Alumni Business Owner Profile
One Who Loves: Dr. Merlin Thompson, BMus‘75
After an eventful year of 50th anniversary celebrations, the University of Regina continues to recognize the golden anniversaries of our graduating classes. This month, the U of R is celebrating the Class of 1975 and its Golden Aluminaries.
Dr. Merlin Thompson is a life-long musician, musical educator, and the founder of Teach Music 21C. Fifty years ago, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Luther College. Hailing from rural Saskatchewan, Thompson began his post-secondary education at the U of R and studied in the Department of Music and Conservatory of Performing Arts. It was here that Thompson found his biggest inspiration: his classmates.
“We were a very close bunch,” he says. “Every day we practiced in our own studios in the basement of Darke Hall, and we asked each other to listen for progress on our latest repertoire. Hearing each other’s practice meant that I became familiar with lots of piano repertoire; classmate Joyce Ridell and the Schumann Toccata, Brenda Anderson played the first Chopin Ballade, and Gail Reisner played Beethoven’s E Flat Sonata. Even today, when I hear those pieces or play them for myself, I think of my colleagues at the U of R.”
Dr. Thompson recognized the importance of passionate professors who had their students’ best interests at heart. Gordon McLean, his piano professor and a fine performer himself, offered extra lessons and maintained a kind, considerate, and knowledgeable demeanor. Thompson says today that a student’s trust grows from their teacher’s approach, and perhaps it was these early experiences with his piano teacher that ignited Thompson’s affection for music education.
Thompson moved to Montreal after graduation to do his master's degree in musicology. While teaching at the McGill Conservatory, he discovered the Suzuki Method, a music education method which applies the principles of natural language acquisition to musical learning. The technique was so powerful that, in 1983, Thompson moved to Japan for a three-year apprenticeship with Suzuki Method founder, Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. With an already rich musical education under his belt, Thompson then moved to Calgary in the late 1980s and eventually completed a PhD in 2013.
A life-long music maker, he has been teaching piano since 1977, and served as the Artistic Director of the Suzuki Program at Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary (1988-2004). After almost 50 years of testing teaching strategies and tools to engage a diverse pool of students, he created his first incorporated business, Teach Music 21C, asking, How can music teachers teach so that music making becomes a long-lasting experience in every music student’s life?
“At Teach Music 21C, we’re dedicated to exploring what’s meaningful for students,” he says. “We want to teach in a way that sows the seeds for our students as lifelong music makers. The lesson period is very much about exploring and experiencing the activities that confirm and validate the student’s own personal connection to music, their musical interests, and the way that music making resonates in their everyday lives.”
Thompson’s multi-layer teaching approach is influenced by culturally responsive teaching (student-centred teaching that uses student’s characteristics and perspectives as tools for classroom instruction), and figures like U.S. academic, Geneva Gay, who drew attention to the historical, social, and economic inequities in educational environments, psychologist Carl Rogers, who promoted greater understanding and authenticity between teachers and students, and more recently, Karen Hendricks, who promotes the dynamics of trust, empathy, patience, inclusion, community, and authentic connection as essential to music teaching.
“I’m really proud to say that Teach Music 21C is a leading voice moving towards a more inclusive approach to music teaching,” Thompson says. “We are a vibrant community of forward-thinking music teachers, with members throughout Canada and in Colorado, Florida, New York, and Utah. I know it can sound like a cliché, but we really believe that making music can change lives for the better."
Dr. Thompson has written two books on music teaching and sees a third book on the horizon. Music teaching for Thompson rests with the “amateur” music maker: “Amateur being that wonderful word from Latin roots meaning ‘one who loves’” he says. “That’s what I’m hoping the future will bring for all of us.”