
DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705040068

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT     

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   91 lines

EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING: ELIZABETH CITY STATE MUSIC PROFESSOR DR. RACHEL GRAGSON...

In the last class of the semester Friday, music students at Elizabeth City State University quickly shifted from pondering the end of the world to snapping their fingers and tapping their toes.

Dr. Rachel Gragson was running through American music highlights of the last 50 years. Early in the class, she popped in a compact disk of a dark and dreary classical piece and explained some of its parts. Students slid a little in their seats and cut glances at each other.

Gragson then switched to a CD of boogie woogie. Bobbing heads with the beat, they took notes while their teacher expounded upon the differences between swing and boogie woogie.

``She knows everything about everything,'' said Damon Parker, a junior music major at ECSU. ``That's her strength. She knows everything about music.''

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors recently honored Gragson with its third annual Award in Excellence in Teaching. The board chooses one teacher from each of the 16 colleges in the UNC system.

``I was really surprised,'' said Gragson as she sat in her office, which would have been spacious if not for two grand pianos fitted like puzzle pieces at the rear of the room.

Gragson, 53, a tall, slender woman with glasses and graying hair, speaks softly in a matter-of-fact tone. ``I demand my students work as hard as they possibly can, but ultimately it's up to them.''

Gragson, who has taught music at ECSU since 1968, is president of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association. She has been music director and organist for Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City for 20 years and has eight private students. She plays regularly for local theater groups.

``I really do love music,'' Gragson said. ``I eat, sleep and breathe it, and I think my students can tell that.''

Her talent is so well known, people sometimes expect miracles of her - and get them.

She was once the pianist for a local group performing ``A Grand Night For Singing.'' The music was fast and furious, difficult at best. About an hour before one of the shows, the producers called Gragson to tell her the borrowed piano would not be at the theater that night. Could she bring her 61-key keyboard? With no time to spare, Gragson converted the music, which required nearly all of a piano's 88 keys, to a 61-key format.

The audience never noticed; it gave standing ovations.

``It was a bit hair-raising,'' she admitted. ``I had to adapt instantly. That was the worst situation I've ever been in.''

Gragson began playing when she was 7. She pursued music through her teen years, but started college unsure whether to major in music or math. ``My first semester of calculus convinced me I'd better stick to music,'' Gragson said.

She graduated from the College of Wooster, in Ohio, and went on to receive her master's and doctoral degrees from West Virginia University. That's where she met her husband, Wesley, who also holds a doctorate in music and is a music teacher retired from ECSU.

Because of her expertise, she is in demand as a private teacher.

``She's a very, very good teacher,'' said James Owens, a physician from Jarvisburg in Currituck County. Owens drives 60 miles round trip every Wednesday for lessons. ``It's well worth the ride.''

``She instills within her students the love of performing,'' said Carole Roebuck of Elizabeth City, whose daughter, Kathryn, is one of Gragson's students. ``I only wish I had been subject to a teacher such as she is.''

``She's a role model for me,'' said Kathryn, 13. Gragson laments that young people are not exposed to more music here. She would especially like to see children have access to string instruments. Local school bands concentrate on woodwinds, brass and percussion.

``Strings are more difficult than woodwinds,'' she said. Gragson, an expert on piano, organ, violin and viola, said the piano is best for beginners.

``Learn piano first,'' Gragson said. ``It is much easier to learn other instruments after that.'' Piano lessons teach hand-eye coordination and concentration, she said, and improve reading skills.

Just then, one of her ECSU students, Jarod Turner, knocked softly on the door. A beginner, he had to play a simple number for a final grade.

He pulled out his music book, ``The Older Beginner Piano Course,'' and placed it on the most accessible of the grand pianos. He hesitated before playing.

``This is a tough one,'' he said.

``Yes, it is, but you can do it,'' Gragson assured him.

He seemed to gain confidence; he played the piece with a little coaching from Gragson.

``Good. That's it. Good job.''

Before leaving, Turner said he was ready for another course next semester - but only if Gragson was the teacher. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Dr. Rachel Gragson, in her ECSU office, says she eats, sleeps and

breathes music, and suspects her students pick up on that.