BYU
SCHOOL OF MUSIC newsletter
Summer 2021
Table of Contents 3 5
Connections at BYU Mark Ammons
Connections at BYU - Jason Bergman
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Connections at BYU - Karen Snow
Check out the progress!
Connections at BYU - Sylvan Scott
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A Call to All Alumni
Join our “Let Your Light Shine” Initiative “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16
We want to hear about your accomplishments! It is time to “Let Your Light Shine”, we want you to tell us about the great works you have done and are doing! We’ll take your “candle” and help it shine. Please email us at musicalumni@byu.edu
Finding
Connection “ Through Great Music
Yearning to feel connected, to feel a part of something – no matter the size of that something – is woven into our spirits long before we ever come to this life. It is part of Our Father in Heaven’s plan for all of His children. Coming to understand and embrace this desire is what helps guide us back to Him. To help us begin to recognize and understand this eternally embedded feeling, our loving Father provides a myriad of experiences throughout our lives to create linkages that, when nurtured, develop into strong networks of family and friends. These networks, in turn, can provide much needed mutual support throughout our lives in our quest to return home. In this edition of the BYU School of Music Journal, we celebrate the connections that bind us together through the decades. We celebrate the accomplishments of our alumni and look to them for the strength and support their examples provide for our current students and recent graduates. We look forward to strengthening the webbing of our eternal networks in the School of Music as we work together to share the light of Christ through our music and actively participate in the gathering of Israel.
Dr. Mark Ammons Assistant Director, BYU School of Music
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Jason Bergman “I’m connected to BYU because the fibers of BYU’s mission and goodness have become a part of me.”
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I attended BYU as a student around 20 years ago. That experience then changed my life. I was able to gain some critical experience in my field that really set me up well for the future. This included performing with the Philharmonic and Wind Symphony, the Honors Brass Quintet, and even performing in the Evening of Concertos. Working closely with mentors also played a pivotal
role in my growth. Outside of music, I was able to meet lifelong friends who impacted me so positively then, and who continue to do so now. I developed a firmer spiritual foundation that has served me well. I’m connected to BYU because the fibers of BYU’s mission and goodness have become a part of me. I’m not sure you could disconnect me from BYU.
Jason Bergman joined the music faculty of the Brigham Young University School of Music as Associate Professor of Trumpet in August 2018. Learn more about Jason here. I believe that above all, the music business is a people business. When you understand that, you focus on collaboration and connection. It’s through remaining in contact with all of the wonderful people at BYU that I’ve stayed in contact. Now that I am a faculty member, I work hard to
try to remain connected to our former students. I want them to feel that lifelong connection so they know they are loved and missed, and also so that we have high-quality folks to replace us when we retire or leave.
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- Jason Bergman
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KarenSnow
40 years of
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Life Long Learning at BYU Living in Practice Rooms
I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in August 2004. I entered BYU in 1964 as a scared little 17-year-old freshman who had never been away from home. I applied to be a music major and was accepted. My wonderful teacher from the beginning was Paul Pollei. He was a taskmaster, and he expected and got results because of it. I remember getting a “bravo” from him one time at a lesson after playing a Bach fugue. I felt like I had just performed a big concert and the audience was applauding. Conversely, once when I scheduled to play at “Music at Midday” in the Fine Arts Center, I walked out to play my selection, a Bach prelude and fugue. I was completely confident about the prelude but worried about the fugue. I played about 2 measures into the prelude and couldn’t go on any further. I didn’t stop playing, but I repeated those same measures at least 5 times until, thankfully, I was able to carry on. It felt like a disaster, but I went on and did the rest, including the dreaded fugue, perfectly. When I finished, I was still quite embarrassed and rapidly left the performing area. At our next master class, there was a long talk about performance etiquette. Though he didn’t give a lot of praise, you really loved it when he did. He was focused on his students and chose the best pieces that played to their strengths. Through practicing upwards of 8-9 hours, I was able to progress and hone my skills. My roommates would often say that I should have been paying my rent to the practice rooms since that’s where I usually was when I wasn’t working or going to classes. I didn’t spend much time at the apartment.
Graduating 40 Years later I married in 1968 before graduating and went on to help my husband graduate, and later had 10 children; however, I wanted to finish that degree. When my youngest children, a pair of twins, entered Kindergarten, I felt like that opportunity had finally come. I contacted the BYU music department to see what I needed to do. I had been a Music Education major when I first enrolled, but she said there was a new major and that I had way more music classes than I would ever need for the new major. I grabbed at that chance and asked what I needed to do. She said, your major is complete! All you have to do is update your general education classes to current standards. So in 1990, I began that course – I attended the local community college and took two classes at a time until 2004 when I finally graduated. Each year, I would call the music department and get updates about what I should take next. It seemed like each year, the person I talked with would tell me that I had good news. Finally I was down to one class – Math! This was always my trouble spot. I learned I needed to take Intermediate Algebra to complete the math requirement. This meant I had to take Elementary Algebra and then Intermediate Algebra. In the Fall of 2003, I took Elementary Algebra through an online class. I was amazed that it all made sense to me. In high school, math didn’t work for me at all. But now, I guess my brain had just matured or something. I got an A+ in the class and they asked me to be a tutor. I didn’t have time for that, but I was quite honored that they would ask.
After completing the fall semester, I had earned an Associates of Arts degree from the Community College. I signed up for Intermediate Algebra for Spring 2004, and after finishing that class (with another A for a grade), I also earned an Associates of Science degree. I felt pretty accomplished at that point. I had my transcript sent to the BYU Music Department so they could do my graduation evaluation. I was told to call around February, so I did. At that time, she said she noticed my Associate’s degree and said that I didn’t need to take anything else. She was excited for me to graduate almost as much as I was! I had already determined that I would walk for graduation. This turned out to be somethingg very special and one of the highlights of my life. I’ll remember it forever. I did, however, feel pretty old as I walked there with all the music graduates. There were a few older people graduating but mostly young ones. But I felt pretty good since I had earned 3 college degrees that year!
The Karen Snow School of Music After completing the degree, I decided that I would start teaching piano more than I already had. I would do a few students here and there,
and I taught my own children, but nothing major. With all my children either in school, on missions or married, I felt I could do this. By 2007, I had begun to establish my own studio, the “Snow School of Music”. I loved teaching piano to my students. I taught my first lessons in 1965 and probably have at least 25 years of teaching under my belt, but most of it was part-time or off-andon. I began to teach all ages and enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t teach on the weekends or Fridays so my schedule of 30-35 students on 4 days of the week was very intensive and busy. I wanted my students to not just learn music, but learn to love music. We had master classes quarterly where the student performed and I instructed. We had major recitals twice a year, once at Christmas and once at the end of the school year. I almost always took the summer off to focus more on the children who were still at home. I was able to purchase a Steinway grand piano during this time and thoroughly enjoy playing it. Before COVID-19 began, I moved my grand piano into another part of our house. My mother had lived with us for about 13 years before she passed on. She wanted me to use her part of the house as a music studio after she was gone.
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I made her bedroom my studio. How wonderful at a time. I was sad to leave these sweet students, it was to have a dedicated room with a separate some of which I taught from the time they were entrance for lessons. However, the pandemic got very young. in the way. Looking back, I have fond memories of I was only able to teach in person there for teaching, but I don’t miss it too much. I spent a lot two months, then I had to of time working with students, do virtual lessons. I didn’t planning events and working I am grateful that I was able to like them much but it was on auditions and competitions. finally finish my degree. better than nothing. I I find I don’t miss all that I guess you could say it was on found myself exhausted at work. I feel happy about my my bucket list. the end of a teaching day career. I really only miss the much more than when I students! So many of them taught in person. have told me that they learned to love music just I decided that I would retire in May of 2020 like I wanted them to. One previous student (who and informed my students, who were not happy is now married and even has grandchildren of about my decision. I couldn’t even have a final big her own) told me that she also taught piano in St. recital either. I did front porch recitals for some, George and that she learned to love music from and hosted others in my backyard with one family me. That made me feel so good!
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Karen Ruth Sponseller Snow married her husband Ron Snow in 1968, Ron graduated from BYU in 1971 when they had two boys. They later went on to have 7 boys and 3 girls and, so far, 30 grandchildren.
I am still continuing to teach a few grandchildren, and I have one virtual student that literally begged me to keep her. I guess keeping one finger in the piano-teaching pie is okay. I still try to share my talent as much as I can and hope it can bring joy to others like it has to me. I never would’ve thought back in 1964 that I would be teaching piano for so long and loving it, but I have.
Life is joyous to me thanks to my family, the Gospel, and music. I thank the Lord every day for the gift of music in my life. This is my story, and of course, it is not yet finished. While I am grateful that I was finally able to finish my degree (I guess you could say it was on my “bucket list”), lifelong learning is my goal, and I’m going to continue trying to learn something new every day.
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- Karen Snow
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Check Out The Progress On Our New Building
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“Because I felt like I was behind in my piano instruction, attending BYU seemed like a bit of a pipe dream. With the support of my family and my teacher, I am so grateful that I eventually was able to make it here!”
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Sylvan Scott
I felt like I had experienced a miracle when I was accepted as a music student at BYU. I grew up in a military family, and so we moved around a lot when I was a kid. It would take a while to find a new teacher once we moved, and I only had about six years of private lessons before I was accepted as a piano major. While I did not always have the opportunity for lessons growing up, there was always music in my home and that made up the difference for me. I remember when I was six my dad was stationed in San Diego. Since he had just recently graduated from school and joined the Navy, we did not have very much. I will be forever grateful that my mom felt impressed to get a piano even though money was tight. A short while later she enrolled me in Yamaha group piano lessons, which I really enjoyed. I bounced around between teachers through elementary school as we moved. Before the start of junior high, we moved again, and I did not have a piano teacher for a while. In the meantime, I was always learning music I found online as well as singing and playing hymns with my family and in church. I also took up the saxophone so I could play in the school band. It was during rehearsal and lessons with my band teacher that I really started to connect with music. Before then, making music was just something that I liked to show off to my friends. During those first years in band, though, music became much more meaningful to me as I learned how you could communicate and express emotions through music. Before high school we moved to Maryland, and I started wanting to study piano again. My mom and I searched for a teacher until we
found Mr. Guiles, a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory. He introduced me to the classical repertoire, and I fell in love with the music of Bach, Debussy, Chopin, Scarlatti, Brahms, and Beethoven. It was then that I decided that I would love to study music in college. Because I felt like I was behind in my piano instruction, attending BYU seemed like a bit of a pipe dream. With the support of my family and my teacher, I am so grateful that I eventually was able to make it here! I really enjoyed my first year at BYU, and I learned a lot, but I still had doubts about whether I should continue to study and make music a career. I accepted a mission call to the islands of Samoa, and I left wanting to return to the music program but was unsure if I would. While on my mission in Samoa, though, several wards asked me to hold group piano lessons. With only the electric keyboard in the chapel to use, it was quite a challenge to teach them in that setting -- and to do so in a foreign language! As I taught, I realized two things: one, that I had been given a marvelous gift, and two, that I could turn around and start using that gift to bless others in meaningful ways. It was so rewarding to serve the people I loved so much in such a personal way. I hope one day to be able to return to Samoa and teach music there: I have never met kids more eager to learn but with so few opportunities. Those experiences have made me want to return to study music at BYU. I do not know what other opportunities the Lord has in store for me, but I am excited to use my gifts to bless others for the rest of my life.
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