Piano instructor to retire after ‘mosaic’ career

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Piano instructor to retire after ‘mosaic’ career
Piano professor Debbi Wyse is retiring after decades of service to Hillsdale.
Courtesy | Debbi Wyse

Teacher of piano Debbi Wyse added one of the last tiles to the “mosaic” of her Hillsdale music career last weekend as she played a duo concert — also titled “Mosaic”— with pianist Kristi Gautsche. 

The name was fitting, as the story of a musician as talented as Debbi Wyse is best told through a mosaic — a collection of memories and details that come together to show the whole picture. The first tile of her mosaic goes back to when she was just seven years old, when her parents bought her a new Wurlitzer piano.

“I had a fantastic first teacher,” Wyse said. “She was quite strict, and I think she recognized early on that I could read music really well.”

From then on, her teacher encouraged her to sight read, play at church, and even accompany  a soloist by the time she was a seventh grader. She was playing the organ as early as the fifth grade.

“We had daily Mass and a friend of mine and I alternated days,” Wyse said. “We would get to church and up on the board would be the hymn numbers for the day. We were just supposed to play.”

Wyse went on to earn her B.A. in Music at Bowling Green State University in 1975. Shortly after entering the working world, Wyse and her husband auditioned for the Hillsdale Arts Chorale. They sang with that organization for 30 years after moving to Hillsdale in February of 1980. 

“That first year, the accompanist for that group was Professor von Sydow,” Wyse said. “I got invited to play a duet accompaniment for the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes with him. After the program, someone came up to me and talked to me and said, ‘You did a really great job. Are you interested in a job at Hillsdale College?’”

Her first official title at Hillsdale College was staff accompanist, which she held for 11 years.

“No phone, no office, no computer, no coat rack,” Wyse said. “I had to carry my stuff up three flights of stairs. It was very different in those days.”

Despite those minor challenges, her best memory from those first years, she said, was of the Chamber Choir putting on Madrigal dinners in the 1980s. 

“We dressed up in Elizabethan period costumes and presented a program in Dow A and B where I got to play harpsichord,” Wyse said. “They had a suckling pig and flaming desserts and things like that.”

Her other favorite memories, she said, include accompanying the Chamber Choir at a noontime concert for the Pentagon and at a performance for Margaret Thatcher in Florida, as well as co-conducting the choir’s performance with Professor Holleman during the chapel dedication.

“I was privileged to conduct the singers as an encore for a packed audience,” Wyse said. “It was definitely one of my biggest thrills.”

Wyse said another important part of her career has been the three decades spent performing duo concerts with pianist Kristi Gautsche.

“We began our duo career in the old Phillips Auditorium where Plaster Auditorium now stands,” Wyse said. “One of my best memories was performing for a standing-room-only audience in Markel Auditorium. Since then we have always performed two concerts in a weekend.”

On a day-to-day basis, she teaches private lessons during the mornings and afternoons before going to accompany the choir. She says one of the best parts of her workday is playing in the chapel. 

“It’s a beautiful space,” Wyse said. 

Wyse said apart from accompanying choir rehearsals, the most rewarding part of her job is working with students and seeing their progress.

“It’s knowing that these kids are able to make music in new ways, experience music, have a love for music, and take it into their adult years,” Wyse said, “And really enjoy it as a hobby if they’re not going to do it professionally.”

One of those students, senior Elyse Robidoux, said she started taking lessons with Wyse as a sophomore when a friend recommended Wyse as a piano teacher. 

“She’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had,” Robidoux said. “She’s pretty incredible and has brought me to a point of excellence I couldn’t have reached on my own.”

Another one of Wyse’s students, senior Micah Wiley, said she has enjoyed taking piano lessons with Wyse for all eight semesters of her time at Hillsdale. 

“She has made me a better artist,” Wiley said. “She wants me to tell a story with the music and gives me just the right balance of compliments and critiques, which is hard to do as a music teacher.”

Wiley said one of her favorite memories with Wyse was when the two accompanied an opera workshop together.

“Debbi was a great leader and I learned how to follow her and her musicality,” Wiley said. “We made a great team.”

Robidoux said her favorite memory of Wyse was when she still was able to give lessons despite being stuck in Peru during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis.

“She had to call me from her son’s iPad and we had to negotiate the time zone differences,” Robidoux said. “She kept such a peppy and upbeat attitude through all of it, even though it was absolutely ridiculous because I was sitting in my living room playing piano and she was in another country because she couldn’t leave.”

Robidoux added with a smile, “Today, she made me a cup of tea.” 

Wiley said Wyse is very warm and caring toward her students.

“Always, after my lessons, she asks me how my day is going and how my week was,” Wiley said.

After retiring from working at the college full time, Wyse said she plans to enjoy life on her farm and spend time with her grandchildren. 

“I’m worried that I’m going to be bored,” Wyse said, laughing. “But I definitely want more family time.”

Having been an integral part of the music department for so long, Robidoux said, her constant presence on campus will be missed.

“She keeps us going and everyone adores her because they know without her, we wouldn’t be here,” Robidoux said. “Whoever comes in next has some very large shoes to fill.”