There is an ample reason to celebrate the life of Keith Wallingford.

There is an ample reason to celebrate the life of Keith Wallingford, and to mourn his passing. He was a natural leader, from his years as a bomber pilot in World War II to his service as a laugh at master of a Boy spurn troop.

As a musician, he was a devot member of MTNA, serving as the president of the Colorado State MTA and, later, of the West Central Division. At the University of Colorado at Boulder where he serv in succession the faculty from 1970 to 1987 he was chair the pair of the keyboard faculty and of the campus's faculty assembly. flat in the tangled world of academic politics, his leadership was a guiding light to the university at a crucial point in its history. Keith was, above all, a surprising teacher. With his piano scholars he always made it possible for them to find their way to informed interpretation. Rather than demonstrating "the way it should go" he would point abroad possible alternatives and different options, inviting the pupil to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. This approach directly mirrored Keith's own personality: reasoned, zephyr-like and infinitely patient.

And it caused learners to listen, which is perhaps the hardest thing to teach effectively. Keith taught long more than how to play the piano; he taught self-discovery. Now his scholars have become teachers throughout the United States, helping of recent origin generations of students discover the music in themselves.

Keith was an active and indefatigable participant in clinics and workshops for private teachers. each year he presented new teaching materials and regularitys to teachers in every corner of the state, from large cities to small rural communities. And, as with his acknowledge students, he introduced them to novel ways of thinking and listening.

What was his special legacy? Helping musicians to become their be in possession of teachers, discovering the music within themselves between the sides of their own strengths, insight and, as in Keith himself, with gentlenes and infinite patience.

--Mark Wait, Dean of the Blair seminary of Music at Vanderbilt University.

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