06/11/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/11/2025 07:56
W&L News Office
June 11, 2025
Q. How long have you worked at W&L?
I have been working at W&L for 12 years.
Q. What is your favorite course to teach, and why?
Applied Voice because there are no two voices in the world that are alike. Also, two singers may have similar vocal needs but will respond to my instruction differently, so I must tailor my approaches based on how they think and respond, which is like solving a puzzle.
Q. What is the most satisfying aspect of teaching?
Being witness to the expansion of horizons. It's working with the student who finally "gets" a technical concept that has proven elusive or another who initially didn't care for a piece of music I assigned but, as they analyzed it and worked through it, they came to love it. It's also watching young people mature during their four years in college.
Q. Where is your favorite location on the W&L campus?
My office. I have many great memories of teaching lessons, advising students, meeting with colleagues and taking my lunchtime 30-minute power naps in there.
Q. What's your favorite thing to do when you're not working?
I like to work outside when I'm at home, and I'm especially fond of cutting and splitting firewood (sorry, I'm not for hire).
Q. Where did you grow up?
Decatur, Alabama.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An aeronautical engineer, but then I started having serious trouble with math, which pretty much shot those plans in the foot. Musicians only need to count to four.
Q. Who inspired you to teach? What about them inspired you?
Russell Hedger, my undergrad voice teacher. He was one of the kindest people I've ever known. In my first voice lesson, he said, "You sing so well to sing so wrong." But I wasn't hurt at all by the way he said it. I knew he was affirming that I was singing on natural talent alone without understanding the whats, whys and hows of the singing process. He always had time for me. Many times, I'd drop by his studio between lessons with a question or a request for help, and he never turned me away. Finally, he was humble and had no personal agenda, only that of helping his students sing better.
Q. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done?
I had an uncle who was an engineer for Ford Motor Company. When I was 11 years old, we visited them in Arizona and he took my dad and me on a tour of Ford's Yucca Flats Proving Ground, which he managed. The tour ended on the oval test track, where he stomped the accelerator of his massive Lincoln Continental and launched it down the straightaway. As we approached the curve, he said, "Let's see if we've done our homework, if so, the car will steer itself through the curve." Upon completion of that sentence, we were going 115 mph and entering the curve, at which time he took his hands off the steering wheel. The car did exactly what he expected it to do, and we exited the curve with the speedometer buried at 120 mph and my pulse waaayyy higher than that.
Q. What book are you reading now?
I just finished "Gap Creek" by Robert Morgan.
Q. What music are you listening to these days?
On the "professional" side, I'm listening to song cycles by living composers and recordings of long-deceased great singers from multiple genres. When I'm in my truck, it's the Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind and Fire.
Q. If you could have coffee with one person, who would it be and why?
George Shirley, the first African American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera. At 91, he still teaches applied voice at the University of Michigan. I have admired him for decades as a trailblazing performer, gifted pedagogue and magnificent human being.
Q. If you could live anywhere, where would you build your dream home?
Nickajack Lake on the Alabama/Tennessee border near Chattanooga.
Q. What is your favorite film (movie) of all time?
"The Emperor's Club."
Q. If they made a movie about your life, who would play you?
Jimmy Osmond.
Q. What is your desert island food?
Pork ribs.
Q. Tell us something most people don't know about you.
When I was a kid, the Osmonds were a big deal and folks used to say I looked like Jimmy Osmond. In 2003, I met Jimmy Osmond when the choir I directed at Southwest Baptist University sang in one of his shows in Branson, Missouri. We had a good laugh and noted that I didn't look like him anymore.
Q. Anything else you'd like to share?
My life verse, Psalm 13:6: "I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me."