Retiree profile:
Dalheim still making music during retirement
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu
“Every day feels like Saturday,” said Eric Dalheim, who retired from the School of Music in May and said that he is enjoying having the opportunity to pursue whatever projects suit his fancy. Those projects include a Dec. 12 “Second Sunday Concert” at Krannert Art Museum and some upcoming engagements with tenor Jerry Hadley, who was one of Dalheim’s students several years ago. “That’s an ongoing relationship that I treasure,” Dalheim said. Dalheim said that he hasn’t “gone cold turkey” into retirement. He returns to campus and his former piano studio – a cozy second-floor room on the southwest corner of Smith Hall – on Mondays and Wednesdays to work. Dalheim spent his entire academic career at the UI, teaching accompanying, advanced accompanying and a graduate course in vocal literature and coaching voice majors. The last two years of his career, he served as chairman of the School of Music’s accompanying division.
During his 45-year career at the UI, Dalheim estimates he taught hundreds of students. Every year, he coached 15 to 20 graduate students in voice, helping them prepare for recitals and accompanying them when they performed. “I miss making music with the students,” said Dalheim, who said he also collaborated with all of the School of Music’s faculty members at one time or another and plans to continue performing in faculty recitals. Dalheim dates the genesis of his career as an accompanist back to his childhood, when at the age of 7, he began singing in a men and boys’ choir at the Painesville, Ohio, Episcopal Church and as a teen accompanied a community chorus and assisted school choral groups. Dalheim’s father, an amateur baritone and church cantor, loved music and encouraged his son to study the piano. At the age of about 10, Dalheim began accompanying his father when he sang at home and performed in the community. Dalheim began his collegiate study at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music as a music education major but after working for a couple of months as an apprentice rehearsal pianist at an opera playhouse on Cape Cod during his sophomore year, Dalheim realized that his real love was performance. Dalheim graduated from the college with a degree in piano performance with an emphasis on collaborative study. After serving a couple of years in the U.S. Army and then spending a couple more after that working as an accompanist, a singing coach, a church organist, and making some extra cash as a pool hustler, Dalheim decided to resume his music studies. He was drawn to Illinois, he said, because it was one of the few graduate schools in the country at the time that offered a degree in piano performance. Dalheim earned a master’s degree in piano performance from the UI in 1962 but already had joined the School of Music faculty as a vocal coach and accompanist by the time he completed the degree. In the 1970s, Dalheim and colleague John Wustman, chair of the Accompanying Division in the School of Music, established the UI’s vocal coaching and accompanying degree program, one of the first such programs in the nation. In addition to accompanying faculty members and students throughout the years, Dalheim also played for many Marquee artists who performed at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, including violinist Szymon Goldberg and bass Ezio Flagello. Dalheim also contributed to the 2002 PBS Television documentary “The Song and the Slogan,” which won a regional Emmy Award. “I feel very satisfied with what I accomplished here, although there are still so many things I want to do,” said Dalheim, who added that he always prided himself on being able to learn musical compositions very quickly. “There is so much wonderful music out there and not enough time.” As a faculty member, Dalheim said he served on many committees, where he helped evaluate and mentor younger colleagues. “I always felt that was important, but I don’t miss the committees,” Dalheim said. After more than four decades on the faculty, Dalheim said he was ready to retire, and he spent five weeks sorting out and hauling home the material he had accumulated in his studio throughout the years. Once he got it home, it took a room full of shelves to hold it all. Dalheim’s wife, soprano Barbara Dalheim, retired two years ago from Millikin University, where she was a voice teacher. Retirement has given them the opportunity to visit friends and family; they are considering a trip to England to visit Dalheim’s aunts, who live in the Yorkshire region. Retirement also has given Dalheim more time for other interests; he is an avid fan of mystery novels and enjoys playing billiards on the pocket billiard table in his Champaign home. “I’m proud to admit that I haven’t watched a single soap opera,” Dalheim said.
