Lyle Barkhymer

Lyle Barkhymer Title: Professor of Music

Education: B.A. in German, Otterbein �64; B.Mus. in Clarinet, Otterbein �64; M.Mus. in Woodwinds, Indiana University Bloomington �65; D.Mus. in Woodwinds, Indiana University Bloomington, �70. Additional study of clarinet, Universitaet fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna, Austria.

Hometown: Johnstown, PA (Westmont Hilltop H.S. �60)

What particular topic do you most enjoy teaching? This is a hard question. In music history I think it is Mozart, his life and music. In Japanese culture it is Kabuki theater. In Austrian culture, it is the "fin-de-siecle," or around 1900.

Why should every person you meet want to know more about your area of expertise? Because music and culture that address the deepest human feelings and experiences make life richer and that much more worth living.

What is your favorite aspect of teaching? Those times when a "spark" catches and students get really excited about what they�re learning.

Why do you teach at Otterbein? It�s a cliche to say "personal contact with students," but that�s number one. Also, I have been very fortunate to find a home at Otterbein where the institution supported my wish to be a performing musician in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and was flexible enough to make that possible. And finally, I have been fortunate to find in Otterbein a college that is truly dedicated to faculty development, and through sabbaticals and outside stipends I have been able to develop my interests in Japan and Austria into new teaching areas.

What are the best qualities you see in Otterbein students? At their best, Otterbein students have a desire to be all that they can be, and they don�t have a sense of "entitlement." They�re motivated, because few come from highly privileged backgrounds, to achieve a lot in life. For the same reason, many of them see that as financial success, but as they mature, they develop more altruistic goals and leave us with a desire for life-long learning.

What question are you most often asked by students? "Will this be on the test?" Just kidding. In the music field, many ask about how to get performing positions. There�s no easy answer, because the old joke "practice, practice, practice" only lays the groundwork. It also takes an incredible belief in oneself, incredible persistence, and � for an orchestra player � incredible luck. Hundreds audition for the same chair, and most of those are highly qualified. Most have to accept the fact that they will play in lesser orchestras and/or "cobble together" a professional life in part-time teaching, possibly arts organization management, and auxiliary arts activities.

What is the ONE THING you want your students to take away from your class or from knowing you? Curiosity and self-confidence. A student in our Vienna course wrote in her journal, "I learned that it�s a big, messy, lively world out there � and I can handle it!" That about sums it up.

What research are you currently conducting/projects are you currently working on? I just wrote a chapter for a book called Illness, Madness, and Criminality in Austrian Culture and Literature. My chapter was about Alban Berg�s opera Wozzeck. I�m still waiting to hear how the publication plans are coming along. As I write this, Dr. Thomas Ahrens and I have just finished leading the fifth annual Senior Year Experience Course "1900-Vienna-2000, Culture and Conflict at the Turn of Two Centuries." We study together during fall quarter on campus then spend two weeks together in Vienna at the historic "Schottenstift" monastery, including a weekend excursion to Budapest.

If you were not an educator, what would be your dream job? Being a college professor and musician is my dream job. But, if you hold a gun to my head, I guess I would say "travel writer."

What are your hobbies outside the classroom? Meg and I read a lot. We�re also trying to get more exercise, and I swim at the Westerville Community Center, as well as walk about 30 minutes a day with Meg. The problem is that the end goal of our walk, Graeter�s Ice Cream, kind of cancels out the exercise.

We have a vacation and rental place at Chautauqua Institution in western New York State that I was lucky to acquire some time ago before "the bubble," and it gives me a lot of pleasure to care for the house, built in 1895, and to meet the interesting guests that we have in the summer. It�s also fun to share the unusual "Chautauqua experience" with colleagues, friends and students, and we generally have a group of international students up for a Niagara Fall trip each spring. Faculty have been coming for a seminar on "The Meaning of the Liberal Arts" led by Dr. Andrew Mills in June after commencement for a couple of years. In retirement we expect to spend more time at Chautauqua, but it seems a little too remote to live there year round.

I guess I never grew up, because I�m still fascinated by trains. One of the great things about being a visiting professor in Japan and taking students to Austria is that both countries have a highly developed rail and public transportation infrastructure, and there are lots of interesting rail trips to take.

Having grown up in a steel town where my dad was a maintenance mechanic at the mill, I�m interested in all sorts of industrial and mechanical things. (Before they made it too hard to get at, I used to like to change my own oil!) Recently, with a group of students in our course who are doing a project on the environment, I visited the "Fernwaerme Wien," which is Vienna�s trash-burning plant that produces electricity and district heating for many homes and businesses in the city. We put on hard-hats and could tour the whole complex and see every aspect of the process. It was fascinating because it offers such a great model of care for the environment for other cities.

Email: lbarkhymer@otterbein.edu