From the President’s Desk: James Douthit, President

Here Comes the Sun…

As the month of April is soon replaced by May on the calendar page, I await with eager anticipation all of the fun and activities that come with that transition. Especially in Rochester, the advent of summer is eagerly anticipated. For most of the winter months, I had snow on both sides of my driveway that was at least a couple of feet, but now, flowers are beginning to bloom, the lawn is a beautiful shade of green, and the signs of the approaching summer are everywhere.

With that eager anticipation also comes a reflective look at the teaching year that has passed. Filled with student recitals and performances demonstrating great accomplishments, great Oprah “AHA” moments when the class suddenly “gets” the information you are trying to convey, and warm laughter shared with colleagues in hallway discussions, the memories of the past year are full and vivid.

Each year as summer approaches, I feel a certain sense of loss. Those moments of accomplishment, enlightenment, and collegiality fuel my interest and professional passion in the hard work required to be a teaching musician. This summer brings with it a more intense retrospective look at my work. For the past seven years, I have taught at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania. In the fall, instead of returning to my office to eagerly anticipate another year, I have accepted a new job as Chair of the Department and Associate Professor of Music at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York.

While the new venture is very exciting, currently, the focus is on the loss. Saying goodbye to my students has always been difficult. As students graduate after their four years of study, their matriculation to work or graduate school seems very natural. Usually, they’re the ones that leave first, and though somewhat depressed by the natural progression of events, I’m left behind to welcome the new freshman class. This year, that is different. They will welcome a new person they call “teacher”, and I will be the “freshman” in a new office with a new set of challenges, and a new set of colleagues, students, and friends.

When Robert Weirich first started his column in Clavier it was titled, “The View from the Second Floor.” It was a series of essays on teaching and the world of music. I knew the second floor very well, as Robert Weirich was my academic advisor at Northwestern University and the second floor window was behind his desk overlooking the entrance to Regenstein Music Building, a large, ominous older white building on the campus. As the column first began, I read it with anticipation in each issue, and pondered its relevance to my world of teaching. My office for the past seven years has been located in the basement! I often thought in a response to the “View from the Second Floor,” I should be allowed to write a rebuttal titled “The View from the Basement,” that would ponder and discuss the issues affecting teachers in the real world. However, after reading and contemplating the column, I’ve found that the same issues affect us all.

We work to make music instruction more accessible to our students. We work as mentors to guide students through the difficult musical transitions in their performances and the difficult personal transitions in their life. We work as advocates for the art of music in a fast-paced world that can hardly concentrate through an entire Beethoven Sonata and would prefer a three minute song with a repeating chorus that’s easy to sing and “has a good beat and is easy to dance to.” We work as financial managers to try to put together equipment and resources to provide instruction to students in an economic atmosphere that promotes expenditure in the “important” areas of sciences and technology. We work as career consultants to help our students enter competitions as well as preparing them for important auditions.

My work with PMTA has been based on the importance of these issues. Though not directly urgent issues like world peace, these are the “raison d’etre” of our organization. As our mission statement clearly states, we are an organization that promotes professional growth, performance and educational opportunities, the study and creation of music and public awareness of the value of music education for all individuals. I am encouraged by the collective work that is produced by our organization. I am provided with a sense of comfort that there are others teaching across the state of Pennsylvania that value these challenges and accept them as a mission.

So as we make this transition into summer, take some time to recharge your energy. Make some plans to attend the state conference in November, and as the sun warms our earth, consider the old adage, “Bloom where you’re planted!”

I look forward to seeing you at the state conference in November, where we will install a new roster of officers to lead our organization.