Austin finally had a chance to show off a facet of his talents that had not been seen to much up until this point- his comedy chops! He got to be funny in various ways in trios from Die Fledermaus and La Perichole and quartets from The Gondoliers … and delivered an absolutely scintillating performance of Bartolo’s aria “La Vendetta” from The Marriage of Figaro with rapid-fire patter that would knock your socks off …. but I’m guessing that everybody who was there thought that his most memorable comic turn was as the fun-loving bird catcher Papageno in The Magic Flute. Austin’s spot-on performance made all of us wish that it had been in the cards for us to do a full Magic Flute this year. On the other hand, this gives him something to shoot for – and I have a sneaking suspicion that somebody somewhere someday will be eager to have Austin as their Papageno. It’s a role he was born to play.
While the audience was still rewarding our singers with a enthusiastic standing ovation at the end of the performance, I was literally dashing out the door to fill in as pianist for the Kenosha Chamber Choir’s spring concert at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Kenosha. Their conductor, Michelle Neutzmann, is a recent Carthage grad who sang alto in my Lincoln Chamber Singers for two years and was among the most capable and dependable musicians in the group. Over the past few months, she has been leading the KCC and doing a marvelous job despite the fact that she actually never took any conducting lessons at Carthage. It just underscores what is possible when someone is an intelligent, well-rounded and energetic musician. When I got to the church, the concert had already begun, and it was so fun to just stand at the back and watch Michelle in action- conducting the group with such assurance, clarity and musicality. It really blew me away.
And a few minutes later, I had the joy of playing for the men of the KCC as they backed up the one and only Nick Huff, a Carthage graduate from 2016 who went on for a masters degree in opera performance from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY – is now finishing up a year as one of the studio artists for the Milwaukee Florentine – and has two exciting paid professional opera gigs for later this year. All of us who taught Nick at Carthage had every reason to think that he would do great things after graduation, but what he has managed to accomplish has exceeded all of our expectations … and probably his own expectations as well! For this concert, Michelle invited Nick to come and sing what has pretty much become his signature aria, “Ah, mes amis” from Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, the aria which propelled Luciano Pavarotti on the road to superstardom. The aria is famous (or infamous) because it contains nine high C’s that the tenor has to shoot off like fireworks – and if all that weren’t enough, Nick usually elects to take the last high C and swell up to a high D and somehow manages to make it sound like child’s play! I love playing this aria …. but I have to say that it was not all that easy to do because I found myself wanting to stop playing, leap to my feet, turn to the audience and exclaim “THAT’S MY VOICE STUDENT! I’M HIS VOICE TEACHER!” But I didn’t. (Whew!) First of all, that would have been a lie- Nick WAS my voice student for six years (for part of high school and for his four years at Carthage) but he hasn’t studied with me in almost three years. And more to the point, he did not learn how to shoot off high C’s from me – that came after his time with me. In fact, just what part of Nick’s success is due to me is very hard to say. Nick was an exceptionally gifted and intelligent young man from his very first voice lesson with me – and is probably the hardest working voice student I have ever had – and I have never had any student more head-over-heels in love with opera than Nick. The flame was burning brightly- and all I had to do was fan the flames and maybe make sure that those flame didn’t burn out of control. Anyway, it does my heart good to see Nick achieving such tremendous success and to know that I played a part in setting him up for the next chapter of his singing life. And this concert was a lovely way to experience that satisfaction as I watched him bring down the house with this showstopper.
And if my buttons hadn’t already burst off of my vest, I also got to watch another former student, Andrew Johnson, follow Nick – no small feat! – with a really exciting performance in Hall Johnson’s “Ain’t Got Time to Die” to end the concert. Andrew is one of the most impressively well-rounded musicians I have ever taught …. a really fine singer, saxophonist, and pianist …. and with the gentle heart of a teacher. I have experienced many great joys teaching Andrew- and it was great to hear him singing as well as ever.
These experiences, crowded into the course of two big days, very much underscored what I have always known …. that everything we do as teachers means nothing or next-to-nothing without eager, open, gifted students to take what he have to give and run with it. And when a student does that, it’s better than a hundred thank you cards. So as this Teacher Appreciation Week comes to a close, I find myself not only appreciative of the great music teachers I have been blessed to know and/or to study with …. Cherie Carl, David Greedy, Richard Grace, Weston Noble, Bartlett Butler, David Judisch, Connie Bolsen, Mary De Wolf, Delma Wright, and many more …. and the great colleagues with whom I’ve taught …. Richard Sjoerdsma, Amy Haines, Nancy Henninger, Peg Cleveland, Elena Batman, Allison Hull, Lorian Schwaber, Corinne Ness, Klaus George, Evan Bravos, Kyle Sackett, Kurt Link …. but also appreciative of the students (way too many to name) that I have taught over these many years. Without them, I would just be talking to myself in an empty, messy office. With them, I have been blessed to experience the profound satisfaction of being a Teacher. And I appreciate that more than I can say.
