[BBCB-Mail] Susie Howell

[John Howell]

Dear Members of the Blacksburg Community Band,

I know that all of you share in our sincere 
condolences to John and his family in this 
difficult time. We all share his loss. Anyone who 
knew Susie knows how much she supported John in 
his activities with the band. She was a regular 
at our concerts, always there to support us.

Susie will be greatly missed by all of us that knew her.

- Ed -

=======================================================
Susan Carol Taylor Howell, 59, of Blacksburg, 
passed away quietly on Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 
home, surrounded by her family.

Born July 15, 1947 in The Bronx, New York to 
Louise Taylor and the late Fred Taylor, Jr., she 
is also survived by her husband of 40 years, John 
Howell; daughter and son-in-law, Heather Howell 
and Rodolfo Long; son Ian Howell; daughter, 
son-in-law, and grandson, Christena Howell, 
Shankara Pandey, and Samundra Holden Pandey; son 
and daughter-in-law Rémi and Amoreena Howell; 
brother Fred Arthur Taylor; nephew Chris Taylor 
and his wife Nancy; and niece Lisa Taylor Rich 
and her husband Steve.

Susie's interest in historical music and early 
instruments dates back to the 1960s.  She earned 
music degrees from Indiana University and Radford 
University, and taught the first classes in 
recorder and other early instruments ever offered 
by the Indiana University School of Music.  She 
founded and directed Indiana University's Pro 
Arte Consort and was an ensemble director for 
Young Audiences of Indiana, presenting programs 
of early music for schoolchildren throughout the 
state, and she choreographed Pro Arte's Madrigal 
Dinners through the 1970s.  Susie and her husband 
John found themselves at the leading edge of the 
revival of Early Music, and the program they 
started at Indiana University became what is now 
one of the most prestigious programs of its kind 
in the world. 

At age 16, Susie won the National Federation of 
Music Clubs' First Place Award in composition. 
She subsequently published a number of her own 
compositions and arrangements, served as editor 
for two volumes of folk song arrangements of for 
the Organization of American Kodály Educators, 
and authored Recorder in the Kodály Classroom, a 
method to help teachers integrate recorder 
instruction into their music classes.  As a 
performer, she specialized in historical music 
and dance, but not exclusively.  Her Master of 
Music Thesis was written on Arbeau's 
Orchesography, and culminated in a dance 
lecture-recital of selections from that book. 
Locally she performed with the Church Street 
Consort and Singers and the New River Consort, 
and produced the recording Music from the Time of 
Jamestown for the Association for the 
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.  She also 
recorded singing commercials and pop demos, and 
sang in the premier performance of the Concerto 
for Tuba and the premier performance and Voice of 
America recording of Black America: In Memoriam 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., both by jazz 
composer David N. Baker, Jr.

Susie and John moved in 1979 with their young 
family from Bloomington, Indiana to Blacksburg, 
where Susie's dedication to the musical education 
of children took many forms.  She taught at the 
Montessori Children's House and Primary School, 
taught private recorder lessons to students of 
all ages and backgrounds, and for 12 years 
directed the Children's Choir and the Choristers 
of Christ Episcopal Church.  She was a longtime 
member of the Blacksburg Master Chorale and 
participated in productions by the Summer Musical 
Enterprise, both on stage and coaching the 
children's choirs.  She was a founding director 
and organizer of the Singing Children of 
Blacksburg, a festival that brought together 
children's choirs from a number of area churches. 
Her greatest joy was sharing her love of music 
with children. 

A service of remembrance will be held at 2 p.m. 
on Tuesday, June 26 at Christ Episcopal Church at 
120 Church Street in Blacksburg.  A reception 
will follow at the church.  In lieu of flowers, 
the family requests that donations in her name be 
made to your church's children's choir.



--
Prof. John R. Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411  Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:John.Howell at vt.edu)
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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