Logan Phillips ’25 Making Music,Teaching Music
The best thing Logan Phillips did as a student was to follow his passion for music.
It wasn’t always a straight line, but in every instance, it was where he was drawn and where he returned.
Now the Keene State graduate (BM Music Education and BM Music Performance) has a “dream” first job as a music teacher at the Great Brook School in Antrim. Students in grades 5 to 8 attend Great Brook, the 2014 New Hampshire Middle School of the Year.
At Keene State, Logan discovered a love for bass and playing jazz, strengthened a passion for choral singing, and developed a vision to teach one day.
But his education was as much about learning away from the classroom, thanks to generous scholarships, important collaborations, and professional mentorship.
“Life-changing in so many ways,” he said of his experiences abroad.
As a senior, Logan was awarded the Travis ’94 & Gretchen Hodgdon Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) award to broaden his musicianship in Sarteano, Italy, a commune in the Province of Siena in Tuscany.
The Hodgdon family endows five separate scholarships at Keene State. The first in his family to attend college, Travis Hodgdon worked as an EMT out of high school and then served a tour of duty in the US Navy before enrolling at Keene State College at age 25. Travis is now a doctor of osteopathic medicine and lives with his family in Cooperstown, NY.
“Gretch and I are very grateful for all the opportunities we have been given in life and feel creating opportunities is the best way to give back. I remember the feeling of getting scholarships decades ago while at Keene. It not only made my education financially possible, it was so encouraging to be supported by others who cared so much, like I do now, about Keene State.
Creating the SURF grant took it to another level because it connects Keene, through it’s students, to others in the world.” SURF grants provide financial support to sophomores, juniors, and seniors interested in conducting in-depth research projects under the guidance of a faculty mentor in their field of study.
The grant from the Hodgdons enabled Logan to attend the two-week Choral Workshop as a tenor singer in the ensemble and present scholarly and creative activity on an international stage. Choral musicians from across the globe participated in the workshop in Sarteano. Said Logan, “Our days were filled with music, getting to know each other, exploring the town, and spending evenings at an Airbnb, drinking wine, and singing choral classics.”
On more than one occasion in the picturesque region of southern Tuscany, known for its archeology, the choral group he was a part of performed in the town square. Customs, culture, and connections merged for Logan.
“I grew as a musician and singer in those two weeks. I was one of the handful of students still in their undergraduate program at the workshop; most of the others were in graduate programs, professional musicians, or educators, so I was able to learn a lot from my peers.” Led by renowned clinicians, rehearsals were effectively masterclasses unto themselves, Logan says.
“For me, music was my hobby and I never really considered pursuing it as a career, but when it came time to finally decide what college I was going to and what I wanted to study, I realized I wanted to do something that I had a passion for and enjoyed.” And now, he says, “I know I will love teaching middle school…you can do so much musically with students at that age.”
