FRATERNITY'S PLEDGE: TO CELEBRATE MUSIC
By Steve Davy
Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Forget the classic image of a raging fraternity toga party
or secret fraternal hazing. Western Michigan
University's music fraternity, the Delta Iota chapter
of Phi Mu Alpha, is all about the appreciation and support
of music.
The chapter has no house that parents fear their children
attend or that police frequent on the weekends. Instead
there is an office at the Dalton Center Recital Hall on
WMU's campus, where weekly meetings take place with a
singing rehearsal on the agenda.
On Saturday, the fraternity will join forces with its sister
chapter, the WMU Sigma Alpha Iota Chorale, along with the
Battle Creek Boychoir and Battle Creek Girl's Chorus
for a free recital in WMU's Dalton Center Recital Hall.
"One of the basic tenets of the fraternity is the promotion
of music and the celebration of music," Delta
Iota President Shawn Brier said. "That's something I
never forget. I have a strong appreciation for
music."
Brier, 30, began his college career at WMU as a
music-education major in 1994. While a freshman in the
marching band, his friends invited him to check out their
fraternity at the School of Music.
"I became very interested in it when many of the people I
knew through marching band began talking about
it," Brier said. "Marching band is definitely
one of the largest pools we draw from because of the high
visibility and the great friendships."
Brier's story took an abrupt turn when in the summer of
1995 he enlisted in the Navy. During his six years of
service, the brotherhood was always at the back of his mind.
So, in 2002, he returned to WMU -- this time as a
computer-engineering major. He became active in the
fraternity again because of the bonds of friendship.
Phi Mu Alpha, commonly referred to as Sinfonia, is the
national fraternity to which Delta Iota belongs. The
fraternity, whose famous members include Count Basie, Andrew
Carnegie, Duke Ellington and Fred Rogers, is more than a
century old and is the largest music fraternity in the
world. It has more than 150,000 initiates and has chapters
on over 200 college and university campuses across the
nation, according to its Web site, www.sinfonia.org.
The fraternity began at the New England Conservatory in
Boston as an effort to bring together men with a shared love
of music and to develop the virtues of manhood in themselves
and in their fellows.
At WMU, Delta Iota works weekly behind the scenes at the
Dalton Center, setting up the concert spaces and ushering.
The 33 members, about half of whom are School of Music
students, carry on their traditions with activities
including concerts -- such as last January's American
Musical concert celebrating American composers -- and
singing the "Alma Mater" and the "Star Spangled
Banner" at WMU's commencement each year.
Saturday's annual performance, called "Sing
On!", will feature "River in Judea"
and other spirituals.
Delta Iota also has taken a philanthropic role in music by
commissioning pieces of music every couple of years and
sponsoring two $500 scholarships each year to WMU's
Summer Music Seminar. The fraternity is also helping to fund
the winter-term residency of Apollo's Fire, of
Cleveland, in February at WMU's School of Music.
Other projects members have been involved in include the
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's Petting Zoo and the
Cornstock Music Festival in Galesburg.
The fraternity's mission is perhaps best summed up by
Delta Iota's treasurer Shaun Schoonhoven: "It's
about spending time together. There's a strong focus on
getting to know one another and WMU and music."
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