Northeast Michigan Oral History and Historic Photograph Archive

MaryAnn Hubbard Interview

Description

Comments (0)

Interview Part 1: Interview Part 1
Transcription: CK: This is Cindy Kus speaking to Mary Ann Hubbard at the Alpena Library on August 10th, 2015 for the first time. Hello, Mary Ann. MAH: Hello. CK: I'd like to start with your role as a music educator. Tell me first about your experience teaching at Alpena Community College, when did you start working there and how has your curriculum developed over time? MAH: I began at the college in 2001, January 2001. I had been studying at Central Michigan to get a Master's Degree in Music, not in Music Education; but my Bachelor's Degree was Music Education; but my Master's Degree was in Flute Performance. And at that time, I'm not sure if it's the same now; but at that time the college was not hiring persons to teach unless they had a Master Degree. So, the department chair knew that I was off getting my Master's Degree and so he called me and asked me if I would like to apply for a job with the college, directing the jazz ensemble. And I said, no, I think you have the wrong person, I wasn't studying jazz, and I had never been actively involved in the jazz ensemble. So I gave him a recommendation of a person that I thought would be good for the college; but I did say, if you ever, ever want to have chamber ensembles at the college, that's what I'm studying right now at the University and I just love chamber music and I would like to know if that ever happens at the college. And he said well, I think we haven't talked about that yet but I think that would be a good idea to evaluate that. So he did evaluate it and the next thing I knew I was hired to direct chamber ensembles at the college and this was in January 2001 that I began there. And so I really, really enjoyed that, chamber ensembles are small ensembles, they're not big concert band or the big symphonic orchestra but they're um, notably chamber ensembles mean one person is on a part so in other words there's only one person playing flute, and there's only one person playing oboe and what have you, so it was a very, very different kind of ensemble than the people in Alpena knew. But it grew and grew and we had some semesters we had twenty people in the chamber ensemble and sometimes we had ten people in the chamber ensemble CK. So the number can vary and the instrumentation can vary, too? MAH. That's what makes it a challenge is that every semester there was a different instrumentation and different people in the group. So, sometimes it was very similar to the semester before but oftentimes it was quite different, especially at the beginning. So we grew from a first semester, five people in the chamber ensemble to at most we had around twenty people in the chamber ensemble. That chamber ensemble went on for several years at the college until about two years ago, um, financial problems came to the college as it came to everybody else and finally all the performing groups were eliminated from the college. Which was too bad, um, because what we had at the college was not just groups for college students but also groups for community persons who wanted a chance to play, even if they didn't get a credit from it, if they didn't need a credit but they could play in the group. So we had chamber ensembles - one major ensemble, but from that ensemble there were several smaller groups within it, and my specialty was always flute groups because I was a flute major. So we had the chamber ensemble, we had a very active jazz band at the college and we had collegiate singers, too. So we had instrumental, jazz and vocal. So it was a really, really a good program but it came to an end, unfortunately. We don't have those anymore at the college. CK. What's left? MAH. What is left are small classes, very small classes being taught by many different people, each one having their specialty. We have music theory, and we also teach music appreciation, there's music fundamentals being taught by another person, there's um, I think I said music theory, and then music for the classroom, elementary classroom teacher. So really we're kind of unique at Alpena Community College in that we don't have a music program, but we have a lot of classes being offered and without music students there's not a big call for these classes. So we all have very small classes when we do run a class, it's just a few students in the class. So . . . CK. How many faculty are there who are teaching things related to music? MAH. Six of us . . . CK. That's impressive, considering that there isn't a music program. MAH. Yeah, but it's almost like there are too many classes because there are too many ways for the students to divide up and none of us have full classes anymore. We also have still at the college, private instruction in piano, and voice, and flute. And those are the only three private instruction instructors that we have in the college. CK. But there isn't a focus on performance anymore. MAH. No. CK. Would that be true to say? MAH. That would be true except for the vocal, the voice teacher, the piano instructor and myself, the flute instructor. We'll have recitals of our students every semester if we have enough students to have a recital and that's performance-related but . . . CK. Is there a place in the community that serves that purpose? MAH. The performance of a major ensemble? Yes, there certainly are, yeah, we have the community chorus, Thunder Bay Arts Council sponsors that, and that has concerts twice a year and they have a lot of people singing in their chorus. We have the Alpena City Band which just performs in the summertime, I believe that their season is over right now as of the end of July, beginning of August. CK. What about chamber music? MAH. Well, yeah, we do. I can explain that after . . . um, we have also the Alpena Symphony Orchestra and that serves all the string players that we can find. Unfortunately, in an orchestra you can only have small wind sections so some people want to be in the orchestra but they can't because they're just waiting their turn for an opening to come up in the wind section. But string players, if we could have more string players we would certainly take them. So as far as chamber ensembles, the orchestra three times a year sponsors a recital for their members, and it's for their members to do small group work or even solo work on the recital. So we get to play solos with an accompanist if we want to, or we can form a small group - I usually get together a flute trio to do something. And, ah, yeah . . . CK. It gets picked up in other ways. Who are the students that enroll in your classes at the college? MAH. The most common denominator would be the education program, which has a requirement that students in elementary ed. take a class called music for the elementary classroom teacher, and so we have elementary ed., these are people who are not going to teach music, but are going to teach general ed., like in an elementary school, and they need to have a background, a one semester background in music fundamentals. Um, the other class that seems to be popular is music fundamentals, and that's for people to just learn to read music and to make sense of musical notation. Then, music appreciation is a popular class for people who are looking for a humanities elective, and they usually use it as an elective - it's not for a music program class. CK. Ok. Do people just from the community who aren't necessarily college students, can they enroll in those classes? MAH. Yes, and they do. They do, occasionally. I've had many people from the community, just adults who want to get to the history of music. Music appreciation is also a music history course. So that's been a popular . . . CK. I can see where it would be. What do you think is your greatest asset as a teacher? MAH. I definitely think my background is my greatest asset as a teacher. We were going to talk about background in a little while so I can talk more about that later . . . CK. We'll flip back to that MAH. But, um, that and the fact that I enjoy one-on-one teaching in my choice, which is flute teaching, and so I think that I'm valuable that way because that's a very valuable way for students to learn how to be good musicians, not only players, technicians, but musicians also, but we can talk more about that. CK. Ok, we'll get back to that. It's come to my attention that music classes in the Alpena Public School System have dwindled over the years and that the program is smaller than it once was. If this information is correct, do you have a sense of what's caused the decline in classes? MAH. Oh, absolutely. It's the- the major one is the decline is the number of children in schools over the past several years and that's been declining probably fifteen years or more. I think that that's definitely the biggest factor in the decline. CK. Because staffing has been cut, or there's less money? MAH. There's less children. Less children to enroll in the program. CK. Ok. MAH. I mean, we're also facing decline in the number of students in the public schools in Alpena. CK. Ok, but . . . MAH. As the number of children decline, staffing has to decline, too. So, we do have less staff than we used to when I first started teaching at Alpena Public Schools. CK. OK. So has that affected the enrollment at the college? Are most of the students who come to the community college, they've gone through the Alpena school system, the majority, I would think. MAH. Many of them have, a lot of them have gone through the Rogers City schools, some of them Oscoda, but those mainly stay in the Oscoda campus of ACC. Um, Alcona. But, you know when you have, for instance Alcona, we're here to talk about Alpena, but Alcona is our neighboring CK. It's northeast Michigan, that covers our . . . MAH. It's where ACC gets its students from . . . they have no band program, that was ended many, several years ago, and so when they don't study music in high school, they don't . . . CK. They don't continue. No, ok. And so, in addition to ACC, you also teach, or you have taught in a variety of other facets - you do private lessons, the Resurrection Lutheran School of Music and Blue Lake Arts Camp? MAH. Fine Arts Camp CK. Fine Arts Camp? To name some . . . would you talk about the kinds of students you work with in those environments? MAH. Ok. Where should we start? With private teaching? CK. Let's start with private teaching. MAH. My private teaching students are all - right now they're all young ladies, sometimes I have men, too, but flutists generally are an instrument that girls take to more than boys and my students are all either in the elementary program at, um, in Alpena or the junior high or the high school program in Alpena or the college program in Alpena and, um, they come
Creators: Cindy Kus, Interviewer; MaryAnn Hubbard
, Interviewee
Media Type: Audio
Item Type: Interviews
Description: Mary Ann Hubbard talks about her role as an music educator and performer. She has taught music at ACC, Blue Lakes Fine Art Camp, Resurrection Lutheran Church School of Music and privately. MaryAnn performs in the Alpena Symphony Orchestra, The Windsong Quartet and organizes the annual "Flute and Friends" concert.
Place of Publication: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Date of Original: August 2015
Date Of Event: 2001-2015
Playing Time: 00:58:22
Subject(s): Flutes
Music education
Music ensembles
Musicians
Pianos
Personal Name(s): Hubbard, MaryAnn
Corporate Name(s): Wind Song Flute ; Flute and Friends
Collection: Musicians of Northeast Michigan
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 2015
Copyright Holder: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Library
Recommended Citation: In Line- Hubbard (2015)
Reference- Hubbard, M. (2015, August 10)http://www.nemoha.org/3235928/data?n=1
Contact: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library
Email:specialcollections@alpenalibrary.org
Website:
https://www.alpenalibrary.org

Agency street/mail address:
211 N. First Ave.
Alpena, Michigan 49707
USA
(989)356-6188
Transcription: Cindy Kus

Request image Comment on this item Create electronic postcard Full Image

Download from podcast feed

Groups of Related Records

Musicians of Northeast Michigan