OFA award honors pair for work in music education

Mark Churchill, educator, conductor, cellist, and dean of New England Conservatory’s Division of Preparatory and Continuing Education, and Marylou Churchill, violinist and member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (College and Preparatory School) and the Heifetz International Institute, have been named co-recipients of the 2005 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award.

Administered by the Office for the Arts (OfA) at Harvard, the award, which carries an honorarium of $10,000, was established by Mrs. Ray A. Goldberg and the Max Goldberg Foundation to perpetuate the values and teaching skills represented by the late Luise Vosgerchian, a longtime member of the faculty of the Department of Music at Harvard.

Mark Churchill will deliver the lecture “Music Education and Social Development in Latin America” on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. Earlier that afternoon, Marylou Churchill will conduct a master class for Harvard undergraduate instrumentalists at Kirkland House at 3 p.m. The Churchills will also be guests of honor at a dinner at Harvard on Dec. 13.

“We are pleased to recognize Mark and Marylou Churchill’s extraordinary contributions to music and music education with this award,” said Jack Megan, director of OfA. “As educators, performers, and administrators, their talent and dedication to young music artists truly embody the spirit of Luise Vosgerchian.”

Mark Churchill has long been an active advocate for the improvement and expansion of music education programs in American schools, and he oversees the development of new music education curricula and teacher training programs through New England Conservatory’s Research Center for Learning Through Music. Marylou Churchill joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Boston Pops in 1970, and was appointed to the position of Principal Second Violin in 1977. She was a violinist with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players from 1993 until her retirement from the BSO and Pops in 2000. Churchill coaches for the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami Beach, Fla., and has been a violin coach for the Asian Youth orchestra in Hong Kong, and youth festivals in New Zealand and the United States.

At her retirement from Harvard in 1990, Luise Vosgerchian was the Walter W. Naumberg Professor of Music Emerita. The award honors individuals who reflect her values and dedication to music and arts education.