Today we’d like to introduce you to Betsy Cook Weber.
Betsy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a native Houstonian and grew up near Hobby Airport because my dad was a pilot and that was convenient. Our family owned one car, and my mom would put my sisters on the backyard picnic table. When we saw Daddy’s plane waggle its wings, we would all hop in the station wagon and pick him up! I went to excellent HISD schools K-12 and had wonderful music teachers along the way. At the age of nine, when I got sing in the choir, I decided I wanted to become a music teacher, and I never changed my mind.
My dad was laid off my junior year of high school. Paying for college was a challenge, particularly since my father did not see the point of a girl going to college. This was not an unusual point of view in the late 60’s. I had figured out that I could almost make enough to go to North Texas, but it wasn’t enough. A loan was out of the question per my parents. The night of my high school graduation I was presented with a scholarship donated by the teachers at my high school. It was almost to the penny exactly what I needed. I made it through North Texas and came home to Houston to teach elementary music, then middle school music.
At that point, I applied to Westminster Choir College in Princeton — then the preeminent place in the world to study choral music. I was accepted and withdrew my teacher retirement to help pay for that degree. Came home to Houston to teach high school and marry Rick Weber. After six years of high school teaching UH began offering a doctorate. I was the first to apply to that program. I have been at UH in one guise or another ever since and am now a Madison Endowed Professor of Music.
In 2014, the Houston Symphony approached me about becoming Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus. I accepted and took on that formidable and exciting challenge in addition to continuing my work at UH.
Listening to Jill Biden talk about her love of teaching this week was like listening to myself. I have loved, if not every minute, almost every moment of my career. Working with singers and students and great colleagues has been an absolute joy.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Making my first two degrees work financially was challenging. Realizing my limitations was challenging — knowing early in life that there were always other people who were smarter and more talented than I, and that the only thing I could truly control was the grit I brought to the job.
Dealing with life while teaching was challenging — continuing to try to give my singers and students the best possible learning opportunity with romantic relationships on the rocks (before Rick!), the illness and death of parents, raising a beautiful daughter, moving houses, remodeling houses, some unexpected health issues that needed attention, etc. Working in a man’s world was challenging.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The UH Choral Area is now recognized internationally as one of the finest collegiate choral programs in the world. We have arrived at this recognition by way of three invitations to be featured at national choral conventions, and participation in six prestigious European choral competitions at which we have won or placed in every category in which we have sung. The choral community in Houston, particularly, is enriched with UH grads who are now directing their own choirs with great success. I calculate that I have touched the lives of about 4,000 singers over the course of my career. If only 10% of them have become music teachers, and if they, too, touch 4,000 singers, the impact is huge.
My work with the Houston Symphony, although much shorter in tenure, has been equally thrilling. We have changed the paradigm in the way in which we have organized the Chorus, and I believe we have lifted the quality of our performances. Because the Chorus is an entirely volunteer group, it provides a kind of professional development for teachers that is close to my heart. And leading a group that is also filled with engineers, doctors, lawyers, post office workers, landscapers, who come together to rehearse and perform, as volunteers, some of the greatest art produced in history provides fulfillment for all of us that cannot be described.
What were you like growing up?
My sisters always called me “Bossy Betsy.” While I don’t deny the truth of the title, I also don’t think they would have called a brother with the same personality traits “bossy.” I have always been a worrier; you name it, and I worry about it. I have always worked hard. I think I am empathetic. My interests have always included music, reading, and hiking.
COVID has brought the realization that I am an introvert. Social isolation has worked out just fine for me, and this is weird because my job requires me to be with large groups of people all the time, and I love my job!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.uh.edu/kgmca or www.houstonsymphony.org
- Phone: 713-743-3194
- Email: bweber@uh.edu or weberb@houstonsymphony.com
Image Credit:
Headshot Shannon Langman
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