After conducting research on one of the first female Ukrainian composers in Ukraine, founding her own online choir program and conducting choir online from Utah during the pandemic, Dr. Erica Glenn said she made her way to BYU–Hawaii.
Glenn said because her research project in Ukraine was shut down due to COVID-19 and she went back to Utah, once things started to open up again, she said she was faced with the choice of either coming to BYUH or going back to Ukraine.
She explained she focused on the power of God and prayer to help her make the right decision and knew she would be guided to the right place if she remained prayerful and trusted in God. She said Heavenly Father made it very clear she should turn down her grant to research in Ukraine and come teach at BYUH.
Glenn, the new BYUH choir director and visiting assistant professor of choral activities and voice in the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts from Utah, said she came to BYUH three semesters ago because of the power and influence of God. She said she could see the power and potential music could play for BYUH students and focuses on cross-cultural collaboration.
Powerful students
Glenn said she always tells her students they matter and are seen, each of them belong and they are more powerful than they realize.
She said she wants each of her students to know they are part of the fulfillment of David O. McKay’s prophecy. She explained the students “are men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally. [They] are the leaders nations are hungering for. They are genuine gold.”
By celebrating her students’ strengths, emphasizing their critical role in the music-making process and showing they belong, Glenn said she hopes to create an environment where students can be bold and creative.
She said she pushes her students because she sees their potential as “not just future musicians, but future leaders and generators of the kind of powerful, collaborative art that can build bridges and move mountains.”
Glenn shared a story about a student she taught who claimed he was tone deaf and couldn’t match any pitches.
She said he was willing to work hard and could match pitch after only a few months. “He then began refining his tone and working on his sight-reading skills, and by the next year, he was our baritone section leader in the top choir at the school. ... Everyone has a voice, and that voice matters,” said Glenn. She implored students to never let insecurities keep them from using their gifts.
Creativity, collaboration and communication
Glenn said she likes to focus on creativity, collaboration and communication. Allowing students to conduct their own pieces, write their own arrangements and share their own ideas for performances has made both choirs active and strong, she explained.
Glenn said she teaches collaboratively and wants her students’ input because they “learn from each other.” She said she invites all her students to share their ideas and stay focused on the multicultural aspect of BYUH. By having students share songs from their home countries and learn new Hawaiian phrases every week, she said she puts the focus on understanding culture.
Rehearsals are process-focused, she said, which means students use the classroom as a space to “elevate the voices of culture-bearers from around the world.” Students from the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Italy, Hawaii and Samoa teach songs from their countries, Glenn explained.
Learning songs like “The Sway of the Baby Hammock” from the Philippines, “Hawai’i Aloha” from Hawaii, “El Pueblo Unido” from Chile, “Song of the Little River” from Taiwan, and “Beautiful Country” from South Korea helped the BYUH Ho’olokahi Chamber Choir learn more about the power music has in culture, she shared.
Composing music is one of her favorite things to do, she added. She recently combined the songs “I am a Child of God” and Queen Lilioukalani’s “O Kou Aloha No” or “The Queen’s Prayer” to create a piece for the Oct. 5 devotional, she said. She added she also composed a song called “From This Place,” inspired by David O. McKay, President John Kauwe and Elder Jeffrey Holland’s words for President Kauwe’s recent inauguration ceremony.
Eden Uyehara, a junior from Laie majoring in music, said as a local member of the community, knowing someone has a desire to learn the culture and implement it into the choir makes her feel good. She said Glenn teaches Hawaiian history and incorporates Hawaiian language through the songs she chooses to help her students see the different opportunities in music.
Hernandez, a junior from Georgia majoring in psychology, said although a lot of choirs tend to be Westernized, Glenn is inclusive to everyone. Learning songs from different countries has helped her experience music in a different way, Hernandez shared.
Glenn said her aspirations for the future include seeing more cross-cultural collaboration. The rebranding of the choirs may help in getting more participation from everyone on campus and connecting with the local community and other disciplines on campus, she added.
Becoming in-sync
Glenn said she loves the “moment when a choir finds its sound collectively and becomes a single, living organism.” Scientific studies, she said, have found synchronized breathing acts as a meditation exercise and each performer’s heart starts beating in correlation to the tempo of the music.
Watching her students experience this for themselves and see them share their feelings with the audience is what she said inspires her about choral singing. “Choral music is such an inherently vulnerable art form,” Glenn shared, emphasizing how each individual person is the instrument.
Singing before she could talk
Glenn said before she could talk, she would communicate through melody to get her mother’s attention. “I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember,” she explained. “When I wanted my bottle, I would beep like the microwave. When I wanted to go to bed, I would hum the lullabies [my mom] used to sing.”
Throughout her career, Glenn said she has had the opportunity to perform in musicals such as “Beauty and The Beast,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Emma: The Musical,” “Diary of Anne Frank” and “Gentlemen’s Guide” as well as several operas including “Hansel and Gretel” and “Bartered Bride.”
She said she has also earned awards such as the American Prize in Conducting, the Teaching Excellence Award, Prizm Nominations for Best Music Direction and Best Actress in a Major Role in a Musical.
Helping choral arts survive the pandemic
Glenn said she thought all of her options disappeared during the pandemic. “I had to figure out how to help choral arts survive during the pandemic,” she explained. To do so, she said she decided to found her virtual choir conductor website, which is a virtual program that allowed her to direct choir online for people all over the world.
She said she was also able to conduct several online choirs, including BYUH Ho’olokahi Chamber Choir, while operating her website.
The American International School of Utah
Glenn said she worked on the Senior Management Team at the American International School of Utah with the responsibility of building the performing arts program. Due to her training as a choir director, there was no turning back, she said.
In one year at the American International School of Utah, she said they went from having one choir with 12 children to six choirs consisting of 300 students.
By the second year, Glenn shared the choir was winning competitions, collaborating with Broadway artists, singing at Abravanel Hall with Kurt Bestor and Lexi Walker and was even featured on the Public Broadcasting Service.
“More importantly, our students had become like family to each other, and they had discovered the power of passion-driven learning and striving, collectively, towards excellence,” Glenn expressed.
Watching communities of students come together from different backgrounds and cultures to capitalize on their diversity, she said, is magic. Having such a diverse group share music and work together to create a united choir despite their differences has been a wonderful thing to watch, she added. •