Laura Lane has occupied this office in the Ford Center for the Fine Arts for the entire 40 years she has taught at Knox College. A professor of music and director of choral activities, Lane says she became a choral conductor because of her desire to make music with other people and because it is challenging. She loves the process of rehearsal and seeing the joy on the students’ faces when they master a difficult piece. Lane is retiring in June 2023.
Welcome to her office.
1. I have many presents from choir students, and I love them all. Most of them have to do with tour. I have poems, songs, and pictures that they all signed. This poster is one example of those memories.
2. This is a print of a child and fish is from one of my international students, Eleanor Phan. There’s special meaning for the child and the fish in Vietnamese culture; the child represents growth, and the fish signifies resilience and inner strength.
3. My daughter, Lydia, made this picture and story when she was a child. That’s me conducting the choir students, which she made as mice. It says, “My mom is a special person. She’s special because she conducts choirs and makes beautiful music. She’s also special because she takes care of me. She is very special because she doesn’t litter.” I love it so much. All the choir students knew her the whole time she was growing up—it was like she was their little sister.
4. With the Knox College Choir (KCC), I have always done music from cultures around the world in different styles and different languages. I sometimes bought special percussion instruments.
5. Receiving the Harold Decker Award meant so much to me. I got the award from the American Choral Directors Association of Illinois. It’s for excellence in conducting, impact on the lives of singers and colleagues, and service to the field.
6. That’s Moses Hogan in the center of this picture with the Nova Singers, a professional vocal ensemble that I direct. I have brought guest conductors to work with the choir, and this is one example. Hogan was, at the time, the most famous arranger of choral music and of spirituals in the country and in the world. He worked with the KCC and even invited us to his house for a reception!
7. Abbie Betinis is one of the most famous composers of choral music in the world, and and she presented this to me as a gift. It’s a hand-written score of the piece she wrote for us. One of the things that I've done while I’ve been here is commission living composers, especially women, to write a piece for us, and then they come in to work with us on it, and we do the world premiere.
8. This is a self-portrait of Claire Odin, one of my voice students who was a painting major and music performance minor. Claire is in graduate school for painting and specializes in self-portraits. She made this for me after graduation to thank me for our four years of voice lessons.