Letter from Mead to Wilmouth

Virginia Hoge Mead (1930–2020) is a revered American music educator known for her contributions to Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Virginia’s lifelong devotion to music began with piano studies at age seven. She earned her degree from Oberlin Conservatory in 1951 and later completed a Master’s in Music Education at Indiana University. Her early career included teaching at Louisville Collegiate School and conducting with the Louisville Philharmonic Chorus. She went on to teach in public and private schools, eventually joining the faculty at Muskingum College and later Kent State University, where she taught music education and Dalcroze Eurhythmics full time until her retirement as Professor Emerita in 1988. She also developed a parent-child music and movement program called Music-Go-Round.

Mead earned her Dalcroze License in the late 1960s through studies with Hilda Schuster, likely following early exposure to the method through Inda Howland at Oberlin. She led numerous workshops throughout the U.S. and taught in the People’s Republic of China in 1982—among the first Dalcroze educators to do so. She served as President of the Dalcroze Society of America in the early 1980s and was widely respected for her leadership and mentorship. Her publications include Encountering the Fundamentals of Music and Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Today’s Music Classroom, a widely used text that introduces Dalcroze principles and classroom applications. Even in later years, her continued support of Dalcroze reflected her deep and lasting commitment to the field.

Jean Wilmouth (1938–2007) was an internationally known musician, educator and retailer who taught the Orff and Dalcroze methods of music education throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Jean grew up in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He graduated from South Hills High School and studied music at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). He met his wife, Rita, when they were both performing for the Wilkinsburg Symphony Orchestra. They became sweethearts when she also enrolled at Carnegie Institute of Technology to study voice. They married in 1963, when Jean was starting the elementary instrumental music program in Fox Chapel School District. Jean left Fox Chapel, and eventually became the Vice President of Volkwein Bros. Music Store. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, and taught percussion/Orff methods at both Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon Universities. In 1967, Jean founded the Gateway to Music Percussion Ensemble, which performed concerts for school children, prison inmates and retirement communities throughout the Pittsburgh area for almost 30 years.  Jean performed regularly with the Butler Symphony Orchestra, and the Mister Rogers band.  He helped to start the Pittsburgh chapter of Orff-Schulwerk and hosted both the 1975 and the 1980 American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) conferences.  In 2003, Jean was awarded the AOSA Industry Service Award.