Meet Erynn Millard | Director of Choral Activities, Florida International University

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erynn Millard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erynn, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
As musicians, we often examine process versus product, or the rehearsal process versus the performance. Early in my career, I was teaching high school choir, and I worried too much about the perception of my work. I prioritized the product, the concert performance. If I could go back knowing what I know now, I would know that if my rehearsal process was refined and prepared, the performance I desired for the singers would naturally occur. Because I invest so much in the rehearsal preparation and process now, it creates a setting that is supportive of the singers. Even when we are doing quite challenging work, they are investing themselves in the experience and enjoying it more. This rehearsal vibe is so much better for them as singers and students, and I am grateful that our regular rehearsals often feel like respite for them in their collegiate journeys.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am currently the Director of Choral Activities at Florida International University. In my position, I get to work with our choirs and teach other classes that are directly related to the choral art, such as choral conducting and choral literature.

I have a Ph.D. in music education and choral conducting from Florida State University. Prior to coming to FIU in August, I was the Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

What I’m most excited about in my professional journey has to do with my recent move to FIU in Miami. My previous university was a comparitively smaller setting, and serving this student population required that I “wear many hats” in my teaching. I was the Director of Choral Activities and also a Professor of Music Education, so I worked with the choirs and taught conducting as I do now, but I also taught elementary music methods, secondary choral methods, diction for singers; I supervised student teachers and did a lot of advising. I appreciated and enjoyed all of those experiences; I think my attention to the pedagogy of teaching developed a lot during that period. At FIU, I now teach in a much more focused area of content. I love getting to dive deeper into choral conducting and literature, and I relish the opportunity to develop my knowledge and ability in a more specific area of my skill set.

How did I get here? By accident. LOL. I never truly set out to be a teacher or professional musician. When I arrived at college for the first time, the options I could see where vocal performance and music education. I didn’t choose music education as much as was NOT choosing music performance. When I took my first conducting class during my junior year, it was one of the first experiences that truly made sense to me. It just felt like breathing.

After that, my career path was more that I was pursing conducting, and each job was a building block in that. I taught elementary music briefly at a K-2 school, which was a greatly lesson in, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.” I taught middle school for two years, which taught me patience and pacing, and I taught high school for seven years, which starting to put the previous building blocks together with conducting. After ten years of teaching public school, I was really feeling the urge to work on my doctorate, and I was honored to be accepted at Florida State University. When I graduated, I landed at a smaller university, where I put together conducting and music education, and now I finally feel like I’ve landed where I’m happiest. I work exclusively as a conductor, and I get to teach others about the various aspects of it every day. I have been teaching and conducting for over twenty years at this point, and I the experiences I have had at each job provide the many points of view that have influenced who I am as a conductor and educator.

I do not think I had an easy journey, Firstly, as the first person in my family to go to college, I had a hard time navigating the college journey. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I had so many moments of embarrassment because I didn’t understand even the most basic information about how the collegiate journey worked. I remember not understanding what credit hours were when I was trying to figure out the cost of college and evaluate which scholarship/financial aid offer was best for me. So in addition to college being a challenge experience, I was overwhelmed by figuring out the university landscape.

Overcoming the challenges of finishing three degrees was a matter of being stubborn. For all the times I got something wrong, I had to keep doing it until I got it right. Eventually, I learned how to be more proactive rather than reactive, and that is when I feel like I started to truly benefit from higher education.

Here are a few of my favorite lessons I’ve learned that I frequently share with my college students:
1. It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and note have it. (Thanks, Mom!)
2. You don’t know what you don’t know.
3. Don’t tell yourself the lie. (The “lie” is, I’ll remember that. You know, all those moments where you don’t write something down because you’re sure you will remember?)
4. Technology will fail you.
5. We don’t skip steps.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Goodness. I just moved to Miami four months ago, so I’m a terrible person to ask about this!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe success to so many people.

As long as I can remember, I have been surrounded by people who seemed to be able to see my successful professional journey so vividly, especially when I had no idea where life would take me. My parents set the expectation early on that a college education was an expectation; my undergraduate professors set the expectation that graduate school was an obvious part of my journey. My professors at the doctoral level modeled professional expectations, and I could point to so many moments in my career where I felt ready to meet a challenge because of how they set me up for success. I have colleagues from every city I have lived in that continue to be supportive and invested in my career. I have to say I have a broad group of people in my circle that have helped make every success possible that includes family, professors, mentors, colleagues, and friends.

Website: https://carta.fiu.edu/music/