CLASS NOTES
live in Raleigh, N.C. ■ Sarah Smith married Jay McArthur on 3/27/11. Alumni in attendance were Jennifer Gregg, Joy Savell Workman, Heather Edmondson Roque ’00 and Marianne Smith Stern ’01. Sarah is a speech language pathologist. They live in Concord, N.C. ■ Amy Medders Turner and Allan Turner welcomed a son, Grayson Allan, on 11/14/10. Amy is a copy and direct mail coordinator in marketing for State Employee Credit Union of Maryland. ■ Mark A. Walker recently graduated from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business with a master’s degree in business administration. He works for the Chamberlain College of Nursing and lives in Chicago, Ill.
Henry L. Spence and Keiko
Spence welcomed a daughter, Hanna Emiko, on 1/21/11. Henry is a major in the U.S. Army. The family is currently stationed in Bassilly, Belgium. ■ Lauren Stone married Garrett Walsh in Richmond, Va., on 7/17/10. Alumni in attendance were Jaimie Ryan Morais ’99, Wendy Dunn Stone ’99, Brian Simpson ’02 and Jenna Denton ’01. Lauren is a program manager for Wells Fargo Advisors. The couple live in Richmond. ■ Jennifer Ledger Thamoderam and Raj Thamoderam welcomed a daughter, Alanya Devi, on 3/27/11. She joins older sister Madeira. The family lives in Baldock, England.
Leigh Wheeler Ashurst
and James Ashurst welcomed twins, Samantha Jo and MacKenzie Marie, on 5/19/10. Leigh is pursuing a graduate degree at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia campus. The family lives in Burke, Va. ■ Imre Kwast Nagel and Remy Nagel welcomed a son, Joep, on 7/22/10. He joins older brother Benjamin. The family lives in The Netherlands. ■ Shawn Weatherford graduated in May with a doctorate in physics from North Carolina State University. He has accepted a position as an assistant professor of physics at Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Fla., and lives in Gainesville. ■
Capt. Robin Roberts Wilson
is an occupational therapist with the U.S. Army. She is serving a 12-month deployment in Afghanistan, where she is in charge of the Mild Traumatic Brain
The music man BY CAITLIN O’DONNELL ’13
B
rian Rollins ’84 can’t remember a time when he wasn’t engrossed in music. And though the rooms of his childhood home pulsed with beats and tones, from classical tunes to the popular rock of the time, it wasn’t until he came to Elon that he developed a deeper love for the magic of the medium. “We might start the day playing a popflavored show for a high school, then play a mixed set at a theme park in the afternoon, then play big-band music for an alumni function in the evening,” Rollins recalls of his time in The Emanons, Elon’s legendary jazz ensemble. But Elon didn’t just inspire his affinity for playing music. Studying under former Elon professors Jack White and David Bragg, Rollins developed an interest in teaching it, too. “They were very knowledgeable, compassionate and supportive,” Rollins says. “They expected your best and gave no less in their own teaching.” Today, Rollins follows their example as the music program director at Trinity Episcopal School, an independent school in Richmond, Va., serving grades 8–12. Hired in 1998 as Trinity’s first full-time music faculty member, Rollins found an ally in Headmaster Tom Aycock, a fellow music lover and former professional jazz trombonist, and he began pushing for expansion and enhancement of the music program. “When I hired Brian, we sat down in the interview and within five minutes, I knew he was the guy I wanted,” Aycock says. “He just has tremendous charisma and talent. He has brought our band program to great heights.” Originally housed in small classrooms around campus, Trinity’s music program expanded into new administrative offices, a rehearsal hall, and a state-of-the-art digital music lab for students to study music theory, digital production and composition. Trinity’s facilities have been featured in Richmond Magazine, and the school is now considered to house one of the top music programs in the state. But Rollins’ primary focus hasn’t been on the accoutrements; it’s been on the people playing the instruments. “The school is small enough that I get to know the students very well, yet the ensembles
are of sufficient size and skill to perform some fairly challenging literature,” Rollins says. In 2004, Aycock and Rollins collaborated to find a way to showcase their talented young musicians and others in the Richmond area. The product of their brainstorm, the Jazz Titans of Tomorrow festival, debuted in 2005. “In talking to my colleagues, it became clear that the aspect of a festival that they most enjoyed was having a clinician work with their ensembles,” Rollins says. “But clinics don’t
offer the same performance atmosphere or experience as playing for a large audience.” To solve that problem, Rollins blended both aspects. Each year, he brings in the head of the jazz studies program at Virginia Commonwealth University to lead clinics with bands that attend the festival. The annual event closes with a performance by each of the bands for friends, family and community members under a tent on Trinity’s athletics fields. “I think the essence of great music is that it powerfully conveys the life experiences of the individuals who create and perform it,” Rollins says. “This is especially true in jazz, because each performer’s improvisation presents a personal interpretation of the work’s spirit.” As he works on the festival, with Trinity’s various music groups or inside the classroom, Rollins says he sometimes reflects on his time at Elon, which he calls a defining point in his life. “I often find myself in the midst of a rehearsal or class discussion saying something to my students and, inwardly, I’m smiling while thinking about a similar scene from my time at Elon,” he says.
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