Join the Celebration for Our Founder!
The Composers of Choral Music Community and Our Musical Life Inc. ask you to join us in honoring the founder of ChoralNet. The Showcase Dare is fully underway, bringing ChoralNet users, composers, conductors and lyricists together in a project designed to honor Jim Feiszli. Be an active part of this! Join us in the Showcase Dare community and comment below with why you value ChoralNet.
We asked Dr. Feiszli to give us a short word or phrase that would be the spark for the creative process. He gave us two, based on the poetry of Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken” and “Excellence” (derived from Choose Something Like A Star). Right now there are about 30 composers working to write the rough draft of works based on those sparks. We need lyricists and conductors to add their voices to the process.
Last week I shared the first part of an interview with Dr. Feiszli about the early years of ChoralNet. This week we will explore Jim’s professional life and contributions to the choral art beyond what he is known for here. I have to say that I have come to admire this man more with every answer he has given. It is inspiring reading. I hope every young choral director takes note and chooses a star-like professional goal as lofty as this man has.
James Feiszli got his start as a public school music teacher. He taught elementary through high school band, general music and choir. Adding to his bachelor of Music Education from Mount Union College Feszli went on to get a Master of Music degree in Music History and Literature from University of Akron and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Arizona State University.
In 1983 Feiszli began the career that has been the defining work of his life. He took a position at SDSMT (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology) as a professor of music for non-music majors. He is currently growing and developing that same position.
Life and Profession Questions:
Q: In 2013 you won Professor of the Year for the state of South Dakota by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. You have worked especially with non-music majors. Why is that work so important to who you are?
A:
“We have a nice little glee club here, but you’ll never do Bach cantatas or anything.”
Dr. A. Charles Thielen, Dean of College Relations, SDSMT, 1983
That comment was made in my interview for a non-tenure track, term position at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Why would I consider this job?
Background. SDSMT graduates in 1983 were being sought after by major corporations, but most remained in middle management positions throughout their career. The more successful alumni were those that had incorporated artistic activities into their lives. Brain research was beginning to show why: Unique thought processes that are missing in the traditional engineering curriculum occur when an individual is engaged in music. Studies done in the past 40 years show that neural pathways between brain hemispheres are created and strengthened during music-making. This encourages creativity, the process of viewing a problem from different perspectives.
Vision. If guided, quality music-making 
was made part of the educational process at SDSMT, could the institution graduate better scientists and engineers? I set about to create an environment wherein all students, regardless of previous background, had the opportunity to develop creativity through the experience of music. Today SDSMT has a music program integrated into the science and engineering curriculum with two purposes: 1) the development of holistic brain processes, and 2) the development of professional concepts in teaming/teamwork, continuous quality improvement, and process management. Alumni speak frequently of how everything they learned in music has benefitted their careers.
Growth. What began as one faculty member in a single room now encompasses three faculty members and a music building with performance hall, classrooms, teaching studios, and faculty offices. Enrollment in music courses has grown from approximately 50 in 1983 to over 350 in 2013. Two extracurricular activities are now eight curricular music ensemble courses, applied music lessons, and lecture courses ranging from music theory to the history of rock and roll. Our ensembles perform at professional music conferences, garner awards in national and international competition, and appear at prestigious venues in the U.S. and abroad, drawing an estimated 10000+ listeners annually.
Impact. What numbers do not convey is the ripple effect that the music program has had on and beyond the campus. Music students carry their creativity into their chosen fields. Last summer one of our student musicians worked in the NSF’s Research Engineering for Undergraduates program to recreate a specialized metal drum, called a Hang, using metallurgical engineering methods. Music alumni hold patents in a wide variety of areas. Many have founded their own companies. They are CEOs, consultants, philanthropists, and community leaders. What they do for a living, however, is far less important than who they are. While I cannot claim credit for everything my former students accomplish, I am proud to have had some role in shaping their lives.
My position at SDSMT uniquely placed me at the crossroads of technology and music. My early access to the Internet led to the founding of the first e-mail forum for choral music. ChoralNet became the Internet Center for Choral Music, supported by all major choral associations of the world. I used that platform to spread knowledge of SDSMT’s music curriculum.
Postscript. Thirty years’ perspective is a wonderful thing. I have not been deprived of great music because I did not teach music majors. Several years ago, when the Concert Choir performed Bach’s Cantata 61 Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (with orchestra), I made certain that Chuck Thielen was in the front row. We shared a laugh afterwards. I took the road less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.
Q: What is so special about you as a professor?
A: It’s not about me and it’s not really even that much about the music. It’s about improving each and every student that walks in the door. At whatever level they come in, I hope to give them the opportunity and incentive to improve as people and musicians.
To help answer this question, here are some quotes about Dr. Feiszli from the Carnegie Award news release and others:
Judges wrote in awarding Feiszli the honor:
“The panel was very impressed by Professor Feiszli’s work building a music program at a school of engineering and technology. At a place where he knew he would not be teaching music majors, he has developed a model music program. Even more important, however, is his work on understanding the connections between music learning and engineering/science learning. That he has been able to demonstrate the advantages of learning both disciplines simultaneously is at the heart of his success as a scholar/teacher,”
In 1983 Feiszli accepted the daunting task of establishing a music program at a science and engineering university that doesn’t offer a music degree. He has established a permanent home for the music department (moving out of its long-term “temporary” home in the athletic building); has produced moving and well-attended community concerts; and has brought home many awards from national and international choral competitions. He was recognized for his achievements with the 2011 Presidential Award for Outstanding Professor. Feiszli wrote:
“I have always believed that my work was of significant value to the music discipline because I was influencing those who would be in a position to impact society outside the confines of the music world. My students become major players in the fabric of our society. It is of the utmost importance that they acquire and retain an appreciation for the importance of music. I am honored at the recognition the Carnegie Foundation has given to one who has followed ‘the road not taken.’ It is an acknowledgement that excellence in education is not simply a matter of narrow focus but also of the broader impact of one’s work.”
The nomination and consideration process is intensive. CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges to select finalists. The Carnegie Foundation then convened the third and final panel, which selected four national winners. CASE and Carnegie select state winners from top entries resulting from the judging process.
The university nominated Feiszli, and materials considered for the award included letters of support from campus colleagues, counterparts from professional organizations and affiliations, community leaders and students.
“For 30 years Dr. Feiszli has developed the habit of excellence in hundreds of engineers and scientists through music. He is relentlessly demanding and his students love him for it. At a school that doesn’t even have music majors, our student choirs inspire awe and attract capacity crowds because of Jim Feiszli. This honor is richly deserved and we are very fortunate that Dr. Feiszli chose the students at Mines for his life’s work,” said Mines President Heather Wilson, D.Phil.
Former student Jessica Hartman, now a Delta Airlines sourcing manager based in Atlanta, says Feiszli’s mentorship changed her life.
“As an undergraduate woman at an engineering school my focus should have been solely on chemistry, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer. … He challenged me to become not just a better vocalist but a better version of myself. The opportunities that set me up for success in the real world can be traced directly back to my time studying under Dr. Feiszli. How to persevere. How to communicate without words.”
Q: What other organizations have recognized the good that you have done for choral music?
A:
Presidential Award for Outstanding Professor. SDSM&T, 2011
ROPE Award (Recognizing Our Professors of Excellence). SDSM&T resident students, 2011
Meritorious Music Educator Award. SD Music Educators Association, 2010
Lifetime Achievement Award. SD American Choral Directors Association, 2010
Meritorious Music Educator Award. SD Music Educators Association, 2005
Rushmore Honors Award. Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce, 2003
Virginia Simpson Award. SDSM&T – for community achievement, 1996
Encore Award. SD American Choral Directors Association – outstanding achievement, 1993
Grand Teton Choral Festival, Jackson Hole, WY, 1987
First Place, College Division. SDSM&T Master Chorale
Q: What three pieces of choral music are most dear to your heart and why?
A: ONLY THREE??
Heinrich Isaac: Sancti Spiritus, sequence for Pentecost, Choralis Constantinus, Book II – performed by my professional ensemble Dakota Voices at the Choralis Constantinus Quincentennial in 2008 with Markus Utz improvising the alternatim verses
William Dawson: Soon-Ah Will be Done – encore or finale of every single SDSMT alumni choir concert since inception
Anton Bruckner: Christus factus est – conducted by me at the 1975 national ACDA convention as an undergraduate student of Bruce Brown’s Mount Union College Master Chorale
Q: Tell us about one student you are very proud of. Explain?
A: Simply cannot. I am proud of 99.9% of them. Cannot choose one. Have at least five CEO’s among former students. Have about 8-10 married alumni couples that met in my choirs. Have many former students that are still actively involved in music. But their accomplishments or activities don’t make me proud of them. It’s how they conduct themselves as human beings that makes me proud.
Q: Have you specialized in a particular time period in choral music? Why did you choose that specialty? What is it about that music that moves you?
A: Early Renaissance. So much more interesting than late Renaissance. No one does it because there are few good editions of it and the voicing is largely STTB and most choirs these days seem to be SSSSAAATB. Early baroque is likewise so much interesting than late Baroque. Give me Monteverdi anytime over Vivaldi. Don’t find much interesting at all about Classic/Romantic except the aforementioned Bruckner. Love the Brahms Requiem but it’s about three movements too long.
Q: Are there any musicians in your family? Did they participate in or shape your music making?
A: Long history of Feiszli (Feissli the Swiss spelling) musicians. The first one in the U.S. (my great-great-great-grandfather) was a singing teacher. Many have been professional or amateur musicians. My father was headed to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music on a full-ride scholarship as a double major (tuba/string bass) when he got drafted in 1942. Trained as a truck driver, he asked to sit in with the training base band and when they heard him, the commander pulled strings to get him re-assigned to the band. Played through WWII! Was married and a father by the time he got out so worked for GM, repaired musical instruments on the side, and played in every big band, combo, concert band, and orchestra he could. My brother-in-law (doctorate in music, bassist, director of Parma Symphony) and I heard him playing, at the age of 86, as the sole tuba player in a Fourth of July concert. After two numbers, we looked at each other and said, “He’s REALLY good!” Of six kids, three of us got bachelors’ degrees in music. Two of us got masters’. All of us played in band and sing in church or community choirs. Google “Feiszli” and you’ll see my links compete with my cousin Dan who is a professional bassist in Los Angeles and has a recording studio there. You’ll also find his brother Matt, who is a professor at Brown University and great amateur guitarist. Google “Feissli” and you’ll find a professional luthier.
The only way it shaped me was that I was the least talented of the bunch and so made up for I with hard work. They’re all smarter and more talented than me.
ChoralBlog readers, join us for the final installment of our series about our founder next Sunday. We’ll hear a little more about ChoralNet and also hear from others who have known and worked with the hero of this great story.
Thanks to composer David Cope for use of his picture in our Showcase Dare graphic and Donovan Senzig for creating the graphic.
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