Teaching Trio

For the Tower-Tannerts of Texas, music education runs in the family, and that's been the case for more than 100 years. Matriarch Mollie Gregory Tower is a lecturer at Texas State University and a former elementary school teacher, textbook writer, music supervisor, and president of the Texas Music Educators Conference (TMEC). Her daughter Debbie Tannert is also a former TMEC president and currently teaches music at Mills Elementary School in Austin. And "her" daughter Christina Tannert, holder of a new bachelor's degree in choral music education, is now working on her master's; in her spare time, she's the director of internal operations and finance for the Collegiate Texas Music Educators. These three women of the Lone Star State, each representing a different generation, have both an endemic love of music and lifelong exposure to a symphony of inspiration. And they stand as a testament to the little that's changed and the lot that's stayed consistent about music education through the decades.