faces: Phyllis Byrdwell
HEAR FOR YOURSELF Want to hear a bit of Phyllis Byrdwell’s gospel for yourself? You can pay a visit to Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle for one of its services or you can see her in action directing the UW’s gospel choir at the end of each quarter.
UW Gospel Choir Spring Concert: June 7, 7:30 p.m., University Presbyterian Church, 4540 15th Avenue N.E., Seattle. Visiting campus? Stroll by Meany 268 on a Monday evening.
Phyllis Birdwell jumped at the chance to teach gospel at the UW. Photos by Karen Orders.
SUCCESS IS THE GOSPEL SHE TEACHES BY Courtney Acitelli
When asked if she is primarily a teacher or a musician, Phyllis Byrdwell pauses for a good long while. The University of Washington instructor, Lakeside School music teacher, and Minister of Music at Mount Zion Baptist Church eventually admits she does not see a separation between the two. “They are just so intertwined,” she says. Seven days a week, Byrdwell, ’82, ’88, ’95, can be found teaching music to middle- and highschool kids, training UW students to sing gospel, working with the Mount Zion choir, or arranging the church’s music selections for its weekly services. Before rattling off her schedule, Byrdwell warns, “I’m about to exhaust you.” But she seems inexhaustible. A classically trained musician with more than 40 years at Mount Zion and 26 years at Lakeside, one wouldn’t expect that she was looking for another gig. However, when the UW approached her 10 12
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years ago to teach gospel—prompted by a grant from Paul Allen to encourage the teaching of genres that were out of the realm of traditional European music—Byrdwell accepted. She was eager to teach the genre of gospel to college students. “I teach the class objectively,” she says of her non-religious approach with the UW’s gospel choir. “But [the students] have to deliver the music as if they believe it. No one should be able to tell that you don’t believe it. I know there are believers in the class, but that’s not what the objective actually is.” She says each student must learn not only to sing the words but to move and to clap as well. “And you have to look like you know what you’re doing by the end of the 10 weeks,” she says with a laugh. Byrdwell’s experience at the University began when, as a college student, she transferred here from Seattle Central Community College, where
she had taken an “invigorating” sociology class with Dr. Rosetta Hunter. “After taking that class,” she says, “I knew I wanted to continue in college.” Encouraged by Barbara Lundquist, a UW music professor and author of books on multiethnic and multicultural music education, Byrdwell transferred to the UW, where she eventually graduated with three degrees: bachelor’s degrees in applied music and music education, and a master’s degree in music. “Completing my education was always my father’s wish for me,” she says. Her wish for her students? “I want to have them look at music that they may or may not have looked at in any depth,” she says. “This is my job as a teacher.” Courtney Acitelli is a Viewpoints staff writer.