Music instructor, mentor takes final bow

James E. Mumford has brought joy and hope to his students at IU for the past 23 years, but Sunday will be their last performance with him. The African American Choral Ensemble will celebrate its 30th anniversary and Mumford's retirement with a black-tie gala beginning at 6 p.m. at the Bloomington Convention Center on Saturday night. \n"Your singing is healing. It gives people joy. It gives people hope. Remember this weekend that every song that we sing touches somebody," Mumford said to his ensemble at its rehearsal on Tuesday.\nHe lifted his hands, pursed his lips and looked around at all of the diverse faces in the room. They varied in color and in age, but when his hands fell in the first beat, every face lit up with their love for the music and Mumford.\nDoctoral student Carmund White has been Mumford's assistant for the past three years. Though he has never actually sang in Mumford's choir, he still considers himself one of his students. White said that he has learned about music and life. He told about a concert in the auditorium last year. Mumford's pants fell down, mid-performance, but his costume was designed in a way that no one in the audience could tell. Mumford continued conducting, and White said that the choir "sat there in horror." \nMumford came to IU at the suggestion of his close friend, and worked as an associate instructor under Portia Maultsby. In the same year that Maultsby had to step down from her position as the director of Soul Revue, the African American Arts Institute also lost its choral ensemble director. Mumford reluctantly said "yes" to both positions for one year. \n"I must have been out of my mind," he said, "I made it, but just barely."\nThe institute eventually found a director for the Soul Revue, so Mumford was asked to work solely with the Choral Ensemble. \nMumford said that the group always felt more like a family than a class. He describes himself as a very student-oriented professor, and said that his grandmother taught him that observation is often better than education. \n"It is amazing how little things open the avenue between students and teachers," he said.\nRachel Becker, one of Mumford's former students, now teaches high school music in Lebanon, Ind. \n"Doc was never too busy for any student, no matter how tired he was, or how much stuff he had to do," Becker said. \nShe told a story about how he once came to a rehearsal of a play she was directing, to help with the music. \n"In just a half hour, he really connected with my students," she said.\nMumford attended a convention in 1990 and was asked to demonstrate his method of "transformative teaching." He was given the challenge of teaching a group of professors without musical backgrounds how to sing gospel music in three days. His highly successful experiment was made into the movie, "What's a Teacher For?" which is now used in teacher conferences across the country.\nMumford is inspired by many different sources.\nHe told White that when he recently went to see "You Got Served," he was the only one in the theater. He was so taken in by the music and dancing in the movie, he got up and starting dancing in the aisles himself.\nIn his retirement, Mumford plans on staying in Bloomington to compose an opera and music for the choir. He also wants to complete his series of five cantatas about his "she-roes," African-American women who he admires. He also wants to pursue his other hobbies of cooking and cultivating bonsai trees.\n"I will miss my students," Mumford, a teacher of 52 years, said, "but I look forward to this new beginning in my life." \nFollowing the retirement gala, the choir will perform at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. A brunch will be held 10 a.m. Sunday morning at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.\nTickets to the events can be purchased in Suite 310 of the NMBCC or at the doors. Tickets to the gala are $35, tickets to the concert are $10 for students and tickets to the brunch are $20.