Susan Kenney, a music education professor in the BYU School of Music, will begin new adventures and endeavors as she retires at the end of a summer.
Kenney began teaching at BYU in 1977, specializing in teaching future elementary school teachers how to teach children. Kenney, from Salt Lake City, was introduced to arts at a young age. But after failing dance lessons at age 5, her mother found her a piano teacher.
“Once a week we would take the bus to piano lessons, and every day my mother would sit and practice with me,” Kenney said.
Her love of music blossomed with regular instruction, and shortly after she found a passion for teaching children. When she was 13-years-old, she was asked to teach primary children at her local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I loved it. I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher,” Kenney said. “Some time later I was also made organist in my local congregation. The opportunities in the church shaped my life both as an educator and a musician.”
She attended the University of Utah and gradated with a degree in elementary education. Her first job out of college was teaching first grade and then K-6 music. These years proved to be foundational for her future.
“I loved seeing the children’s confidence grow as they became involved in music,” Kenney said. “I especially enjoyed watching children who had little music in their homes grow to love and understand music.” An administrator encouraged her to get a master’s degree, which inspired her to attend BYU. Afterward she was hired to teach methods classes in the School of Music. “I hadn’t planned on a university career. Teaching children was my passion. But once I began teaching at BYU, I not only continued teaching children but also had the opportunity to prepare teachers to teach music. It became my dream job.”
Over the years Kenney has gained an international reputation among early childhood music educators. She was National Chair of NAFME’s Society for General Music and was on the national editorial board for the Music Educators Journal, a publication that has more than 60,000 subscribers.
She was actively involved in the BYU Arts Partnership, working with colleagues across campus to integrate arts education and contributed to the Chinese Music Leadership workshops, through which she became popular among Chinese educators. Kenney also founded the Early Childhood Music Academy at BYU. Stephen Jones, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications, shared his thoughts on Kenney’s contributions to local music education.
“Her voice for music education across the state of Utah has been critical and has impacted the direction of important decisions that will reverberate for many years to come,” Jones said. “For that we are thankful.”
Jones mentioned how over the years he witnessed her talents while instructing students.
'She is a remarkable music educator, one who leaves a legacy that has touched thousands of elementary teachers and the students in their classrooms,” Jones said. “To watch her teach singing with a group of children in front of her is magic, and it is the act, fundamentally, for which she will be most remembered.”
Kenney has plenty planned for the coming years, the least of which is learning to play tennis and devouring the huge stack of books waiting to be read.
“My husband and I hope to travel in the U.S. and abroad,” Kenney said. “I can’t imagine not teaching though, so I’ll continue to find ways to observe children and engage them and their parents in music making.”