PSU Magazine Fall 1995

Learning, fun, and confidence building are all part of the summer music camp. By Valerie Brown PHOTOS llY STEVE DIPAOLA Mary Kogen, professor of music, has at least as much fun as the children. ere there's n the last day of summer music camp , 75 Lincoln Hall hummed with several kinds of prepara– tion. From a big, black grand piano center stage, chora l direc– tor Jud y Rose ran a throng of kids through her original song, "We've Got the Spirit," and the pop tune "You Gotta Be." Around the periphery, technicians set up the ound system, the drum kit, and the mu ic computer. ln the audience, videographers recorded the scene fo r the evening news and the camp's archives. Self Enhancement Inc. (SEI) staff members wove in and out, keeping the kids focused and lav i hing indi vidual atten– ti on on those who needed it. Everyone wore black T-sh irts printed with the vividly colored camp logo. The camp, a week-long venture between Portl and State and SEI , is PSU music Profes or Mary Hall Kogen's brain child. Supervising the camp activities, she's never at re t– gesturing, hugging, laughing, exhort– ing not only kids but also her friends and colleagues, her hair dancing around her head like a vi ible ign of the ideas bubbling in her mind . The mid-summer music camp for 8-to- 10-year-olds, is part of PSU 's commitment to work with SE! in prov iding cultural enrichment for at– risk inner-city children. For that week, 30 kids swarm over Lincoln Hall learn– ing rhythm, melody, ensemble singing and playing, and performance. Kogen harnesses their abundant energy in the ervice of creati vity with the help of volunteers, including chora l director Judy Rose, percussionist Joel Bluestone, and compose r ynthia Gerdes. As a profe or of piano pedagogy, Kogen has made a career of teaching music educa tion tudents how to teach budding musicians. She's as interested in pass ing on qualities of competence and curios ity as she is in instilling the details of rigorous musica l perfor– mance. As it happens, early in her career Kogen her ·elf took a detour into teaching from her original goa l of pi ano perfo rmance. Kogen's very ea rly ambiti on to be a stewardess was stifl ed when she fo und out she was prone to air ickne . All th rough her childhood she took piano le son , ome from a "crazy lady in Mill Valley" who taught her the principle of harmony. Her musica l talent was obv ious, but when she reached the college-level musical envi– ronment at Northwestern in C hicago she was in fo r a shock. "I wa best at my high school but at Northwestern I was the wor t," Kogen remembers. That realization made her believe she wasn 't g od enough to make performing a career. Kogen's profound disappointment turned to anger at "the system," growing deeper with each year of her college educa– tion. She decided to give up music and go into the Peace Corps. "I was cutting class, acting out," she says. Finally one of her profe ors, Dr. Guy Duckworth, took her aside and asked her what was going on. "! let FALL 1995 P U MAGAZINE 11