'I'm teaching them about life'

Whitefish music educator honored for her commitment

There came a point in Jenanne Solberg's life when she just couldn't continue her hectic lifestyle.

During the 1990s, she was a single mom with three children heading up Billings Central High School's orchestra, choir and band programs, as well as a middle school orchestra.

So in 2002, she moved to Whitefish for a part-time job with the middle school as a music educator. She started out with three classes and playground duty.

But the talented musician and teacher just had too much energy and enthusiasm to lay low, and it wasn't long before she was up to full speed again.

Her schedule now includes teaching orchestra at Whitefish High School and Whitefish Middle School, middle school choir and general middle school music.

She also gives private lessons for North Valley Music School, runs a few summer music camps every year and, a few years ago, agreed to conduct the Whitefish Community Orchestra.

"That's what we're supposed to do, is blow the doors of opportunity open for students and let them go where it will take them," Solberg said.

Solberg, 53, recently received a small reward for her hard work when she was named as a Distinguished Music Educator by the Yale School of Music, a designation given to only 50 of the 425 nominated educators. The honor includes an all-expense-paid trip to a symposium at Yale in June.

"She has really changed the face of music in Whitefish," Cameron Blake, North Valley Music School director, said of Solberg. "She is one person making a huge difference."

One of Solberg's accomplishments, pointed out by Blake in her nomination essay for the Yale award, was to secure the money to purchase 30 violins for the creation of the Whitefish Middle School orchestra.

Solberg said all she did, though, was approach Charlie Abell, president of the Whitefish Credit Union, and convince him that an $11,000 to $12,000 investment in the students would be well worth it.

"He walked in the next day and handed me a check," she said.

Solberg said those first students to "put their hands on Charlie Abell's violins' are seniors this year, and a few even are planning to major in music. She said the students at Whitefish Middle School have realized what a gift they were given and have taken exceptional care of the violins.

Perhaps that's also because Solberg has made them realize the value of music in general.

"I haven't taught a kid yet that made me think my goal was to get them ready for Carnegie Hall," Solberg said. "I'm teaching them about life through music."

Solberg said music's focus on striving for excellence and completing things to the best of your ability are important lessons. In music, students learn a universal language; they discover how to cooperate within diverse groups; and there are no winners or losers.

"It teaches discipline that's different than a math book," Solberg said. "And they get to learn a brand new skill. Even in sixth grade, they can realize it's OK to be a beginner."

Solberg began her own music education in her early elementary days. Since Solberg was a smarter-than-average child, her teachers in Missoula wanted her to skip a few grades just to give her a challenge. When she landed in second grade at age 5, her parents decided not to move her forward any more, but they were advised their bright daughter still needed something more to keep her occupied.

Piano lessons were the answer, and even in that, Solberg was ahead of her time, sent to study with a professor at the University of Montana at age 6. That professor, J. George Hummel, was her piano instructor until she earned her master's degree.

Though she loved piano, Solberg said she did not appreciate the lonely nature of the instrument in her youth. A band instructor, for whom Solberg was playing as a percussionist, nudged her in another direction.

"The band director started to notice that my friends tended to be string players, by fluke, and he said I should learn the violin," Solberg said. "So one day I just showed up at home with a violin. I taught myself to play."

Solberg has continued to play string instruments, as well as piano, in professional and other situations. She played professionally with a symphony in Billings in 1979 when she first moved there. She currently is the principal violist for the Glacier Symphony and plays with the Glacier String Quartet.

Throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies, she had planned on teaching at the college level and staying busy performing, but marriage and children changed that, limiting her primarily to private lessons.

In 1990, though, her marriage had ended and she was ready to start a new life. She landed the job at Billings Central High School that year when the school asked her if she would create an orchestra program.

Solberg said a supportive network of orchestra teachers statewide made all the difference in starting a program from scratch. She also was happy with the Billings Central staff and parents, and liked the students.

But when the district's entire music education program became her responsibility, it eventually became overwhelming.

"I liked doing all of them, but it came to a point where it was too much," she said. "I said, 'I need help or I need to stop.'"

Now there are four staff members doing what she did back then, she said.

Though her schedule in Whitefish also is jammed, she said it seems more manageable because the community and schools are smaller, though participation in school music programs is very high for a district Whitefish's size, she said.

She believes that is because, though music does require discipline, it is first and foremost fun.

"We play music, we don't work music," she said. "As soon as it becomes work, I'm out of there."

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com