Cathy Mullarney: The Making of a Music Teacher
By Elaine Meyers
Cathy Mullarney taught music at Emily Howland Elementary School from 1988 to 2014. Her legacy includes the “Emily Howland Family Tree Song”, the original musical “The Quilt Maker and the King,” the Anne Frank Tree birthday song, and countless moments of musical magic over her 23-year career. For the most current moment, sing the birthday song with Cathy at https://youtu.be/KpJOhJZZ2zA .
I first met Cathy when I joined the Southern Cayuga Anne Frank Tree Committee and observed her direct the entire Emily Howland student body and community in singing “We’re a family and we’re a tree...” The students knew the song by heart and joined the chorus with their voices and bodies as they mimicked a tree growing and swaying in the breeze. I had seen Cathy in the orchestra of the Southern Cayuga High School musical productions and in the community as a member of the Auburn Chamber Orchestra. I was anxious to learn more about the making of our very gifted local music teacher.
Cathy cannot remember a time when music was not in her home. “My father had a beautiful voice and was always singing or whistling. My mother sang as well. I loved sitting in church listening to my parents sing from the pews as the church choir led the congregation in old and familiar songs. As a grown up, my last memory of my father singing was on Veteran’s Day the year before he died. He served in World War II in the Navy, and this was his song.”
We're the Seabees of the Navy. We can build and we can fight.
We'll pave the way to victory and guard it day and night.
And we promise that we remember the "Seventh of December."
We're the Seabees of the Navy, bees of the Seven Seas.
“I wish I had recorded him. I know he taught me that music is important and it is everywhere.”
Cathy was born in 1953, the second of four children. While there was always music in her home and church, her first independent foray into music came in the 4th grade. “It was the East Syracuse-Minoa School’s annual band campaign in the gym. Mr. Reitano asked me what instrument I would like to play, and I told him the harp. He said they did not have a harp and asked my second choice. I answered it would be the flute. My mother remembers that my first flute teacher, Mr. Hahn, said to her that ‘my little fingers were meant for the flute.’ He must have been right. I have been playing ever since.”
“What music brought me as a child and young adult was a circle of friends that shared my love of music. To be in the circle, you needed to work hard. I had private lessons beginning in the sixth grade and practiced for one to three hours a day. I was first chair flute and then went to all county and all state band. My circle of friends widened with each conference I attended. I travelled all over the state of New York. Music has always brought me friends and travel---as well as lots of hard work.”
Cathy talked about her natural shyness and the irony that music propelled her into wider and wider social circles. Her music teachers inspired her. “My high school band director helped me develop a love of other cultures. He made it possible for me to play with the New York State Honor Band that was composed of high school and college students from Central New York. The organization arranged an Honor Band trip to Mexico City. The director from Marcellus, Phil Natoli, developed our concert program that included both American and Latin material. This was the first time I had ever flown on a plane or been out of the country.”
“The trip was eye-opening. I saw real poverty for the first time as well as pyramids and learned about the ancient Mayan culture. The experience gave me a new sense of independence and an expanded world-view. This trip transformed my senior year and plans for college.”
After being accepted at Ithaca College, University of Connecticut and SUNY Potsdam, Cathy and her family decided on the most affordable option in Potsdam. The choice was life altering. Cathy’s career goal was to work in a Broadway pit orchestra when she began her freshman year. When she graduated, her goal was the teach classroom music. Potsdam required students to study both instrumental and classroom music. As part of her classes in Music and Special Education with professor Sona Nocera, Cathy tutored students in elementary and middle school, setting musical goals that also taught other skills. “I learned a new process and perspective—how to plan effectively with short term experiences that would lead to long term results.”
Cathy continued to practice and play throughout college. She spent a large part of her time in the Potsdam Music Building with fellow music majors. “We studied together, practiced for hours and because of our growing friendships and hard work were able to get in touch with the emotional aspects of our music. Musicians become like a family—a tight knit community. Music requires an interesting balancing of solitary time and cooperative time. The reward for these efforts are unique moments of group inspiration that transcend the score and the musicians.”
Like all good teachers, Cathy continued to learn. In 2003 she took a course in Orff Schulwerk at Ithaca College that solidified much of her approach to music. The Orff Approach combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to a child's world of play. It was developed by the German composer Carl Orff and colleague Gunild Keetman during the 1920s. The class inspired Cathy to write a musical “The Quiltmaker and the King”, based on a book by Jeff Brumbeau, that starred grades Kindergarten to 4th grade in the Sherwood Emily Howland School. Each grade had a role in the production, the 4th grade were the actors, and each of the other grades created a different place in the King’s journey to earn a quilt. Each visit of the King featured the songs and dances from the country visited. The musical took 25 minutes to perform and was performed twice to packed audiences of students, families and community members.
It is not possible to separate Cathy from music, love of a variety of cultures and a profound sense of duty to make the world a better place. In 2011, Cathy traveled to San Pedro in the mountainous area of Morazan, El Salvador. She has returned every year with others from our southern Cayuga County community, and has shared her music and talent for telling a story that will transform the opportunities for the people in this town of 300 people, approximately 200 of whom are children. They have a small school, kindergarten through 6th grade. The San Pedro project includes youth scholarships as well as a number of projects to protect health and well-being of the 40 families on small farms that produce beans and corn. When Cathy goes to San Pedro, her music binds her to the community—especially the children.
In the last San Pedro Sister Community Newsletter a poem by Oscar Romero was published. The poem speaks to everyone and I want someone to make it into a song that will inspire and comfort all of us that are part of Cathy’s communities. I will ask Cathy and we end our article with words brought to us from one of our best music teachers:
Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism.
Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty. Oscar Romero