BU Music-a small program with a big impact
The music department at Bishop’s University might not have all the bells and whistles of larger programs at other institutions, but according to department chair Jack Eby, there is a lot more to music than bells and whistles.
“It’s a quirky department,” Eby explained. “Surprising people go through the program who do surprising things.”
This year the department celebrated its 50th anniversary.
“More like the 50th anniversary of Howard’s achievements,” Eby said, referring to Howard Brown, the program’s first official music faculty member, hired in the fall of 1967.
Today the department has three fulltime faculty members instead of one-not a huge change, but what it has achieved in the past 50 years has far outreached what one might expect from a small program.
Brown started a choir when he first arrived, comprised mainly of community members, called the Elizabethan Singers.
The small group has since evolved into the BU Singers, sometimes topping
100 members, selling out Centennial Theatre with their annual concerts.
The department is still basking in the glow of the ambitious performance of Bach’s b minor Mass, performed in December.
“We couldn’t have been happier,” Eby said, with how the show came together.
Eby explained that BU isn’t likely to attract students who have been studying an instrument all their lives and are working towards a position in an orchestra.
“They’re not the opera stars of tomorrow,” Eby said, before correcting himself.
In fact, there is a BU music grad who is currently touring opera houses in Europe.
But the profile of the average music major at BU is often someone with talent, but not necessarily a high level of training or an interest in music as a career.
Looks can be deceiving for the humble department and the students, Eby said.
“They are really interesting people,” Eby said, many of whom have gone on to do impressive work in the music industry.
“It would be nice to keep in touch with everyone,” he said, often hearing that a former student has released a new album, or has begun directing a new choir, or is about to tackle Wagner somewhere.
Eby used the example of a young biology student at the
University of Sherbrooke. She was also studying piano, but her teacher was moving to Ontario and the school wanted her to choose a new one.
She approached Bishop’s, asking if she enrolled in the music program if she could keep her same teacher, commuting every two weeks for lessons.
The department agreed. That student was Fannie Gaudette, who is now the Director of the BU singers.
“That’s the kind of person that gets into here,” he said; the kind that approaches music in a roundabout way, and then dives in wholeheartedly under the guidance of a talented, close-knit faculty.
Eby’s first office was a former washroom, part of the old dining hall in the Mckinnon building. He used to have to walk through his colleague Tom Gordon’s class full of students to get to it, he said.
In the 1990s the department moved into its current home.
“It’s like they sat down and designed the perfect building,” Eby said, “There couldn’t be a better design.”
Standing in the centre of the building, one direction is Bandeen concert hall, one direction is practice rooms, one direction is faculty offices, one direction is classroom space, “and everyone congregates in the middle,” Eby said, explaining that since the students and professors pass each other regularly throughout the day, there is a familiarity there that creates a bond within members of the department.
“One of the interesting things about the program is that it is driven by student interest,” Eby said.
While the program used to have more of an emphasis on classical studies, Eby said these days around half the students choose classical, and the other half opts for jazz/pop.
“It took student initiatives to push things along,” Eby said, adding there is even a recording studio in the department, established by one of the students. It is used for an introduction to recording technology course, and equipment is also available to record students’ recitals and performances.
“We don’t aim to do the same thing as big programs,” Eby said.
What the department manages to accomplish, however, is just as grand.
Throughout its 50th anniversary, the department has been highlighting the ‘stars of the department’.
This Friday, faculty member Ross Osmun will give a solo piano recital in Bandeen Hall, performing the works of Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt and W.A. Mozart.