I started my position at Brown in 2019, so I only had the pleasure and honor of working with Arlene for one year before her retirement. I was hired to come in as Department Chair, and so as I began my position, one of my first tasks was to get a sense of the landscape of the department. It is never enough, of course, to know one’s colleagues’ titles and official job descriptions to understand their actual role in the department. This was profoundly true with Arlene: I quickly learned from Mark Steinbach how central Arlene was to the music theory program—not just in her classroom teaching, but in her generous support of students outside the classroom. From Jen Vieira, I learned that Arlene was deft organizer, providing crucial support for staff for a number of our important events and playing a vital role in creating departmental community. From Dana Gooley, I learned that Arlene was key contact for alums, an important way in which former students kept in touch with the Music Department after their time at Brown. In faculty meetings, in discussions of our concentrators, I realized that Arlene knew them all. No other faculty member could claim to have worked with every student who came through our department. And of course, in conversations with Arlene, it became apparent that students came to her both for her rigorous musical instruction, but also as a confidant and an informal therapist. I might have been Department Chair, but Arlene held a deeper and more fundamental power. There is a reason why we all hear the phrase “Arlene was the beating heart of the department” again and again. Her grace, generosity, good humor, and love of community are and will continue to be so profoundly missed. As I have said to my colleagues: Arlene helped shaped our departmental culture— our whole community— in countless ways. The best thing we can do going forward is for each of us to try to embody even a fraction of her goodness, in an effort to keep her special spark glowing in our department.
Emily Dolan
Professor of Music
Brown University