Mark Conley is entering his 27th year at the University of Rhode Island and has a list of academic titles under his belt, but his passion for teaching wasn’t sparked until later in his musical career.
Conley, a professor of music, director of choral activities and chair of the music department at URI, grew up in a small town in Illinois where music was unavoidable.
“In that time period and in that place, you just grew up surrounded by music,” Conley said. “As for a career in music, I didn’t really think about it until high school.”
Conley’s first experience teaching was as an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois, where he took a course about vocal pedagogy – the study of voice instruction. There, he learned how to teach voice lessons in a private setting. At the time, it was just another class.
Pursuing a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance, Conley thought that his future would be just that: performing. He got another taste of conducting and teaching during his time as a graduate assistant at the University of Michigan from 1987 until 1991.
“My first two years I was performance only, studying as a baritone,” Conley said. “I was about to get my master’s in that, and there were a few faculty members who had hinted that I wasn’t really a baritone.”
Conley’s voice was more reflective of a tenor, a voice type which vocally ranges higher than that of a baritone. Already two years deep into one program, he faced an impasse.
“My voice teacher said to me: ‘if you don’t do your recital and you can find another degree in the school…we’ll defer your recital and you can stay here, study with me and obtain two degrees,’” Conley said.
Choral conducting was a deficiency of Conley’s at that point in time. After taking undergraduate-level conducting classes in his third and fourth years of graduate school, he found a new passion.
He obtained two master’s degrees at Michigan, one in voice performance and one in choral conducting. The then 25-year-old Conley planned on returning to school to obtain a doctorate if he was without a job by that summer. He eventually accepted the last position he had applied for after a late opening: voice instructor and assistant choral director at Montana State University.
After a four-year stint at Montana State and a two-year pit stop at Providence College, Conley arrived in Kingston, Rhode Island in 1997 after a colleague’s recommendation.
There are are multitude of reasons why teaching is enriching to Conley, one of which is the hands-on nature of music specifically.
“Everything we do is experiential,” Conley said. “Internships, student teaching and clinical interns – we have people who, out of their own interest, go out and are assistant conductors for community choruses. People are just out there doing it.”
Conley has been able to translate his skills learned as an educator to his latest position as the chair of the music department at URI.
“What relates [teaching voice, conducting and being chair] is that I just love that my teaching involves discovery with [students],” Conley said. “There’s a certain part about the imparting of knowledge that comes with a class… I’m watching what students are doing and I’m learning that [the] thing that I thought would do well as an activity isn’t working so well for certain people.”
Rather than teaching students about music, Conley helps them create it.
“Knowing we figured it out together and seeing it click [is] the best part about teaching music,” Conley said.
Between COVID-19 and the recent renovations to the Fine Arts Center, Conley is looking forward to a point in time where the department doesn’t have to worry about concert space, construction noise or pandemic protocol.
“The reward in being chair right now is [that] I have the ability to help us keep moving forward, whatever that means at the given moment,” Conley said.
All university music performances, including those that Conley directs and conducts, are live streamed and can be found on the URI Music Youtube channel .