A Tremendous Friendship with My Choral Conductor

I am fascinated by Dr. Mark Simmons. He has really taken me under his wing and showed me the ropes of being a conductor and has really been like a mentor to me. In the wake of Dr. Peterson, he may be an unpopular person, but I don’t think so, and these are one of those instances where you need to look at both people separately. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.

But this is about Dr. Simmons. First of all, I feel the love from him, or at least a sense of admiration and acknowledgement from him for the work I put in on a day to day basis. And I have put in a lot of work. I am definitely one of, if not, the most senior student that he has working toward a choral music education degree.

I just love and respect the man so much, because he has acknowledged me, and made me feel important as a student and possible mentee. I believe the respect is mutual, because he feels that I give him the time of day and ear of listening that he needs.

At the beginning of the Fall 2022 semester, I was taking Conducting 2 online through Ottawa. One day, he saw me in passing on my computer and asked me what I was doing, and I told him reading an article about how mimes are just like conductors. He then took me aside, brought out his many batons, and started showing me proper conducting and baton technique. That was when I knew that this guy cared about me.

Later that term, I had an assignment from my conducting class that I was to interview a Choral conductor. I decided to ask him if I could interview him, and he gladly accepted, arranging a time and day for us to meet. We spent a good 50 minutes talking about conducting.

Since there are two Ottawa terms per 1 MCC semester, I had been signed up for the wrong methods class at Ottawa. It was instrumental methods. I had told Monica Barrett that we had a mix up and that I needed to be in Choral Methods.

The next day I was approached by both Dr. Simmons and Dr. Peterson, Dr. Simmons saying that if I needed it, he would teach me, but from an unstructured class, or if I could get out of it, that that would be beneficial, too, especially since Dr. Simmons had not been registered to teach for Ottawa just yet.

I got on the phone in between concert choir and jazz and talked to Monica. In the conversation she said it was up to me. And I resolved then and there that I wanted this choral methods class, especially since I had started ASC. I then told Dr. Simmons, and he was like, okay, I will do this for you.

The Fall 2 term I spent my Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Dr. Simmons, practicing conducting, talking about voice ranges, and talking about Choral music history. Two of those days he put me in front of the Concert Choir and had me direct them for about 10 minutes, giving me pointers. And then the following days in class he gave me more pointers. It was a very productive class.

He got very personal with me. Since we met in his office, it was a nice, intimate one on one setting. He got emotional telling me about his connection to Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, telling me about how it reminded him of his brother on his deathbed.

I feel very close to Dr. Simmons, and I hope I can continue under his mentorship. Learning under his tutelage has been some of my best moments at MCC.