Photo by Evan Garner
Aaron Wilburn, center, performs with the New Albany Symphony
It’d be hard for anything to keep Erica Donahoe from music. A lifelong musician, Donahoe initially chose to pursue a career with the Air Force, but that only proved to her the importance of music in her life.
“I actually would sneak out of the Air Force Academy against the rules to play in an orchestra,” she says.
Luckily, Donahoe soon found a pathway that better suited her passion for music. After a few years with the Air Force, she returned to school to pursue a music education degree from The Ohio State University. She now works as a middle school orchestra director for New Albany-Plain Local Schools.
“I just thought, ‘Gosh, I don’t know if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I really miss music,’” she says. “I need to go back and start again.”
When Donahoe isn’t teaching at New Albany Middle School, the violinist keeps the music going as a member of the New Albany Symphony Orchestra.
“Most music teachers really love to play,” Donahoe says. “We all love music. We all want to be a part of it in as many ways as possible and share that with the kids.”
Donahoe says that many music educators find opportunities to perform outside of school. Aaron Wilburn, the director of orchestras for New Albany-Plain Local Schools, also performs with the New Albany Symphony.
Wilburn, a cellist in his first year with the symphony, says he spent years feeling too busy to make time for performing as he worked to grow the music program and strengthen its impact on students. He credits Donahoe as helping him to recognize the importance of making time for his own musical endeavors.
Now, Wilburn compares the value of those extracurricular activities to putting on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. Finding time to stretch his musical muscles in turn makes
Wilburn a better educator.
“It really is a great way to reenergize and rekindle your musical spirit, your creative spirit,” he says. “It’s made me a more energetic and passionate teacher.”
Seeing a teacher truly excited about a subject can help many students engage with the content. That’s true for music too.
Wilburn found his dedication to music early on through a passionate music teacher, Jean Pepper, while he was at Bloomville Elementary School in Bloomville, Ohio.
“It was the most paramount part of really being drawn into music,” he says. “Mrs. Pepper’s love for music was so evident, and it just encapsulated me and I wanted to study it. I never looked back.”
As a teacher, Wilburn looks for ways to demonstrate his own passion for music to his students. That demonstration happens in class, but is exemplified through orchestra involvement outside the classroom.
New Albany’s broad support of the arts, including performances at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts and the recently opened Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater, also helps to give valuable examples of the arts for students.
Given the proximity of the NAPLS campus to these major venues, students have easy access to high-caliber performances – even ones including their instructors.
“The great thing about New Albany Symphony is it’s right there,” Donahoe says. “I’m like, ‘Hey, guys, come see us.’”
Through performing with the symphony, Wilburn says he’s encouraged to reflect on music differently than he does in the classroom. That encourages him to consider new approaches to selecting music for his students and emphasize performance as a way to communicate with the audience.
Those experiences on stage and in rehearsal can become examples to use in the classroom as well.
“I bring examples of that into the classroom all the time,” Donahoe says. “I’ll talk with kids about how I have to practice when I have a gig and what strategies I use to practice.”
In addition to playing with the New Albany Symphony, Donahoe makes time to work regularly with other groups that allow her to play in a range of styles and exercise different skill sets. She plays with bluegrass group Grassinine, small chamber ensembles and even with her family.
In Grassinine, Donahoe often improvises her parts, a traditional characteristic of bluegrass music. That improvisation has influenced her teaching as well. Beginning from a lesson on improvisation, Donahoe’s students eventually created a new arrangement of “Jingle Bells,” which they performed at their winter concert.
Her students have also worked with some of Donahoe’s own compositions. She’s published a number of pieces targeting school-age musicians and says her students can serve as a “test
audience” to determine if the music is interesting and appropriately challenging.
For these music educators, New Albany has fostered a dream environment where they can give back to students, perform and pursue additional projects.
“Lou Gehrig mentioned in his farewell speech that he was the luckiest man on earth,” Wilburn says. “If I could meet Lou, I think I would argue with him. Our community is just such an amazing community for the arts.”
Erica Donahoe plays music at home with her husband, Kevin; and kids, Jackson, 7; and Annabelle, 8.
Cameron Carr is the associate editor. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com
