Music educator hits the right note
When Megan Huckabay first came to UVic as a student she foresaw a career as a pianist. When tendonitis forced her to stop playing, she turned to her second love—science.
"I’ve always been fascinated by science, and biology in particular, " says Huckabay, winner of the Maxwell Cameron Medal in Education (secondary). "I started a biology degree, but just couldn’t ignore that my heart was with choral music. I decided to audition for voice and found myself once again embracing my passion for music."
She earned a music degree and then a BEd in music education, where she’s still able to apply her knowledge of biology.
"I love drawing upon the sciences in teaching music," she says. "It’s possible to draw analogies between the complex properties of a living organism and a musical ensemble. They each depend on independent components to succeed."
This dynamic approach to learning worked well during her teaching practicum, where she taught courses in chamber choir, vocal ensemble, men and women’s choir and intermediate strings and band.
Huckabay was assisted during her studies by several awards, including a Horning Memorial Scholarship, a Don Wright Scholarship in Music Education, and the Glenn and Mary Daugharty Bursary in Music.
Huckabay is currently working as a teacher on call
in Vancouver as a secondary music specialist and has been offered several teaching positions for the fall. In the meantime, she’s been hired by the Vancouver Cantata singers as a soprano and will direct three programs for the Kamloops summer school music program this July.
"My ultimate goal is to create singers who have a lifelong love of singing and music," she says. "Children have such a natural affinity for music, but at some point self-consciousness comes into play. A big part of my job is to try to return students to that stage, and to encourage them to sing as if no one is listening."
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