Take a bow: 2 Jacobs School conductors to give farewell performances this week

In the next few days, two members of the IU Jacobs School of Music faculty will retire and bid farewell to the school that has been their home for over three decades. Jan Harrington, currently chair of the choral department, and Mary Goetze, professor of music in general studies, took some time to reflect on their years in Bloomington.\nJan Harrington first came to IU in the mid-1960s.\n“Right away I felt very comfortable,” he said.\nHarrington was beginning his master’s degree in choral conducting and stayed on to complete a doctorate as well. It was not until 1973, after brief teaching stints at SUNY-Fredonia and the University of Oklahoma, that he was invited to join the music faculty.\n“The first thing I had to do was prepare the (Beethoven) “Missa Solemnis” for Robert Shaw, who was coming as a guest,” he said. “That was a terrible experience.”\nApparently, the renowned choral director was so unhappy with Harrington’s preparation of the choir, he threatened to leave altogether and not do the concert.\n“So I said, ‘That would be great if you leave, Mr. Shaw, but could I borrow your score? I’ve always wanted to conduct this piece,’” Harrington said with a laugh.\nCoincidentally, “Missa Solemnis” is also the piece Harrington will conduct for his final concert.\n“As it turns out,” he said, “we discovered that 17 years after I did (the piece) with Mr. Shaw, I did it here myself, and that was 1990, which is 17 years from now. I told that to (conducting professor) Dr. Tellez, and she’s like ‘It’s like a bookend of your career.’”\nMary Goetze had a similarly welcoming experience upon arriving to Bloomington. Just a year after Harrington was invited to join the choral department, Goetze found herself teaching part-time. \n“In the initial phase, I was teaching general music at the elementary level,” she said. “I was teaching classroom teachers as well as music students.”\nIn 1980, Goetze, who is internationally renowned for her work with children, started the IU Children’s Choir, which continues to provide voices for opera and choral works for the school, as well annual programs of its own. The ensemble also gave Goetze one of her highest career points. \n“We performed at Leonard Bernstein’s 70th birthday party at Tanglewood (Summer Music Festival in Boston),” said Goetze. “We were there as part of a performance of his “Mass” … it was a great experience.”\nIn the mid-1990s, Goetze decided to start branching out her career path.\n“I was ready for a change so I initiated the International Vocal Ensemble, and that really grew and flourished,” she said.\nPerforming music from countries as far ranging as Hungary, Japan, Azerbaijan and New Zealand, the ensemble has become renowned for its cross-cultural repertoire and its insistence on learning music from the oral tradition. In fact, with colleague Jay Fern, Goetze has developed software, as well as a DVD series, for the oral translation of music.\nMore recently, Goetze has also inaugurated Music in General Studies, a non-major area of study that offers courses designed to reach the non-music major.\nBoth Harrington and Goetze leave the school with feelings of pride for their work and optimism for the school’s future.\n“The choral department, as we envision it, has done a great service to helping singers become much more perceptive musicians,” Harrington said. \n“There is a lot of emphasis on the trappings of the career, which is important, but I felt that a lot of our mission is to encourage people to be the best musician they can be in as many styles of music as their voice will allow,” he said. “What helps is that we have a faculty that recognizes singing is about music and not just about eyelashes and grand gestures.”\nDoctoral student and adjunct lecturer Barron Breland was full of praise for Harrington.\n“I have too many good things to say,” said Breland. “For so many of us, he is just a mentor in every sense of the word. … He’s the conducting teacher everyone wants to study with.\nGoetze also looks back positively on her time at IU.\n“I changed directions in my own career and pushed the envelope in the School, so it’s very gratifying that they’re going to continue (the work I’ve started),” Goetze said.\nBrent Gault, who now directs the IU Children’s Choir, echoed Goetze’s sentiments.\n“To have the honor to work alongside her at IU and to have the opportunity to carry on her work with IUCC is truly a privilege. … She is a true pioneer in our field,” he said.\nKatherine Domingo will take over as director of IVE and Constance Glen will assume the role of coordinator of the department of Music in General Studies, where both are currently lecturers.\nHarrington’s replacement in the choral department has not yet been determined.\nHarrington will conduct Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra and Oratorio Chorus at 8 p.m. tonight in the Musical Arts Center.\nGoetze will direct the International Vocal Ensemble in a program featuring music of Brazil, India, South Africa, India, Ireland, France and the Philippines. The concert will take place on at 4 p.m. Saturday, April 21 in Auer Hall.\nBoth events are free and open to the public.