He has taught over 1,000 students to make the most of their voices. Some of those students were biology, physics, psychology and business students looking for the opportunity to further enjoy a musical hobby. Others were music majors who are now conducting choirs and teaching in classrooms across the country.
For 40 years, William Wyman — or “Doc” as his students call him — has taught music at Nebraska Wesleyan University and directed its University Choir.
Before finding his home at NWU, he spent five years teaching in Ohio and Pittsburgh. Nebraska Wesleyan, he said, was meant to be a stepping stone to other jobs, but he soon found the faculty and staff support was unlike anything he’d experienced.
“I have stayed at Nebraska Wesleyan for 40 years because I found I was able to develop a strong choral tradition here,” said Wyman. “Administrative support and the support of my colleagues have been crucial in providing me the opportunity to build and maintain a choral tradition that is indeed something special.”
It is special indeed.
Under Wyman’s direction, the University Choir has:
- Performed in tours across the country each winter;
- Performed in eight international tours with another planned for Ireland in May;
- First collegiate choir from Nebraska selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association National Convention;
- First American choir to perform in universities and conservatories in Romania;
- First American choir invited to participate in the St. Petersburg, Russia International Choral Festival;
- Performed at Carnegie Hall twice in the past five years.
Wyman has also collected a number of honors in those 40 years including:
- Nebraska Choral Directors Association “Outstanding Choral Director of the Year;”
- Fulbright Scholarship appointment at Seoul National University in Korea;
- Induction into the Nebraska Music Educators Association Hall of Fame;
- Cornell Runestad Award recipient, the Nebraska Choral Directors Association highest honor.
On October 12, Wyman added another distinction to that long list: the Roy G. Story Award. The award honors a person or group that has significantly enhanced the national stature and reputation of Nebraska Wesleyan and is presented only when an individual or group is identified as truly deserving of the award. The University Choir was presented the award in 1992.
Wyman was presented the award during the alumni choir concert, held during homecoming in honor of his 40th anniversary. More than 100 alumni returned to perform five songs from their undergraduate years including the choir's signature piece, Sir Malcolm Sargent's arrangement of "Silent Night."
"This year it's very appropriate to individualize this award — the 22nd Roy Story Award — to honor the choir's director," President Fred Ohles told concert attendees. "Bill's life's work has touched the hearts and lives of thousands of performers and audience members around the world."
Wyman is also well known for some unorthodox teaching methods. For example, for the past 40 years, he has taught his beginning conducting class in the university swimming pool, a method introduced to him by his mentor, Charles Hirt.
“Students have a tendency to be tense and mechanical,” Wyman said of students’ early conducting styles. “The resistance of the water assists students in developing tension free control and muscle memory. The resistance of the water also assists in developing a technique that maintains control from the center of the body and not the shoulders.”
Students begin in the shallow end of the pool and ease into deeper water, using the resistance of the water to guide their arms. The students learn to conduct from their abdominal muscles to avoid back pain, said Wyman.