NAU alumna Patricia Burton has found a means of expression that has survived centuries: the cello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patricia Burton, BMEd Music Secondary Education<\/a> and BMus Music Performance \u2013 Instrumental<\/a>, \u201918, explains that the cello\u2019s \u201cwide range in pitch gives variety in sound, while the tone is so deep and rich that it can very easily touch the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burton recalls playing Bach\u2019s Cello Suites \u201caccompanied only by the birds and the wind through the trees\u201d in an area called Aspen Corner on the San Francisco Peaks. Now working toward a graduate degree at Ball State University in northeast Indiana, she said, \u201cI have a mental picture of playing in the aspens when I\u2019m performing on stage,\u201d explaining that the meditative scene relieves stress and allows her to \u201cmore easily feel what the composer wanted to portray and to more freely convey that and my own feeling to the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That depth of feeling is what draws Burton to the composer who has most influenced her: Dmitry Shostakovich, a twentieth-century Russian whose avant-garde style was condemned as too radical by Stalin\u2019s regime. She explains that \u201cdespite the restrictions\u2014 the immense artistic oppression he faced\u2014Shostakovich found freedom to write expressive, moving music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Growing up in Phoenix, she began playing the cello in fourth grade and progressed throughout high school, excelling in AP coursework, including advanced calculus. Burton found that math enhances the creative process and \u201cmakes pathways to connect real-life questions and think outside the box.\u201d She earned a seat in the school\u2019s top orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But she credits two professors in the NAU School of Music<\/a>\u2014her cello teacher, Mary Ann Ramos<\/a>, and orchestra director, Daniel O\u2019Bryant<\/a>\u2014with giving her the freedom and inspiration to create her own career path and style of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although she had been awarded a Lumberjack scholarship, Burton said what clinched her choice to study at NAU was a lesson with Dr. Ramos that followed her initial audition: \u201cI learned so much in that one lesson. It\u2019s really about the teacher, and I really enjoyed studying with her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burton started her program at NAU with only a music education major. When she expressed her interest in adding a performance major, she said, \u201cDr. Ramos figured out the requirements for a performance degree and what pieces I needed to play to succeed in reaching my goals. She also showed me the importance of routine, to practice the fundamentals\u2014playing scales and working on technique. She taught it so well that it didn\u2019t feel like work, and I appreciated how doing it every day makes me a better musician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the director of orchestras, Dr. O\u2019Bryant also encouraged her to explore the pros and cons of teaching, performance, and conducting\u2014and how to best employ her passion for music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burton said that these connections with her mentors were vital to her progress: \u201cI asked so many questions about career paths and about their own lives and what affected them,\u201d adding that they fostered her love for opera and musicals. And, she said that without \u201call the hours of quartet coaching from Dr. Ramos, I would not be the chamber musician I am now.\u201d Burton also enjoyed the \u201csuper tight-knit community\u201d in the music education program that she calls a \u201cmini family,\u201d a cohort that stayed together from freshman year through graduation. She particularly appreciated participating in the opera program, a valuable opportunity unavailable to undergraduates in most other universities, explaining, \u201cwhat stood out to me was being able to be in the orchestra, accompanying fabulous vocalists who really made me want to be good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said that she chose to further her studies at Ball State University because Dr. Ramos had gone to school with a cello teacher there who focuses on technique\u2014and who is now also \u201csuper supportive\u201d of Burton\u2019s dream to combine performance with teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burton has performed online but relishes performing in traditional settings, noting that live performances are \u201ceasier because you feel the audience\u2014see them, hear their applause, and feel their energy, interactively listening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day, I can always pick up my cello and play. It gives me a means of expression\u2014to tell my feelings through music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Her philosophy as a teacher reflects her experience with her NAU mentors: \u201cMy goal as a music educator is to provide students the opportunity and tools to cultivate their own musicianship. They might not like Bach or Beethoven\u2014they might like twenty-first century experimental music\u2014and that\u2019s fine. If classical music continues to survive, we have to keep up with times and allow pop influences to affect our music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for her taste in pop music, she said she enjoys Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers. They often have orchestras and quartets with classically trained musicians accompanying them on stage. But she said she also listens to \u201cbasically whatever is popular on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s in her future? She dreams of completing her PhD, and perhaps she\u2019ll travel to the great halls of Vienna. \u201cMost musicians want to go to Austria to see where Mozart and other classical composers wrote and played,\u201d she said. \u201cHearing orchestras there would be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for now, she said, \u201cAt the end of the day I can always pick up my cello and play. It gives me a means of expression\u2014to tell my feelings through music.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NAU alumna Patricia Burton has found a means of expression that has survived centuries: the cello.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":2628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5641,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/5641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Helping her succeed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Next steps<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n