A Musical Genesis for a future of fine Arts

A Musical Genesis

for a Future of Fine Arts

It was the very definition of an uphill battle. Upon taking charge of the struggling John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1913, President James Franklin Cox noted that weeds were taking over the grounds, the few buildings were quickly becoming dilapidated, money was in extremely short supply, and his faculty consisted of just two instructors.

Not science or math professors. Not vocational teachers for home economics or agriculture.

Two music teachers who began Tarleton’s educational legacy in the fine arts.

Charles and Edna McKenzie Froh, husband and wife, took on the daunting task of initiating a music program at the cashstrapped institution, often working for IOUs in lieu of paychecks prior to Tarleton joining the Texas A&M System.

In the genesis of the music program, the Frohs taught beginning piano lessons sporadically to very few serious music students. Their unswerving dedication gave way to an eventuallyexpanded curriculum including courses in percussion, brass, woodwinds and strings, as well as vocal and choral performance.

Charles Froh, who taught at Tarleton from 1909 to 1947, was an Indiana-born music teacher educated at the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He left the Midwest to take a part-time job with Charles Landon of the Landon Conservatory in Dallas. Though the position, unbeknownst to Froh, turned out to be that of a janitor, he so impressed Landon that he eventually became an instructor.

While in Dallas, Froh met harmony student Edna McKenzie and the pair fell in love. They married prior to graduation. They moved to California to teach, then to Tarleton, where, according to Golden Days of Purple and White; The John Tarleton College Story by C. Richard King, hard fiscal times meant the duo sometimes were not paid.

“Many times the faculty would be compelled to do without their salary checks for three or four months,” wrote Cox during the 1913 school year. “The board would borrow the money in order to pay the teachers. This money borrowed was guaranteed by the board and meant a great responsibility for them.”

Froh’s job included developing a faculty that, early on, featured his wife, who, based on a listing in the college catalog, had “at her command a highly imaginative, poetical and musical temperament and sound, well-developed technic (sic) to sustain it. She possesses a large and varied repertoire and is constantly adding to it.”

With the infusion of resources that followed as Tarleton became part of the Texas A&M System, Froh and Tarleton were able to construct a top-notch music program, featuring faculty members who carved out their own places in Tarleton history. Instructors like legendary band director D. G. Hunewell, and Eastman School of Music graduate Donald Morton, who would become the department head.

The program has gone on to gain national distinction, with recent appearances at Carnegie Hall by two groups, the Chamber Choir and the Wind Ensemble, appearances in Chicago’s Thanksgiving Day parade by The Sound and the Fury marching band and performances in Japan and Italy by the Chamber Choir and Jazz Ensemble, respectively.

Froh birthed those programs. During his more than three–decade tenure, Froh is credited with spearheading the creation of the marching band, an all-girl band, the Little Symphony Orchestra and choral groups including a glee club and later, the Tarleton Singers.

Upon his retirement, Tarleton boasted a six-person music faculty and several hundred majors.

Today, Tarleton’s music programs continue to evolve and improve. One example is the All-Steinway initiative, a $1.5 million fundraising effort to upgrade the university’s piano inventory, much of which is nearing a half-century in use.

“The Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center is one of the most important cultural arts centers in this area of Texas,” said Music Department Head Dr. Teresa Davidian. “We want the best for our community and for our students.”

A total of 41 pianos are slated for eventual replacement and donations of more than $100,000 have been made to purchase the first three.

From struggling genesis to stalwart successes, Froh guided Tarleton music toward its current status.