INQUIRING MINDS
All Together Now
By Julia Halprin Jackson Photography by Jim Gensheimer
Celebrated choir director, conductor and Professor Emerita of Music Charlene Archibeque believes music education empowers Spartans to discover new perspectives.
Once, while conducting a university choir at a music competition, San José State Professor Emerita of Music Charlene Archibeque remembers the judge asking the singers to assemble in the round to perform “The Cuckoo,” a traditional English folk song. The effect was immediate: the audience was cloaked in song, surrounded by harmony perfected under Archibeque’s careful hand.
“The judges specifically asked if we would sing in a circle around the audience,” Archibeque recalls. “It was a beautiful song. The audience loved it for its simplicity and its beauty, and [their reaction] surprised me. Singing in the round changes the way the audience hears, and it changes the way the singers do as well. One of our goals is to have all the singers in one section blend as one, so it sounds unified, like one musical body. People were crying in the choir and in the audience, and it was a very special moment. After that, I continued to teach singers to sing in the round every year.”
Archibeque served as the director of choral activities at SJSU’s School of Music and Dance for 35 years. Throughout her career, she has conducted at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, the Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Albert Hall in London. A pioneer in her own right, she made history at the University of Colorado by becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate of musical arts in choral conducting in 1969.
“There is a matching between the brain and singing in the choir, a feeling of camaraderie that you can’t get in many other places. There are very few feelings like singing in a choir together.”
— Charlene Archibeque
Archibeque wields her conducting wand. Photo by Jim Gensheimer.
Her home is full of art. Photo by Julia Halprin Jackson.
Unafraid to lead
Years before she taught generations of singers how to amplify their voices, Archibeque was a girl with an intrinsic interest in music. Raised in Ohio, she learned to play the piano, violin and even the drums before discovering her passion for music education, first at Oberlin College and later at the University of Michigan.
“My mother used to say that I would either be a preacher or a teacher, because I was always standing on a box, telling everybody what to do,” Archibeque laughs.
It takes courage, if not a little chutzpah, to command a choir or orchestra — plus real skill and expertise to unite diverse voices and instruments at the right time and pace. At 6 feet tall, Archibeque stood out in more than one way at school and on the dais. When a Michigan sorority organized a special performance, Archibeque arranged 19 pieces of music while still a student herself. Later, as a junior high and high school music teacher and choir director in San Diego, she selected music that would challenge and delight her students, believing that by exposing them to classical and world music, she could expand their perspectives.
Photo by Julia Halprin Jackson.
During her tenure at San José State, she led SJSU choirs on 16 concert tours to Australia, Mexico and throughout Europe.
“Learning folk music from other countries is a wonderful way for students to get a feeling for what a country is like, because folk music comes from the people,” she says. “One year we sang in 12 different languages. They started to learn a feeling for people from other places. We would travel to the country of a song that we knew, and the students would feel like they had a connection with the people.”
Regardless of genre, style or choir size, Archibeque says what many musicians chase is that feeling of connection.
“There have been studies that show that singing in a good choir has a relationship to how the brain learns,” she says. “There is a matching between the brain and singing in the choir, a feeling of camaraderie that you can’t get in many other places. There are very few feelings like singing in a choir together.”
Since retiring from SJSU in 2005, Archibeque has remained a steadfast supporter of the arts, establishing an endowment that awards scholarships and funds travel to music competitions for choral students.
“Schools do really count on alumni support,” she says. “I was very fortunate when I was teaching at SJSU to see people come to our concerts and donate money to help students go on trips or provide scholarships. If you can connect students to alumni and see how successful they are in various fields, our students feel that support. I encourage alumni to get to know more about the choral program, to attend concerts and support students in their education.”
“I encourage alumni to get to know more about the choral program, to attend concerts and support students in their education.”
— Charlene Archibeque
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