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Madison Pineau is in her junior year as a music education major. She has an emphasis in voice and plans to become a K-12 music teacher or continue to study music in grad school.
“I think I have always known I wanted to work in music, though I have changed my mind about it a few times,” Pineau said.
Pineau said that music education is a difficult major, but is definitely worth the effort. A lot of people end up switching out of the music education program because they take more classes than other majors.
“It takes a certain kind of person to do what we do, because you have to keep that passion for music alive, even though it becomes work instead of something you just do for fun. But when you get to major in something you love, it makes it all worthwhile,” Pineau said.
While the music education program is relatively small, the music, theatre and dance departments are popular. Their ensembles and theatrical productions are open to anyone at the university, regardless of major. So, they usually have a handful of non-majors participate every semester. Pineau would tell anyone considering taking a music course to just do it.
“I think the best part about music ed. is the community. We’re a pretty small major, and you have pretty much every class with the same people all four years. So, you get very close and always have other people to lean on,” Pineau said.
Pineau remembered getting sick last year and missing a few classes. She was expecting one of her professors to be angry, but instead, she got a reply to her e-mail asking if everything was all right. It meant a lot to know that her professors and classmates cared.
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This year, Pineau was the president of the American Choral Directors Association, vice-president of the National Association for Music Educators and the choral department fellow. She also worked in the Aural Skills Development lab, and taught private lessons on the side.
Pineau said, “My biggest obstacle has been over-committing myself. I tried to get as much as possible out of my time here at PSU, but I realized I had too much on my plate at times.”
Since she had many different opportunities to do different things with music that she had not considered before, Pineau has thought about eventually pursuing a doctorate in either vocal performance and pedagogy, or choral conducting.