Ruth Dwyer is shown at a rehearsal of the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir.
Republic file photo
Ruth Dwyer never had a music teacher in elementary school or junior high at her small parochial school in Kokomo.
“I guess my first music teachers were Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand,” she said, reminiscing about the vocal idols of her childhood.
The 66-year-old Dwyer has spent the past 42 years — 25 of that with the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir — making sure that youngsters in south-central Indiana have the hands-on musical guidance, encouragement and instruction that they seek.
On Saturday, the Irvington resident will lead the ensemble in their annual holiday performances, “Joyful Holidays,” with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Judson Erne Auditorium in Columbus. The performances are the heralded choir’s most visible appearances and the Philharmonic’s largest crowds, frequently 1,000-seat sellouts.
Dwyer retired as the choir’s artistic director in August. She will make one other appearance with the group on Memorial Day weekend at the annual SALUTE! concert with the orchestra.
Melissa Garcia, whom Dwyer gloriously praises as gifted, is now the choir’s leader. Garcia also will participate in the weekend concerts.
Among the works the choir will croon will be her arrangement of “Oh Come Little Children,” long a favorite of Dwyer’s.
“I just love hearing them sing good, solid, three-part harmony,” Dwyer said.
Philharmonic Artistic Director David Bowden launched a precursor of the choir a few seasons before Dwyer, as leaders came and left. Dwyer was teaching music in Seymour schools when the Indianapolis Children’s Choir tapped her as its education director. Bowden asked if she’d consider a role as a Columbus choir’s overall leader.
Since that time, she has led choirs, workshops, lectures and more all over the world. In the process, she has escorted the local children’s choir to New York City’s Carnegie Hall, to Washington, to Europe and to Canada.
Bowden has repeatedly referred to Dwyer as a treasure. And the group she leads might be “the only choir in the world” with the chance to routinely perform with a professional orchestra, including one that has earned national honors and accolades, Bowden has said.
Yet, Bowden has highlighted Dywer’s interpersonal skills with youngsters, too — especially those who have faced adversity.
“There’s no denying that there’s a bond there, especially with those who have been through rough situations. She remembers details about a lot of them when she sees them again, even many years later.”
Dwyer has long been complimented by parents and others for teaching her choir members as much about life, self-discipline and confidence as she does music. And her alumni include such successful Columbus natives as Marja Harmon and Mary Claire King, both successful Broadway actresses and singers.
Melissa Fairbanks, Philharmonic board president, sees Dwyer as a terrific talent.
“She’s incredibly special,” Fairbanks said. “The CICC has flourished under her leadership.”
Yet, Dwyer readily acknowledged she frequently has been a slow learner when it comes to being realistic about her schedule. In some past years, in the fall and in December, she worked 60 to 90 hours in a week directing young voices for Butler University’s “The Nutcracker” and rehearsing with both the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and the Columbus ensemble for holiday performances.
“You just can’t do that for very long and still stay healthy,” she said.
Consequently, she loves the fact that her current schedule in semi-retirement has allowed her time for hiking and cycling and even time to visit family in Florida last month — something that never could happen before.
“Now, I have the freedom to pick and choose what I want to do,” she said.
That still will include leading workshops and more in places such as Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Plus, she currently is learning grant writing so she can expand her music knowledge via research by next fall in locales as far flung as Europe and amid topics such as Celtic heritage and tunes.
“This is so I can become a better musician and a better composer,” she said.
Not long ago, she uncovered a Christmas 1974 reel-to-reel recording of her singing as a college freshman. She wept.
“For a while, I wondered what I could have done or become if I had had the benefit of a children’s choir while growing up,” she said, adding that she would have loved to tackle opera or musicals as a young woman.
Ruth Dwyer’s Columbus students haven’t had to ask that question. She has shown them what they can become no matter what they pursue in later years.
Noteworthy.
