Iowa Arts News is a monthly publication of the Iowa Arts Council. If you would like to subscribe, please send us a blank e-mail.
IAC Scholarship Recipient Realizes Dream in Music Education
In
1988, Christian McGuire looked forward to graduating from Hudson High School and
pursuing a degree in music and philosophy from Luther College in Decorah. That
same year, he’d received a $1,000 Iowa
Scholarship for the Arts to help him reach his goal of becoming the “next
great opera singer after Simon Estes.”
Well, not exactly. But what McGuire has done is spend the past 12 years in the musical arena as an educator, performer, conductor, composer, clinician, recording artist and music retail manager. He now works as the musicologist for the annual Minnesota High School Music Listening Contest, which engages students in competition to identify composers, periods and styles of music.
“My
role as musicologist is to write the study guide and record the accompanying three-CD
set with commentary which the students study for the competition,” McGuire
said. “The study guide itself is about 130 pages and includes biographical,
historical and stylistic analyses of about 35 musical selections spanning the
long history of Western music. Writing the guide is both difficult and exciting
for me as every year I must choose new pieces of music to expose to the students.
I also try to demonstrate how people can discuss and analyze the popular music
of, say, Jessica Simpson using the same concepts and terms used to analyze Mozart.”
McGuire has a varied background of musical influences, beginning with both his parents — his father is an organist and his mother a music educator.
“In our family, music is music” he said. “I was just as likely to be listening to Beethoven, Bach, Lassus, Rimsky-Korsakov and Milton Babbit as I was to the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Dave Brubeck and the Ramones. I really love to find out why people like the music they do and talk about it. Music is a form of communication, so finding out how to listen, perform and experience the music, in essence understanding why someone likes the music they do keeps the doors of global and generational communication open.”
The Iowa Arts Council is now inviting scholarship applications from Iowa high school seniors who plan to pursue a degree in the arts at an Iowa college or university. McGuire’s advice to them is to remember that it is the application of knowledge which separates those who succeed from those who do not.
“Do not think of education as a means to a singular end,” he said. “Instead, strive to discover how learning in one field like Latin can be applied to learning in another field like computer programming. When studying in college, do not turn down any educational opportunity. Everything one does and studies is an opportunity to advance one’s knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge to his or her career and life aspirations.”
Iowa Scholarship for the Arts applications are due Saturday, December 10.
Get more
information on the Iowa Scholarship for the Arts and application instructions
»
For more information on Christian McGuire, visit www.myspace.com/christianmcguire.
Information on the Minnesota High School Music Listening Contest can be found at www.mnmlc.com.
