A
Copyright © 2013 by National Association for
Music Education. Reprinted with permission. Not
for further use without permission from NAfME.
Winning
Philosophy
46 Teaching Music
november 2013
Winifred Crock’s
focus on development over
competition led her
school to a Grammy Gold
Signature Award.
By Cathy
Applefeld Olson
WINIFRED CROCK rehearses
with her students at
Central High School in
St. Louis, Missouri.
t’s not every high school music
teacher who can keep company
with the likes of Sir Georg Solti and
Yo-Yo Ma. But Winifred Crock—
director of orchestras at Parkway
Central High School in St. Louis,
Missouri—motivated her school to
apply for a Grammy Gold Signature
Award in 2006 and when the envelope was
opened, Parkway Central was a winner.
“It was really exciting to send it off and
see how we would perform at this level,”
Crock says of the decision to seek the
school’s designation as having one of the top
music departments in the country. “I had no
idea where we were in scope. We’re not a
large school. We only have a population of
about 1,200, and the Grammy is so comprehensive. But I thought, ‘let’s try this and see
how we do.’”
A Grammy win almost seems the
natural outcome for violinist Crock, who
trained at the Suzuki Talent Education
Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, under the
tutelage of famed string educator Shinichi
Suzuki. “I grew up in a family of musicians
so there was always music in my life,” she
says. Her passion for teaching sparked while
she was earning a bachelor of music degree
at Southern Illinois University, where she
graduated with a special emphasis on Suzuki
pedagogy. “Because I grew up in Suzuki, I
was allowed to teach in college as part of the
prep program,” she says. “I became passionate about the challenge of teaching. It’s a
musical challenge, an artistic challenge, an
intellectual challenge. Figuring it out for
yourself is one thing, but to help someone
else figure it out is something altogether
different and fascinating.”
For the past 26 years, Crock has lived out
that fascination at St. Louis’ Parkway
schools, the majority of them in the high
school, where she’s grateful for a system that
strongly supports music education. “We
have a wonderful program with feeder
schools—students start with Suzuki in the
third grade. That foundation is extraordiCopyright © 2013 by National Association for
Music Education. Reprinted with permission. Not
for further use without permission from NAfME.
nafme.org 47
nary. It would be so much more
difficult to [excel] without it. Then
within Central High School itself we
really have the perfect storm—a
generous administration, brilliant
students, and wonderful parents.”
About 50% of the student population
participate in the music program—10%
of them in orchestra. Within the music
department, synergies flow freely,
rendering the whole greater than its
parts. “We function individually as
different ensembles, but we do a large
choral masterwork as a combined work
every year,” Crock says. “When we do
a musical, everyone does it. We have a
large, combined madrigal dinner. We
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FOR MORE INFORMATION about In Tune student magazine
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are all involved in some
way in the very large
things we undertake …
We wouldn’t have
gotten a Grammy
without having a
tremendous overall
program. There is a respect within the
school for different areas of academics
but for the arts as well.”
While it’s wonderful to have a
trophy, for Crock it’s all about the
opportunities that lie ahead. “We are
not ones to sit around and say, ‘We won
this award.’ We say, ‘That was great;
what’s our next project?’ We always
have new kids and new programs and
new concerts and projects. The
Grammy was a great way to say we are
doing a good job—that’s really what it
meant to us.”
And the golden gramophone isn’t
the only public award to come Crock’s
way. She was named 2013 Educator of
the Year by St. Louis Symphony—an
honor that took her by surprise and
resulted in the local PBS station doing a
segment on her class for their show
Living St. Louis, which was set to film
just before this article went to press.
“My fine arts coordinator nominated me and got a bunch of kids to
support the nomination and write
notes. I had no idea I had been
nominated until I won,” she recounts.
The honor included being called on
stage after a symphony concert, where
she spoke about what music education
means to her.
Central to Crock’s teaching method
is a focus on development over competition. Parkway Central places its share
of students in All-State and NAfME
National Honor orchestras, but she is
wary of the high-pressure environment
of so many music competitions. “The
whole idea of assessment in the arts is
such a big deal, but I’m really very
careful about competitions. I want my
kids to go do amazing things, but the
48 Teaching Music
november 2013
All classroom photos: jon huang
Copyright © 2013 by National Association for
Music Education. Reprinted with permission. Not
for further use without permission from NAfME.
Copyright © 2013 by National Association for Music Education. Reprinted with permission. Not for further use without permission from NAfME.
atmosphere is not always supportive. I
am more into the idea of personal best,”
she says. “We don’t have competitive
seating auditions or things like that.”
This philosophy harkens back to her
own training. “I studied with Shinichi
Suzuki. That method is all about how
can you improve and grow as a human
being and a person. The atmosphere is
extraordinary. I want to challenge my
students to do their best, and that
atmosphere is really very telling in
terms of how get kids to be motivated.”
The very nature of playing in an
orchestra, Crock says, fosters a natural
setting for self-improvement. “Ensemble means ‘together.’ You can’t
have an orchestra where half of the
kids play out of tune, so they know I
am not going to accept a lesser
product, and they want to do their
best. Fear is a powerful motivator.
The fear of not playing up to their top
level is a very powerful thing.” 
FOR ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL
with
Winifred
Crock
WANT TO BRING
MUSIC ALIVE FOR YOUR
STUDENTS?
Q
If I were not a
music teacher and could not
be a performing
musician, I would
… Teach another
subject—languages, history, or
literature. This is an amazing time to
be a teacher. We are in the process of
a revolution in what we teach and how
we teach it. The world is changing and,
with it, education. It is a very exciting
time to be in education.
A L IC I A K
Turns Up th E Y S
e Creativ
What’s something you know now
to be true that you didn’t know
Q
when you started teaching music?
T HE
E E RerS
L U MugIN
s
gling Perform
When I began my teaching career,
I didn’t realize the importance of a
strong pedagogical background. The
processes to teach music and music
skills are complex and specific. Without
a serious pedagogical background,
truly skilled teaching is very difficult.
Exposure to a subject does not often
result in knowledge, and experience
alone will not develop independent skill.
When my students leave my
Q
class I want them to … I want my
students to understand the importance
photo: Courtesy of Winifred crock
of music education so that they will
continue to play and experience music
and ensure that their children will have
a high-quality music education in the
future. I want them to know that anyone
can learn, but no matter what their level
of ability, daily, careful work is necessary
to bring their potential to fruition.
The music education profession
Q
would be better if … The community at large truly understood the
importance of music education. Music
education is not an extra. It should be a
basic fundamental part of every child’s
development and education. Music
and music education have a profound
effect on the human condition and
the development of higher-level brain
function. They cannot be trivialized or
diminished.
nafme.org 49
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