Doug McEwen

Date: July 17, 2010

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your immediate and positive responses to my request for information on Douglas McEwen. Obviously, he was revered in the profession and his reputation lives on.

I realize now that I had misspelled his last name in my earlier post. (I was never fortunate enough to have met him myself.) I am now in communication with his son, as well as several of his former colleagues at ASU.

Thanks again for the quick work of this national forum!

Brad Ellingboe

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Replies (9): Threaded | Chronological

David Fetz on July 19, 2010 10:45am

Dear Brad,

I was fortuate enough to sing with and under Dr. Doug for over thirty years. He directed the all-state choir when I was a junior in high school('68) here in Arizona and he was at New Mexico.

Later after I graduated He had moved to ASU and was head of the choral departmen.t He was kind enough to give me a scholarship. I finer, kinder man you would never want to meet. After he retired from ASU He came and sang for us at the church I was singing at and I was fortuate enough to sing the Dominus a Dextris duet from the Handel Dixit Dominus

with him. Later when He formed the Veritas Choral to make some recordings I was fortuate enough to sing with him then as well.. As you have probably found out by now Dr. Doug was NOT a small man. He towered over every one.I always felt small next to him and I'm 6'4". His Hands were enormous Too. One of my fondest memories was when he was conducting

Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev) with the Phoenix Symphony and ASU choral Union. He stood up and Conducted the whole work with out a Stick,useing his index finger when he wanted to keep th Symphony "on the stick" Thanks for letting me remenis,

David Fetz

Phoenix Az.

Bradley Ellingboe on July 21, 2010 10:35am

Dear David

Thanks for your kind response to my query. The response was really quite amazing. Doug is fondly remembered by many people and, with your permission, I'd like to share your reminiscences with his son Scott, who is helping us.

I think we have all we need. Thanks again for your contribution!

Brad Ellingboe

Amy Van Winkle on July 19, 2010 3:42pm

Dear Brad,

I sang under Dr. McEwen from 1978 - 1983 as an undergraduate student at Arizona State University. He was an awesome conductor, teacher, and person. His stature alone commanded respect but when he would point that 3-foot-long index finger at you...well, you did what you were told. I remember once on a choir tour we were in rehearsal and sound check for a performance. The tenor standing next to me held a note slightly too long after the release given by Dr. McEwen. He looked up in our direction and the tenor immediately looked at me thus giving Dr. McEwen cause to believe I had made the mistake. During the performance at that specific cut-off, I was "honored" to have Dr. McEwen personally give me the cue. "Do not ask for whom the finger tolls...it tolls for thee!"

I knew his son very well in those days so please give Scott my best. I am currently in my 26th year of teaching choral music and I have Dr. McEwen to thank for the important lessons I would need to be successful.

Good luck with your research,

Amy E. Van Winkle

Bradshaw Mountain High School

Prescott Valley, AZ

Bradley Ellingboe on July 21, 2010 10:36am

Dear Amy

I think we have all we need. Thanks again for your contribution!

Brad Ellingboe

Clydene Balke on February 19, 2011 7:18pm

Hi Amy,

thanks for sharing. Such nice memories....

Gary Funi on July 21, 2010 9:05am

Brad,
I was Doug's doctoral grad asst from 1979-1982. My dissertation included a long interview with him about his use of figurative language in the choral rehearsal. I have a CD of that interview with McEwen responding to my questions. The combination of the dissertation and the CD might be of great help to you. The dissertation title is something like: "Figurative Language: a means at getting at the expressive content of choral music" I can't actually recall the title but you can probably google it with my name and read about it in Dissertation Abstracts. The CD was distributed to the students of Doug's who attended the National ACDA Convention in Oklahoma City. If you communicate with Scott or Doug's wife, Donna, please greet them for me.

Gary Funk, The University of Montana 406-243-2794

Tom Tropp on July 21, 2010 10:04am

Gary (and anyone else who is interested).

The tile is "Verbal Imagery: Illuninator of the Expressive Content in Choral Music," and the topic intrigues me, so I've downloaded a copy from Proquest, and look forward to reading it.

Bradley Ellingboe on July 21, 2010 10:40am

Dear Gary

I think we have all we need. Thanks again for your contribution!

Brad Ellingboe

Gail Mrozak on September 18, 2010 1:06pm

Sang under him at Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp 1974, back when U of I ran camps for 2-week sessions. We all had a blast, and the whole experience imprinted on me so deeply that I could probably sing all the words from what we worked on, and tell you a half-dozen McEwen stories.

McEwen never ridiculed what a section was doing, even if it was goofy. However, he'd humorously suggest the impression being made in such a way that you NEVER did it that way again.

One of the pieces we did was the finale from G & S "The Gondoliers", and the sopranos and altos tossed back and forth "pitter, pitter, patter" and "kitter, kitter, katter" on scale patterns at blinding speed. Grabbing all the pitches and spitting out the correct syllables was just murder.

He took a minute to run those a bit slower to clean up the pitches, then shot the sopranos a mischeivious look and sweetly asked, "You want to try that with the words this time?"

Gail Mrozak

Board Member (& soprano)

Elmhurst Choral Union

www.elmhurstchoralunion.org

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