2008 Woodie Awards
Happy trails for retired Conservatory professor
Caroline J. Baehner
Issue date: 2/13/06 Section: Culture
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William Frederickson, associate dean for Academic Affairs, thinks highly of Ross-Happy.
"That is ground-breaking work in online education in music which was, I think, absolutely brilliant," he said. "She constructed it so beautifully that we have the GTAs using her materials. She's also won teaching awards: in 1997 she won the Mrs. Ewing M. Kaufman Excellence in Teaching Award. So it doesn't surprise me that the construction of groundbreaking classes and her wonderful teaching got her nominated for this award."
Ross-Happy's fascination with music started early.
"My whole family was musical - my older brother was a professional trombone player, my older sister was an organist, my dad sang, so I started playing the piano at age four," she said.
She graduated with a degree in piano performance from Northwestern University. Her first year out she taught at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. Next she went to the University of Colorado in Boulder for her assistantship. Ross-Happy received her doctorate in group piano, then taught one year at Wichita State before coming to UMKC.
"It was four years ago, 2001, that I did a television class for children on piano," Ross-Happy said. "We worked with disadvantaged kids who couldn't pay for lessons, and I just loved the idea. Children can get music lessons that can't afford them."
Ross-Happy went straight to the television station at UMKC and shared her idea to give piano lessons for adults or children.
"But what they really had a need for was televised music appreciation," she said. "At first it was televised, now it's online."
