Couple make music to share with community

By Jeannie Stone

LITTLE ROCK — Shirley and Brian Faulkner of Russellville play every day.

They are music educators and strive to make music fans out of the young and old.

Brian graduated from Dover High School in 1982 and from Arkansas Tech University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. He is completing his dissertation for his doctoral degree in early childhood education from NOVA Southeastern University and currently teaches online courses in early childhood education as an adjunct professor.

Shirley answered the call to a career in music a little later in life. Growing up in St. James, Mo., she always loved music. Her participation in the school band and choir accompanied her church singing.

“My whole family was into music,” she said. “But my parents were simple people, and they didn’t talk about going to college after high school. They were good parents. Just simple.”

Had it not been for meeting and marrying Brian, she might never have had the opportunity to rekindle her love of music. “Early in our marriage, Brian was the director of music for a local church,” she said. “He was approached by church members who wanted him to teach music to homeschoolers. I overheard them and thought what a great thing to do -take music to children who weren’t able to access it in the schools. Brian and I sat down right after they left, and that’s when I decided I had togo to college.”

In 2003, Shirley graduated with a bachelor’s in music education from Arkansas Tech University and is working on completing her teaching certificate. In the meanwhile, she started the Arkansas Center for Music Education or ACME (her logo is a brick with a musical note floating above it) and incorporated the organization as a nonprofit. Her many projects, “my babies,” she calls them, fit under this umbrella.

As a student at Tech, Shirley started to sing with what was thencalled Festival Chorale under the direction of Louis Welcher, a professor of music. Welcher resigned in 2005 due to health reasons, and Shirley was one of the members who just couldn’t see the choir dissolve. Shirley, just shy of completing her studies, approached the board of directors, who agreed to give her a try at directing the choir.

“This is my fourth year trying,” she said with a laugh.

The Community Choir, as it is now known, offers the people of Russellville a bit of homegrown culture performing several times a year.

The choir is open to members, ages 13 and up. “There is no top limit,” Shirley said, “We have several members in their 70s. We actually have trained musicians, and we have folks who can’t read a note,” she said.

Besides teaching classes ingeneral music education, voice and orchestra to homeschoolers, she contracts with the Russellville School District to provide music for the students enrolled in the community based instruction. “I absolutely love it,” she said.

Shirley had never worked with special needs children, so she had to dive into the classes with a new perspective. Her student’s disabilities ranged from autism and sensory processing issues to retardation and Down syndrome.

“We do songs just for fun,” she said, and they dance.

“I had a severely delayed high school boy who wasn’t verbal, and at first, he was very resistant to a new teacher. Pretty soon, he realized that I was the one who brought the music,so he would get excited to see me. Well, one day when I arrived, the tornado sirens were going off, and our class was ushered into a restroom. That boy didn’t know what all the commotion was about. All he knew was I was there, so it must be time to dance. Naturally, all 20 kids danced right there in that cramped bathroom until it was safe to come out.”

Brian had an equally satisfying experience with one of hisstudents. “One of my little 2-year-old special-needs students wasn’t performing for the therapist one day. They were trying to get her to walk. I had the other members of the class playing ‘Jingle Bell Rock,’ and when she heard the music she got up and danced across the floor. We had, obviously, found her distraction.”

In addition to teaching online early childhood education classes, Brian is also on the run teaching in-service classes to public school teachers around the state. He calls his business Makin’ Music. He also teaches music classes to special needs children as well asteaching general music classes to child care centers.

Brian founded and co-directs Common Ground, a local band known for playing oldies and contemporary Christian music.

“Corporate sponsors paid for the sound system,” Brian said. “This community is awesome.”

Shirley said, “I think it’s important for our mental health to participate in various stimulating activities. I think sports is critical to getting our kids outside, and it offers good social and teambuilding skills. It balances out that video game and computer stuff,” she said.

“Music can help them to express themselves, be creative and relaxed. Kids need something that can belong to them.

Music can do that for them,” she added.

“You can’t get away from music,” Shirley continued. “Mamas sing to their unborn babies. Every time you turn on the TV you hear, and respond, to music. Parades wouldn’t call us to the streets without their marching rhythms. Football teams don’t make our Friday nights memorable all by themselves. The band is what keeps the momentum and the beat going. Our lives wouldn’t be the same without music.”

When the Faulkners attended a graduation ceremony at an adult education center in 1999, a 79-year-old lady was receiving her GED. “She just couldn’t die without earning her high school diploma,” Shirley said. “It wasvery inspiring.”

But as she was crossing the stage, they noticed there was no music.

“How can you have a graduation without music?” Shirley asked.

For the past eight years, a band made of volunteer members from the community have provided the music for the Russellville Adult Education graduation ceremony.

“Music is our gift to the community,” Brian said as he squeezed his wife’s hand.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 71, 73 on 06/26/2008