Martha Sheil

Technically, Professor Martha Sheil is just my voice teacher. Technically, her job is simply to teach me how to turn notes on the page into music that one day (hopefully) will earn me a paycheck. Yet, over the past four years Martha has served as cheerleader, makeshift therapist, and second mom – all while teaching me how to sing and constantly reminding me why I do.

Last year, Martha announced that in May 2015 she would retire. For a studio with a cult like reverence for their teacher, this news was devastating.

Last semester I strategically avoided thinking about her impending retirement or that in a few short months I would have to begin the search for a new voice teacher but Saturday night the department, the studio and I had face that the end was near, and that her departure was a few voice lessons away.

Saturday night was her final recital as a professor, entitled Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Besides demonstrating her technical prowess, musicality and stage presence that immediately drew every eye to her, Martha touched every person in the audience. One student started crying the moment Martha began to sing because she knew how nervous Martha gets backstage. Another lost it when she sang their song – a piece which they learned at the same time and grew to love together. Others lost it during “surprise Tosca” when Vissi d’arte, Vissi d’amore (I live for art, I live for love) was performed although it did not appear on the program. Before the final piece I numbered among the few audience members who were not yet reaching for a tissue, but as she sang Final Monologue from Jake Heggie’s Maria Callas, all hope was lost and the entire auditorium was in tears.

I’ve know since that night that I wanted to talk about Professor Sheil in this week’s blog post yet every time I start to type I stop. Saturday reminded me that she was leaving but writing about it makes it real. More than that, how do I put into words someone who has changed my entire life? How do I convey that, other than my parents, she has been the one person who believed in me when the music school said I wasn’t good enough, who ordered me to ignore everyone that told me that double majoring was stupid, and who has dealt with a dejected, disappointed and defeated Alexandria more times than I care to admit?

For the past four years Martha has been a constant in my life. Every week she has returned me to sanity and every week I have grown as a musician and as a person. She has seen me through audition disappointment, performance success, break ups and musical breakthroughs. She has given herself to her students selflessly and has taught me more about music and about life than I had ever thought possible.

As I write this, I feel an immense desire to try and explain who she is and what she means to me but anything I can say will fall short. All I can say is thank you. Thank you for giving me more than I can ever repay and for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Thank you for turning me into the musician and person that I am today. Thank you for every moment we have shared and for the ones which we will share in the future.

In May everything will change. While I do not graduate, the people I have grown up with and grown to love will scatter across the country. Martha will retire and I will focus on finishing my engineering degree leaving behind a world which has defined me my entire college career. Endings are always hard – even when you know it is all for the best – and I’m sure more tears will be shed before my final lesson. While I know I will no longer have my weekly sanity checks with Professor Sheil I will continue to learn and grow, knowing she is only a phone call away.