Retiring Ames High School orchestra teacher conducts last concert
A long-time orchestra trainer in Ames took her closing bow Monday evening, and however it arrived earlier than envisioned, Mary Kay Polashek reported teaching has been a satisfying journey for her.
Polashek has been Ames Higher School’s orchestra director and trainer for 35 a long time and has been in teaching 40 decades in whole.
In the substantial school’s auditorium Monday evening, she took to the stage, shoeless, and assumed her familiar spot as conductor while the audience applauded — a vase of bouquets on the phase amongst her and the group.
She then led learners in performing a Bach concerto, variants on musical chopsticks, some winter holiday getaway tunes, a Russian ballet music and an arrangement of the cinematic themes from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.
Polashek mentioned later on that she didn’t know when she picked people parts that it would be the set for her last live performance.
“I had prepared to educate all 12 months and at one particular level even thought of instructing one more 12 months,” she stated, but a prognosis final August of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, superior recognized as Lou Gehrig’s disease, improved that.
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Polashek reported her voice “started out to get rough” more than a calendar year ago — she shed her capacity to sing in December 2020 — but soon after her diagnosis with bulbar ALS, she could however communicate some at faculty. Shortly, even so, “I experienced to kind it and have my laptop or computer talk to the students. This meant it was not possible to give the verbal responses instantaneously all through a rehearsal.”
She reported she was amazed and thankful that her students adapted and played effectively, but, “In early January I realized that my energy degree and my arm power mixed with my incapacity to chat necessitated my being performed teaching faster than I prepared. I told my college students on January 20 that this would be my very last concert.”
She posted on Facebook that she’ll be on unwell leave starting off up coming week.
Throughout a standing ovation at the conclude of the concert and as her partner, Emil, introduced her far more bouquets on stage, Polashek was of course psychological.
She mentioned the live performance was difficult — physically as nicely as emotionally — but, “I was relieved I managed to make it by means of the concert and very overcome by the outpouring of adore and assistance from the viewers and the learners. And I was so happy of the learners for carrying out so very well.”
“Remaining a music instructor and exclusively an orchestra director is the only vocation I at any time desired,” she mentioned.
In addition to her vocation at Ames Significant, she performs piano at church on Sundays, utilized to enjoy violin and viola in the Central Iowa Symphony and was a founding member of the Ames Chamber Artists, singing soprano.
She stopped participating in the string devices in August, and though the loss of singing is really hard for her, she said music is “so significantly a element of my everyday living” and she’s thankful to however be ready to participate in the piano.
Her remaining live performance introduced with each other people from all through her life — former college students, group members, good friends, relatives.
Steve Linn, a former director of choral tunes at Ames Significant School, explained that he experienced taught along with Polashek for 26 a long time, in advance of he retired in 2017.
Linn said he also thought of Polashek as a superior mate, even a sister. He also credited her with an capacity to relate to her students.
“Getting in orchestra and most musical ensembles develops so several lifestyle skills of teamwork, wonderful motor techniques, listening, emotional development, strain relief, self-assurance developing, creativeness and so a lot of additional capabilities desired in daily life,” Polashek claimed.
Beyond competencies, she hopes to depart her students with an appreciation of songs and the willingness to observe their passions.
Emil Polashek claimed his spouse is “going to skip it, but it truly is been very worthwhile for her.”
All four of their little ones have been at the live performance, as well —some as a surprise — hailing from Winterset, Dubuque, Wisconsin and Austin, Texas. All 4 played in her high university orchestra.
“I have love instructing and am sorry to be going out faster than I had planned,” Polashek reported. “Even so it has been a excellent long symphony for me.”
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Phillip Sitter handles training for the Ames Tribune, including Iowa Point out College and PreK-12 colleges in Ames and elsewhere in Tale County. Phillip can be attained via electronic mail at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.
