Music Prof Brings Passion to Stage, Classroom
Alan Williams plays guitar alongside his wife, Darleen Wilson, while John-Morgan Bush conducts the university’s String Ensemble during the Birdsong at Morning performance in Durgin Hall.
11/30/2015
By David Perry
The toes tap softly on the carpet. Some are swathed in boots, some in sneakers and one set in moccasins.
The bouncy folk-pop song, “Not for Sale,” hijacks the rhythm of the room. The dozen or so students cradling stringed instruments join Alan Williams’ voice and guitar.
Williams’ gorgeous voice swells. For a moment, in Durgin Hall, everything is aligned.
“Note to self,” Williams mumbles a bit later. “Write more songs in G.”
Williams, an associate professor of music, is preparing for a fall concert in Durgin Hall. There’s but one more rehearsal before Williams, his band, the university’s String Project and student singing group Vocality take the stage.
Williams teaches music business, but he lives it, too. He is a veteran singer-songwriter with the folk-pop group Birdsong at Morning. Birdsong includes his wife, producer/guitarist Darleen Wilson, bassist Greg Porter and a cast of supporting players. The concert showcases Birdsong’s new album, “A Slight Departure.”
One configuration or another of Birdsong can be found every Wednesday evening at Coffee & Cotton in Mill No. 5 on Jackson Street in Lowell. Performances are free.
Williams is one of the growing number of faculty and staff deeply invested in the Mill City.
Williams and Wilson live downtown, and “he has embraced the city,” says Paul Marion, the university’s executive director of Community relations. Williams has “integrated engagement activities into his teaching, scholarship and practice.” Faculty like Williams, adds Marion, exemplify why the university earns accolades from the Carnegie Foundation and The White House Higher Education Honor Roll for Community Service as a “community-engaged campus.”
Williams, 52, grew up in Asheville, N.C., and began piano lessons after seeing “The Sound of Music” at 3. His passion eventually took him through lessons and bands and to the summer program for high-schoolers at Berklee. He spent his college years at New England Conservatory of Music, and later earned a master’s in ethnomusicology from Brown.
Williams’ Durgin Hall office is lined with LPs and CDs. A giant cutout of Justin Bieber stands like a brooding sentry near his desk.
Williams led the Brit-folk influenced Knot & Crosses with Carol Noonan, also sharpening his skills as an engineer and record producer, working with the likes of The Story, Jennifer Kimball, Patty Larkin and Dar Williams, as well as Williams’ folk super group, Cry Cry Cry. Eventually, Birdsong formed.
In 1995, Wilson received a call from Will Moylan from the University of Lowell’s music department. The teacher who was supposed to lead a class never showed up for it. A mutual friend of Moylan’s had recommended Darleen Wilson for the job, but she was too busy with production work. She suggested her beau, Williams. Working from a one-page outline, he began to teach.
“And by the third week, it was so clear that I had finally found what I was supposed to be doing,” he says. “The classroom is second nature to me.”
As is the community.
Not only does Williams sit on the board of the Cultural Organization of Lowell, but he is among faculty who have helped organize cultural festivals with performance, panels and readings in partnership with Angkor Dance Troupe, Flying Orb Studio and other organizations.
John-Morgan Bush, who has revived the long-dormant UMass Lowell New England String Project, says he “jumped at the chance” when Williams asked him to help with the Birdsong performance.
Williams, he says, “championed the idea of the string ensemble’s rebirth and this album played a large role in engaging the students and defining their professionalism from the first day of the semester.”
Back in the rehearsal hall this fall, Bush tells the students “the pizzicato stuff has to be … Right. On. The. Beat.”
Williams strums into another song while the violins pluck an anxious rhythm.
“You know,” Williams says later, “when it sounds good, it sounds really good.”
In the end, he will personally pay over $2,000 for the Durgin Hall performance. He brings in the Birdsong band and pros who helped make the record.
“Partly to help shore it up live,” he says. “And in case I forget an intro or something, they will help. And it’s also nice to have them sit in with students. Students get a chance to talk to some seasoned players.
“It’s worth every penny.”