From the Standard-Times
When you talk to her about music education, the passion all but drips from each word.NEW BEDFORD — When you talk to Terry Wolkowicz, you can hear the energy in her voice.
The students are "my kiddies." Classes aren't nice, they're "wonderful," "amazing," "awesome," or "super awesome."
Get her started on the subject of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra's education program, and her voice raises a pitch. She speaks faster. And even if you're tone deaf, you can't help but get excited about Beethoven.
Wolkowicz earned her master's in education from Harvard University. She majored in piano at the New England Conservatory of Music.
She could teach anywhere in the country and she chooses to work for zero dollars a year as the volunteer education director at the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. She's also the volunteer president of the Board of Trustees of the symphony.
"It's a full-time job, and I'm just so invigorated by it," she said with a laugh. "I'm so, so lucky to do what I love. Every day! Every day I get up and do what I love! How cool is that? How lucky am I?"
For the past four years, Wolkowicz has created a new interdisciplinary and interactive elementary curriculum based on a musical concept — such as form or symmetry — that is also applied in other academic subjects. She volunteers to teach it to some 3,000 SouthCoast elementary students at 48 elementary schools from Cape Cod to Rhode Island. Some 8,000 participate in some way or another with the various education programs she oversees.
For her selfless volunteer hours and all she has done to educate SouthCoast children about music, and for all she's done for the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra itself, Terry Wolkowicz has been named The Standard-Times 2013 New Bedford Woman of the Year. Nominations for the award came from the community and members of the newspaper staff. Recipients were selected by a newsroom committee.
"Terry Wolkowicz has a passion for teaching children music"» ... It is very apparent that the students all feel Terry's excitement," said Pamela Norweb, a member of the NBSO President's Advisory Council. "The excitement and participation from the students is truly amazing. They love her.
"For years she has selflessly volunteered countless hours as education director for the New Bedford Symphony. She has developed and brought her programs to 45 schools this year from Falmouth to Rhode Island," Norweb said. "The programs she develops support what's going on in the school. She is willing to go back as many times as the teachers request her. Terry is truly dedicated to children and music."
"Terry has revolutionized and greatly expanded the NBSO's educational programs," said NBSO trustee Sandria Parsons, adding the Wolkowicz has spurred "a significant growth period of educational outreach that is now drawing attention from orchestras nationwide."
This year, Wolkowicz has written a curriculum on musical symmetry and how it applies to math, art and music.
When asked why she volunteers, Wolkowicz instinctively answers from the NBSO's point of view, instead of her own — or perhaps they're one in the same: "If I didn't volunteer, it wouldn't exist. We can't afford to hire a full-time education director. So the fact that I'm volunteering is great," she said.
Wolkowicz grew up in New Jersey and started taking piano lessons from her mother — a piano teacher — at age 4.
"I was not a good child musician; I hated it for the first eight years," she said with a laugh. "It wasn't until I was 13 that I realized, 'Wait, I'm good at this. And I kind of enjoy it!' And thank God my mom didn't let me quit because I'm not good at anything else. What would I have been? I have a very limited skill set here." She graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1986 and taught elementary school music for a few years before going to Harvard for her master's degree.
She married Dr. Chris Wolkowicz, who has an oral surgery practice on Hawthorn Street, in 1999 and has three children. She volunteered as a music teacher at St. James-St. John School when two of the children attended there from 2006-10, she said.
Wolkowicz got involved with fundraising for the NBSO, and then fell in love with its mission: "Many orchestras have education outreach, but it's an aside. Here was an orchestra who had education as part of their mission. It was such a great fit," she said.
She calls New Bedford her "new home," and in a city where many know her husband for his profession, she's beginning to get her own recognition, she said.
"Everyone knows Wolkowicz as a dentist. So I had the coolest moment the other day! I was at a meeting and someone said, 'Wolkowicz. I know that name. From the New Bedford Symphony?' And I said, 'What? You know me for me? You don't want me to take out your wisdom teeth?" she said, laughing.
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