• Destined for music

  No matter where his career has led him, music is part of Peter McCoy's life.

  
  
• There was no doubt in Peter McCoy's mind that music was going to play an important role in his life - probably even in his career.
  
  His parents are music teachers and although they didn't encourage McCoy to become a teacher, they did make music a part of his life.
  
  "I was interested in all sorts of other things (he has a chemistry minor from Iowa State), but teaching music felt like the right path for me," McCoy says. "I wanted to make a difference."
  
  Like his parents, McCoy started out as a public school music teacher after graduating from Iowa State with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1985. He worked his way up through the teaching ranks - starting in small Iowa towns before winding up in Winnetka, Ill., a Chicago suburb with nearly 4000 students in the high school.
  
  By 1993, McCoy had started to look at options outside of high school teaching. He moved to Chicago and began working on his Ph.D. degree at Northwestern University. The next year he began teaching at New Trier High School in Winnetka while continuing work on his doctorate.
  
  "Before I began work on my doctorate, I couldn't think of becoming a college teacher," he says. "New Trier High School was my ideal public school job. I wasn't really looking for a college job but if the perfect opportunity came along I would consider it."
  
  McCoy's "perfect job" did come along - a position at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a position he held for two years.
  
  "I had spent a lot of time and energy getting that Ph.D., so I told myself I should consider teaching college," he said. "Now instead of sitting in a classroom teaching students one at a time, I'm working to educate the next generation of music teachers.
  
  "I can have a broader impact on music education than I had before."
  
  Now in his eighth year at the State University of New York College at Potsdam in the Crane School of Music, he teaches courses in instrumental and general music methods and technology. He is the chair of the Department of Music Education program as well as the coordinator of the school's technology.
  
  The Crane School has approximately 70 music faculty members, including 20 in music education. With over 500 Music Education majors, the Music Education Department is an important part of the SUNY Potsdam community.
  
  "Teaching in public schools is very structured," he said. "At the college level I get to wear many different hats. It's something different every day."
  
  One of the very different things that McCoy has gotten to do in recent years is the "Teach Music in New York City" project. The two-year project, which was funded by the VH1 Save the Music Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, worked to find musicians in the city to become teachers in the inner city.
  
  "There are a lot of musicians in New York but it's not easy to make a living," McCoy said. "The program helped a group of students get their teaching certification and go back to teach in the city.
  
  "I saw many wonderful things happen and saw some outstanding teaching through this program."
  
  McCoy is also involved with the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) Project, a peer-reviewed web resource of online learning objects. His involvement as a member of the program's music editorial board gives him an opportunity to observe unique, new techniques in music instruction.
  
  "Looking back over the years, I realize what an excellent education I received at Iowa State. I still use the things
  
  I've learned here on a daily basis," McCoy added. "Seeing and hearing all the great things that are happening on campus today makes me very proud to have started my journey here."
  
  McCoy was back on campus this Homecoming to receive the Department of Music's Outstanding Alumni Educator Award. .

• Peter McCoy
  
  The Score
  Fall 2007

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