SIOUX CITY -- Music has been a cornerstone at Morningside since its first official year of classes in 1895. Back then, a total of 196 students enrolled in collegiate, commercial, musical, and medical departments.
Today, Morningside is home to nearly 1,200 full-time undergraduate students, many of whom spend their days filling the halls of Eppley and MacCollin with the sounds of music - and it shows in the level of musicianship and quality of performances displayed by the students and faculty.
One of the keys to Morningside’s success in music is that involvement in the ensembles and productions is open to all students, regardless of major. For newcomer Martin Gaines, this inclusivity is fundamental to music itself.
“Regardless of your background, where you are from, how you were raised, or what you believe, music is about people and community,” said Gaines, who joined the music faculty in fall 2021 as the director of instrumental activities and an assistant professor of music. “To me, this is the spark that cultivates the lifelong passion for learning that we seek to instill in our Morningside students.”
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The tradition of lifelong learning is also on the mind of Ryan Person, director of choral activities and assistant professor of music. Since taking the helm of the choir program in 2018, Person has embraced the traditions of choral music at Morningside while infusing it with new energy and direction.
Travel, both domestically and internationally, remains an integral part of the choir experience today, and the Morningside Choir will take flight once again in 2022 for a May term to the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany in conjunction with the applied agriculture and food studies program.
“At Morningside, we take pride in providing life-changing experiential learning opportunities for students. For generations, choir tours have been very important to the fabric of the Morningside choral experience. I feel that international travel remains essential as the Morningside Choir strives for increased visibility and notoriety as one of the finest collegiate choral ensembles within the United States,” Person said.
“My hope is that we will have a monumental impact on the music patrons and alumni in attendance and inspire our international audience to take interest in American choral music performance, particularly at Morningside.”
Opportunities like those offered in the Morningside Choir, treble choir Cantabile, tenor-bass choir Camerata, Morningside Symphonic Chorus, and the forever festive Christmas at Morningside are all part of Person and the music department’s mission to increase visibility for the programs both on and off-campus. Person is especially excited to continue fostering relationships with alumni with initiatives like the alumni choir during Homecoming and the development of the CODA Legacy Award.
“From singing ’The Morningside Hymn’ to our annual choral retreat at Lake Okoboji, I feel blessed to associate with the customs that are important to our current students and alumni,” Person said. “In doing so, I also believe the incorporation of traditions with new ideas has been essential in the development of our forward-trending program.”
This song of tradition and transformation can also be heard in the jazz program, led by assistant professor of music and director of jazz studies Erik Mahon. He joined the Morningside music faculty in 2018, and he has seen an increase in the number of students interested in jazz each year. Now that the Morningside Jazz Ensemble has reached its capacity, he hopes to start a second ensemble in the near future to offer more opportunities for students to learn about and play jazz music.
The annual jazz festival is one of the ways that students and the community can engage with jazz music at Morningside. Mahon says the festival is the largest and longest-running anywhere in this area, dating back decades to when jazz was more present in daily life and the ’who’s who’ of the art form played on Eppley’s stage.
During this three-day event, Morningside welcomes over 1,000 visitors to campus including high school students whose experience may result in their enrollment.
“Jazz is America’s music. Jazz is not an exclusive art form - rather it is the exact opposite. All are welcome, whether they participate or enjoy as a listener. We as a music faculty simply want to welcome students into our musical communities and enrich their experiences, musically and otherwise, at Morningside,” Mahon said.
While the ensembles at Morningside are open to all students, the experience they provide for music and music education majors is especially invaluable. From learning critical listening skills and having the opportunity to direct their peers to seeing their faculty model excellence in teaching and performing their own recitals, students majoring in music and music education are set up for success and ready to teach the next generation.
“I believe our students have an infinite ceiling to their potential,” Gaines said. “We hope to foster and inspire their dedication, and then shine a light on their talents.”
