糖心Vlog传媒

Grad shares love of music, dance through educational website

Michael Heavner has a deep-seeded love of music and began taking piano lessons at the age of 7. His mother bought him his first guitar from a garage sale when he was 12. Since he is left-handed, he was so engrossed in learning how to play the instrument that he didn鈥檛 even realize he was playing it with the strings upside down for an entire year.聽 After his mother passed away when he was 14, Heavner lived with an older brother. He moved out at 17, and music has pretty much been his life ever since. 鈥淚 grew up playing in a rock band and dropped out of high school,鈥� Heavner said. 鈥淥ne day, I woke up and said, 鈥榃hat the heck did I do?鈥� I got my GED and then came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to take voice, piano, and guitar lessons. Then they gave me a scholarship to be a music major.鈥� Heavner earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 1998. Even before his graduation, he worked as a musical director, keyboardist, and conductor for several theatrical productions that went on national tours. He鈥檚 worked on productions at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, such as 鈥淎lways Patsy Cline,鈥� 鈥淏lues in the Night,鈥� 鈥淭he Sound of Music,鈥� 鈥淒reamGirls,鈥� 鈥淎nnie,鈥� 鈥淢y Fair Lady,鈥� and 鈥淭he Full Monty.鈥� He is very active in the field of recording arts technology and produces custom recorded musical orchestrations for many regional theatres in central Arkansas. Nearly every Saturday night, Heavner can be found playing country music at Jimmy Doyle鈥檚 Country Club in North Little Rock. In 2006, his national touring days were limited to the summer months as he joined 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as an instructor in both the Department of Music and the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. At the university, Heavner wears many hats 鈥� as an instructor, musical director, dance musician, and website and social media manager for the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. He鈥檚 even worked a few semesters concurrently as a guest musical director and pianist at Hendrix College and Artist in Resident at the University of Central Arkansas. In 2016, Heavner decided to pursue a graduate degree at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock to be a better instructor for his students. He will graduate May 12 at the Jack Stephens Center with a Master of Arts in interdisciplinary studies. 鈥淚 have had instructor status for quite some time, and I felt that to serve the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students better as an instructor, I personally wanted to expand my education and knowledge of Blackboard,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 am dedicated to lifelong learning. In addition, I play piano for ballet and modern dance classes, so I wanted to study piano techniques, music composition, and jazz since it has been so long since I have had my formal music training.鈥� The Interdisciplinary Studies program at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock allowed Heavner to create a program that met his unique educational and professional interests. He studied music, rhetoric and writing, and interdisciplinary studies courses. 鈥淭he Interdisciplinary Studies program has been amazing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the only program where you can tailor it to your specific needs of study. There is no other program like it.鈥� His favorite professors, many of whom are his colleagues, included Naoki Hakutani, Tom Richeson, Robert Boury, and Rolf Groesbeck from the Department of Music as well as Jan Thomas from the Department of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, J. Bradley Minnick and Angela Hunter from the Department of English, and Karen Kuralt from the Department of Rhetoric and Writing. Heavner is also thankful to Dr. Daryl Rice, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, for serving as his administrative advocate and mentor. His final project for his master鈥檚 degree, is an educational website that Heavner hopes will serve as a resource for dance and music students, teachers, and researchers. The website is dedicated to Martha Graham, an American modern dancer and choreographer for over 70 years. Her style, the Graham technique, is widely regarded as the first codified modern dance technique and is taught worldwide. 鈥淚 played piano for Martha Graham technique classes here at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock from 2008 to 2016, and it is so unlike any other dance technique that I had to research to find out more about Martha Graham,鈥� he said. The website includes online educational resources about Graham as well as 25 original pieces of music composed specifically for beginning students of the Graham technique. 鈥淚 am the kind of person who takes things day by day,鈥� Heavner said. 鈥淚 got that degree to be a better employee and to be a better teacher to my students. I wanted to know what it is like to be a student in this day and age, to see what this generation of students is experiencing in class.鈥� For additional information about Heavner, visit . In the upper right photo,聽Michael Heaver plays the piano for dance students at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.聽