Piano teacher finds new ways to stir her soul

Judy Doxtater’s home music studio in Evergreen has little decor surrounding her two Yamaha pianos, but a piece of artwork on one wall sums up the longtime piano teacher’s philosophy: “Music is the voice of the soul.”

Music is indeed a voice that has been singing in Doxtater’s soul since childhood, and now, at age 70, that voice is singing even louder.

She’s taking guitar lessons at North Valley Music School, where Don Rees is teaching her finger picking. She participated in classes at last summer’s Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop in Bigfork, where she found herself making small talk across the table from well-known musicians such as Dweezil Zappa, son of legendary guitarist and composer Frank Zappa.

To enhance her piano teaching abilities, she got a grant through Soroptimist International of Whitefish last year to receive specialized instruction in teaching the Suzuki method, a way of teaching that involves the whole family and teaches students as young as 2 or 3 to play through repetition and imitation.

“It’s done by ear and then by eye. I really love it,” Doxtater said about teaching the Suzuki method. “It stimulates the brain. I’m energized to do this.”

And it’s not just music that is energizing Doxtater these days. Last year she was motivated to lose 41 pounds so she could saddle up a horse and ride with her good friend Beth Dunagan to Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park. They rode horses to the chalet and then hiked out.

“Thank goodness for walking sticks,” she said with a laugh.

Doxtater is further motivated this year to lose even more weight so she can hike over Gunsight Pass Trail to Lake Ellen Wilson, a favorite spot in the park.

In addition to teaching piano lessons in her home, Doxtater teaches music and Spanish two hours a week at Kalispell Regional Heathcare’s Kid Kare program.

She’s got her Whitefish Mountain Resort ski pass ready to go for the season, and skiing buddies lined up to hit the slopes with her.

Doxtater’s desire to stretch herself personally and musically during her retirement seems to belie her demeanor as a poised and patient piano teacher. But a rambunctious spirit — and musical ability — have been a part of her soul since the beginning.

It was Whitefish High School choir director Al Olson who noticed how Doxtater’s entire body would move with the music as she sang or accompanied vocalists on the piano.

“Oh, Judy, you’re going to be a music teacher,” he told her.

She took piano lessons from a few different teachers, but kept quitting. Like many a young piano player, she wasn’t keen on practicing.

“I had an attitude,” she admitted.

Her mother, Barbara “Bobbie” Stocking, still spry at 95, told young Judy she’d have to pay for lessons herself if she wasn’t going to be a serious student.

Doxtater found the inspiration she needed to continue from Lucy Richardson, a Kalispell piano teacher.

“She made me feel the music inside,” Doxtater recalled. “She’d dance around and sing.”

Richardson’s instruction sealed Doxtater’s future. She headed to the University of Montana after graduating from Whitefish High School in 1963 and earned a degree in piano performance and pedagogy.

Doxtater had her life planned out: She would get married, have kids and be a piano teacher. That’s how her life played out for more than a decade.

She met Jim Doxtater while working a summer job at Sperry Chalet, where she had spent several summers working during her youth. They moved to Havre, where she taught piano and worked at Havre High School. Their first son, Jeremy, was born in Havre.

Then the family moved to Plains, where Jim worked in law enforcement. Their second son, Jed, was born there, but the couple divorced soon after that.

As a single mother of two, Doxtater moved to Missoula, got her degree in elementary music education and elementary education, and proceeded to teach for Kalispell’s School District 5 for 25 years.

Even during her tenure with Kalispell schools, Doxtater felt the yearning to stretch herself, so she took a one-year leave of absence and taught music in Sitka, Alaska. It was an exhausting job, teaching all levels of band and choir.

Doxtater taught music and second grade at Hedges Elementary School in Kalispell for many years before spending the last dozen years of her career in the classroom as a kindergarten teacher at Russell Elementary School. She retired in 2006.

It takes patience to be any kind of teacher, Doxtater agreed, but more than anything, a teacher must inherently love children, she said.

She has had many standout students through the decades, and a couple have gone on to become accomplished pianists. Doxtater remembers a young blind man who would walk to her home in Havre to take lessons. Once he had mastered Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” he abruptly quit, as if that were his lone goal.

“What I love the most are the letters from kids,” she said, recalling thank-you notes and all kinds of correspondence from former students. “Those are special.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.