Music faculty look forward to annual concert as a way to connect with students and fellow professors
By Kelly Helton, Contributor
The polished brass of his beloved trombone gleams in the soft fluorescent light.
Taylor Professor of Music Al Harrison raises the instrument to his lips and puts his fingers through the familiar motions of an Arthur Pryor number.
Music fills his office like rain pounding on a tin roof.
Down the hall, adjunct professor Keisha Cook warms up her voice with scales and arpeggios. She carries on in the tradition of her grandmother and great-aunts, both vocalists before her, as she begins trilling the notes of a Donizetti aria.
Harrison and Cook are among seven music faculty members who will showcase their talents at the Annual White Linen Faculty Concert Sept. 30.
Other participants in the concert include adjunct professors Julie Lyn Barber, Mary Katherine Brewer, Darrel Fiene, Adele Maxfield and staff accompanist Luke Tyler.
The concert will feature music from Puccini, Handel, Sarasate and others on a variety of instruments and vocal ranges.
Harrison, who has been teaching at Taylor since 1978, said the White Linen Concert tradition began as an opportunity for faculty to perform for their students.
"We model what we teach in the studio," Harrison said.
He also called the concert an opportunity for full-time faculty "to interact with part-time adjunct faculty in faith and musicianship." The concert has now become an annual event for the entire campus community to enjoy.
Harrison's love of music started in fourth grade when he took lessons at school for the cornet, a three-valved wind instrument similar to a trumpet. In eighth grade, he started playing the baritone horn. He eventually became drum major for his high school marching band, and this experience led to his desire to teach music as a career.
Harrison pursued the trombone during his undergraduate years at Virginia Commonwealth University. He came to Taylor in 1978 as Director of Instrumental Ensembles after earning his master's degree at the University of Illinois.
For Harrison, teaching music is a way he serves Christ with his skills and abilities.
Professor Cook, however, found her inspiration in musical theater.
"I wanted to be an English teacher until I heard The Phantom of the Opera in eighth grade," Cook said. "That experience changed everything. I realized I could teach and become a professional musician."
Cook has many fond memories of attending gospel band rehearsal with her grandmother and great-aunts and listening to her father play the trumpet. She sang with her grandmother and sister and played anything musical she could get her hands on, she said.
Cook said she chose teaching because she has a passion for helping others and for learning from her colleagues and students. She joined the Taylor staff this year, having completed undergraduate and masters degrees in music.
She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Ball State, and she hopes the White Linen Concert will be an opportunity for students and faculty to interact beyond conversation.
