Hi, my name is Alexus Little, and I will be the Student Government Association (SGA) President for the 2021–2022 academic school year. Ever since my freshman year, I noticed that Salem College is a place I feel very at home not only because of the siblinghood established but also because of the relationships I have been able to build with faculty and staff. Next year, I am super excited to work with the rest of the executive board, and I know that we will be able to help students transition from being entirely virtual to being back on campus.
This transition is imperative because many incoming sophomores never had the chance to step foot on campus, enjoy Salem’s traditions such as Fall Fest, or meet their BIGs and fellow peers in person. During this year, the SGA team has done so much for its siblings, and I cannot express how much I am thankful for them. They have accomplished so much during a time that was challenging for everyone; and they have done so with grace, perseverance, integrity, and with the hearts of servants. They are phenomenal leaders, and I know that next year’s SGA board members are hoping to make them and our fellow students just as proud.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Graduate Music Program at Salem College has had to continually adapt to virtual learning—finding the best way to facilitate piano lessons and classes over Zoom, using the best technologies, optimizing sound, and creating a supportive environment. The program currently has students enrolled from Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, England, China, and the United States.
Creighton Holder holds Lucille while on a Zoom class
In 2021, current master’s and certificate program students and recent graduates of the program have not let the pandemic hinder their extracurricular accomplishments. Many have created large, successful piano studios in North Carolina and beyond, curated concerts, adjudicated competitions, and been selected for upcoming international music conferences. Present and past students Anni Wang, Andrea Arévalo, Scarlette Kerr, Ekin Ustunel, Bethany Cothern, and Celeste Watson have been accepted to present at the Hisarli Shmet Symposium in Kutahya, Turkey, in June 2021. Scarlette and Celeste recently co-founded and adjudicated the Salem Piano Festival. They also presented for the North Carolina Music Teachers Association and the Harrisonburg Music Teachers Association.
In July, Celeste will discuss pedagogical philosophies at the Gordon Institute of Music Learning Conference in Chicago. Ekin was hired at Guilford County Schools Piano Labs. In March, Creighton Holder performed the works of Salem Professor Emeritus Margaret Sandresky for the International Music by Women Festival hosted by the Mississippi University for Women. He is also producing a continuous concert series at Highland Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem on the music of women composers. Andrea, another current student, presented at the 2021 MTNA Collegiate Chapter Symposium 2021 in January. Lastly, Arturo Hinostroza presented at “Universidad Católica de Arequipa” in Peru on the effects of music on the human brain.
Andrea Arévalo, MM candidate in a lesson from Lima, Peru
The graduate music faculty also continues to excel. Dr. Amy Zigler has been invited to submit two book chapters in the forthcoming months. “Perhaps What Men Call a Sin…: An Examination of Ethel Smyth’s The Prison” will be published in the monograph “Women Composers in New Perspectives, 1800–1950: Genres, Contexts and Repertoires” (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2022), part of the Speculum Musicae series. She also will contribute a chapter on the chamber music of Ethel Smyth for the forthcoming book “Cambridge Companion to Ethel Smyth,” part of the Cambridge Companions to Music Series, published by Cambridge University Press.
In addition to continuing a series of articles for the European Piano Teachers Association Piano Journal, I will be performing in the Stretto International Festival for Small Hands, presenting a virtual workshop for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in June 2021, and presenting a case study on focal dystonia at the International Performing Arts Medicine Association Symposium in New York City in July 2021.
Depending on when you graduated, this day evokes different memories of Salem. For the past 40 years, the celebrations have been marked by the image of Academy seniors in white cap and gown and College seniors in black cap and gown processing into the May Dell. Salem’s community gathers annually to celebrate the origins of Salem Academy and College in 1772, but who were the founders and how has the celebration changed over the decades?
The spring Founders Day celebration that we know today began in 1980. The use of April 30 as a founding date is based on Moravian Church records, which note that the first schoolgirls were taught in a room of Salem’s Gemeinhaus in April 1772. Unfortunately, the record does not include the specific date when the first class was held. In the 20th century, the decision was made to use the last day of the month when the rents were calculated as the founding date. For a short period of time in the 20th century, the Founders Day celebration was moved to February to commemorate the date in 1866 when Salem Female Academy was incorporated by the legislature of North Carolina.
For many years, however, Founders Day celebrations were held in October. The fall date was chosen to honor the decision on October 31, 1802 to “call” the first inspector to create a boarding school open to the daughters of Moravians and non-Moravians. The call process, still used today to appoint ministers of Moravian congregations, was used because the first 12 leaders of the school were ministers. As Margaret Blair McCuiston, College Class of 1914, described it:
“I have vivid recollections of the Founders Day Observances from 1907 to 1913. We had a holiday from classes. The Boarding pupils were taken on an outing. Sometimes the day pupils (of which I was one) joined them. The observance was (then) always in October but sometimes the exact day was changed.”
By the mid-20th century, the annual fall celebration of Founders Day was, in the words of one College alumna from the class of 1980, “the big fun” day with class themes, songs, skits, and costumes. In the academic year 1979–1980, the name of this event was changed to Fall Fest, a very popular College tradition still practiced today, and the Founders Day celebration was moved to April.
According to the program for the first spring Founders Day celebration in 1980, then as today, all Academy and College students gathered for the senior procession, which was followed by the Founders Day Address delivered by Dr. Dale H. Gramley, who had retired just nine years earlier. Dr. Gramley was Salem’s 13th president and the first who was not an ordained minister.
Regarding the question of who is celebrated on Founders Day, there is no one answer. Elisabeth Oesterlein was the first teacher, but she did not start the school on her own. In 1922, Adelaide Fries, 1890 graduate of Salem College and renowned Moravian archivist, argued that the founders were the fathers who hired Oesterlein to educate their daughters. Others look to the Moravian congregation of Salem, which is celebrating its own 250th anniversary this fall, and to the Single Sisters, who taught generations of Salem students and provided financial support to the school. Certainly, the existence of Salem Academy and College would not have been possible if not for the unusual Moravian practice of educating girls, as well as boys. So, the answer is, Salem, like many lasting institutions, was founded by a community of dedicated people working together toward a common goal.
The Salem Academy and College Library would like to recognize the outstanding student staff and interns who have been working with the library this semester. Student workers have allowed the library to provide chat service and digital course reserves week after week.
If you have received library assistance after 5 p.m. during the week or at any time on the weekend, these Salem Sibs are the ones who made it happen: Catherine Davila, Leslie Kirby, Ariel (Monty) Montgerard, Lailey Robbins, Kimberly Sanchez, Jasmine Scott, Savannah Shanley, and Maya Stills.
In addition, the library has had four interns this semester. They have worked on special projects in Archives (Sarah Fair and Markl Ryals), behind-the-scenes on our research guides (M.K. Thompson), and creating social media content for the library (Isabel Snipes). We thank them for their hard work and know their projects will continue to benefit the library and the Salem community in semesters to come.
Finally, we would like to recognize our student workers and interns who are graduating this Spring: Sarah Fair, Leslie Kirby, Ariel (Monty) Montgerard, Markl Ryals, Maya Stills, and M.K. Thompson. Congratulations and we wish you all the best in your new adventures ahead!
