Music teacher remembered by NH-M community

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[May 15, 2013]  MIDDLETOWN -- All year the New Holland-Middletown Community Supports Education Committee has been busy with fundraisers for a new technology system. A special event April 13 combined fundraising activities with a memorial for one of the school's favored teachers.

Phyllis Jeanne Blaum was a beloved music teacher at the school from 1970 to 1994. A lifetime resident of New Holland, she died last year.

Many from her family were present for the memorial, which included planting a lilac. But first, there was a special song tribute that symbolized what Mrs. Blaum was all about.

Gary LaForge, a former student who graduated in 1979, was asked to sing for the memorial. Mrs. Blaum had coached him in singing "Ol' Man River" to win the competition that put him in the state choir in his senior year.

"Anytime anyone mentions this song, I think of Phyllis," he said.

LaForge shared his mentor's sentiment that music helps us remember things that are important. "Ol' Man River" tells a story. "It is a piece of history we can't forget," he said with conviction.

Written for the New York Broadway play "Showboat" in 1927, "this song was breaking barriers at the time," he said.

"Ol' Man River" tells about the hard labor of slaves pulling barges up the Mississippi in the 1800s.

Recalling his training with Mrs. Blaum, LaForge said she was the only one who could accompany him.

"I changed the volume. I changed the speed. I changed about everything else multiple times through the song," he said.

The day of his competition he was very nervous. Then, when the person right before him finished, Mrs. Blaum wasn't there. LaForge began thinking he would need to go a cappella, "when she came running down the hall and actually pushed her way into the room," he said. "But, I did it, we did it."

He said he doesn't get much opportunity to sing anymore, but in college he enjoyed singing with the University of Illinois Glee Club, and his claim to fame was singing with Diana Ross at the 1996 Super Bowl XXX halftime.

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Now, standing outside the New Holland-Middletown School, LaForge belted out with passion the state-winning song he and Mrs. Blaum shared -- a cappella this time.

"Ol' Man River" can be heard from 01:59 to 05:25 at DW_S0411.wav.

LaForge said Mrs. Blaum taught everyone that it was not about the mechanics of music, such as rhythm or notes, but it had to have emotion attached.

"If you can find the emotion, then you connect everybody in the audience," he said. "If you don't find the emotion, you're not going to touch anybody."

According to her family, Mrs. Blaum was a wonderful, kind-hearted woman who touched the lives of many by sharing her enthusiasm for music. She performed, taught and directed. She had a unique ability to modify a song to fit any occasion.

At NH-M, she taught all grade levels and ages at the school and was well-remembered by all for her gusto. She was known to fight for every dollar to keep the music program in place.

The Phyllis J. Blaum Music Scholarship Fund was set up last year in care of New Holland Banking Center.

[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]

Note: The NH-M Community Supports Education Committee has a goal of $80,000 to bring laptops and tablets plus updated infrastructure and software to the school. There will be another special event at the school celebrating the $25,000 State Farm grant that the project won recently, bringing fundraising efforts since August 2012 to over $51,000.

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