7 minute read
Portraits of Relationship-Richness
BY JACK ROTH
A few years ago, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stetson School of Music graduate Julie Kaplan ’93 fed her artistic thirst by adding painting to her repertoire.
Her strong desire to make beautiful things — whether by playing music or painting — was nurtured at Stetson, where relationships with her professors and fellow students shaped her future.
“During COVID, I found myself with so much time on my hands, and I needed some creative juices to start flowing in a different way,” Kaplan explains. “I was never particularly interested in painting, but I always had an appreciation for artistic expression and the sharing of that. My kids [daughter and son] really inspired me to paint, and I wanted to paint something for them.”
A clarinet player who never took art classes, Kaplan suddenly and inexplicably felt a strong desire to paint iconic buildings located on college campuses. She began her new endeavor by doing a painting of the Deering Library at Northwestern University, where her daughter attended. She posted it on the Northwestern Parents Facebook Page, and parents started asking her to paint other buildings for them on commission.
Kaplan went on to paint just about every major building on the Northwestern campus, then turned eight of the best of them into a series of notecards. From there, she began painting buildings from other campuses, including the University of Florida, where her son attended, followed by Stetson, her alma mater.
“I’ve always been fascinated with campuses and their buildings, but I have to admit, when I go back and look at the first ones I did, I think they’re awful,” she concedes, “but I did get better, and since I love college campuses, painting those buildings was a joy.”
Today, Kaplan sells her notecards, art prints and originals on Etsy and also offers them at a gift shop in downtown DeLand. She recently finished a series of eight Stetson campus scenes that she has turned into another notecard series.
Fateful Meeting
Kaplan grew up in the small town of Delavan, Wisconsin, and, especially during the cold winter months, would vacation in Florida with her family. The Kaplans loved Florida, so during Julie’s junior year in high school, she started to apply to Florida colleges that had music programs. Stetson was one of them. And that’s how she met Lynn Musco, DM, a music teacher who would become a lifelong friend and mentor.
Musco, now Professor of MusicClarinet, Woodwind coordinator, chair of Faculty Development, and director of Stetson’s Clarinet Clinic, was in her first year teaching at Stetson when she heard about Kaplan.
“It was the spring of 1989, and I was in Milwaukee for my brother’s wedding. Julie was only a short drive away, and I knew she was a Stetson applicant, so I made arrangements to visit her at her high school,” Musco remembers. “I knew immediately she was a perfect fit for Stetson: smart, intuitive and energetic with a good work ethic. She played a bit for me, but the majority of the visit was conversation.”
Musco quickly learned Kaplan was excited about being a music educator. Musco knew they would work well together and that Kaplan had everything needed to be successful and make a difference. Kaplan narrowed her choices to Stetson and Florida State, and chose Stetson because it was smaller and more like her hometown.
“I’ll never forget visiting Stetson for the first time,” Kaplan says. “I was walking down Woodland Boulevard and the church bells started ringing, and it was like a sign that this place was for me. To be honest, I wasn’t a stellar player, but Lynn took a chance on me. I was her inaugural student at Stetson, and she believed in me.”
Most music students focus on their instrument to become choir or band directors, but Stetson allowed Kaplan to participate in both chorus and band. She took voice lessons, became a member of the concert choir and played clarinet in the band. Looking back, she is glad she did it because it prepared her to teach at the elementary-school level.
“We discovered really early that the clarinet wasn’t physically friendly for Julie because her hands weren’t designed to play that instrument,” Musco recalls. “But we also learned she had a strong love and talent for singing, as well as a piano background, and through many conversations, tears and laughter we began to focus on her vision of a future teaching elementary-school music, which was a perfect blend of all her talents.”
Between their work together, along with the work Kaplan did with her vocal professor, plus her grit and determination, Kaplan laid the foundation and built her confidence. In turn, that enabled her to amass an incredible musical vocabulary and, ultimately, become an outstanding educator.
Lifelong Connections
Today, Kaplan lives with her husband in Chuluota, in nearby Seminole County, and gives private piano lessons to 32 students at her own studio. Her daughter, Molly, 24, recently graduated from Northwestern and plays French horn. Her son, Sam, 22, is a senior at the University of Florida and plays the tuba. They have both attended summer music camps at Stetson, a place Kaplan looks back on fondly.
“It was the perfect place for me in every way — small class sizes and very nurturing,” says Kaplan, who remains in touch with the School of Music. “I’d go over to my professors’ houses for dinner, so it was truly a family. I found my niche because of my professors, who took me under their wings and saw my potential. Our lives became connected, and that’s really special.”
Musco believes it’s crucial for the student-teacher dynamic to be built on trust, honesty and communication. So, the goal is to begin establishing those areas of the relationship from the very first meeting, which sometimes starts before the student actually enrolls and is on campus.
“It’s something that continuously grows and changes as the relationship develops,” she says. “It’s seeing each individual and building a relationship with them that will best help them move toward their goal. It means we work through the trials and tribulations, as well as the successes.”
What they do in the School of Music, Musco adds, is so personal that success depends on the quality and sincerity of that teacher-student bond.
Her life’s work is to help students find their voices, Musco continues. Therefore, it’s important to be able to see and hear what they are telling you, both directly and indirectly, as sometimes they do not know what direction is truly best for them.
“I’ve had many students veer away from their degree in music to do some unbelievable things, but it was the trust in our relationship both while at Stetson and after that helped them find their journey,” she asserts. “No matter where they are in their lives they know they can contact me if they have a question, concern, quandary or just want to touch base and say, ‘Hey.’”
For Kaplan, Stetson is about shaping young lives, and her advice to incoming freshmen would be to embrace these connections.
Her words: “Do what you love and find your people, those who are also passionate about the same things, because they will be the ones who stick with you throughout your college days and beyond. Professors go into teaching because they’re passionate about teaching what they know, and you have four years to learn from these amazing people. So, ask questions and don’t be afraid to make relationships with them. Nothing makes professors happier than seeing their students flourish.”
Indeed, the enduring friendship between Kaplan and Musco, and what it has meant to both of them, is a testament to the type of relationship-rich learning environment that Stetson has created.
“Julie is one of the special ones, perhaps because she’s a fellow ‘cheese-head’ Wisconsinite, or because she’s one of my first recruits, or because she just worked so dang hard to push past the hurdles that were thrown in her way to get where she is today,” says Musco. “She’s one of those students I consider family … dear to my heart, cherished and valued each and every day.”
