An interview with Luke Warren

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An interview with Luke Warren

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Luke Warren is in his eighth year teaching vocal music at Hastings High School – a program he is deeply familiar with because his father, Lin Warren, was the choir director at Hastings High School for 33 years. These days, Hastings has six curricular choirs, two extra curricular show choirs, and about 250 students in the choral program. Luke, a graduate of HHS himself, directs the Select Chorale (the top curricular ensemble), the 9-10th grade TB choir, and Riverside Company, the award-winning Hastings Varsity Show Choir. He and I spoke early this fall about the joys of teaching, following in a parent’s footsteps, and finding a niche and identity that is authentic and true to one’s self.

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Elisabeth: Tell me about your professional journey. Where are you coming from, and how did you get here?

Luke: I grew up in Hastings and both my parents were music educators. My mom was a middle school band director for 34 years, and my dad was the choir director at Hastings High School for 33 years. I think I always wanted to do this. It was something I watched my parents do. I got serious about it in high school, and my dad was really helpful because he said, “If you want to do this, here are all the things that they’re like never going to tell you.” That was a unique experience, and I had opportunities. I would lead sectionals and help him set up and tear down. He would throw things at me knowing I would need to do them.

I went to college at St. Olaf. When I graduated, I knew that I didn’t want to teach middle school, elementary, or even college students. I wanted to work with high schoolers, and I was willing to take a job wherever so I could do that. I taught for a year in Sioux City, Iowa at North High School. Then I moved back to Minnesota and got a job at Champlin Park High School for a year. With budget cuts I got bumped out of my position and then taught in Saint Francis for 7 years. When my dad retired from Hastings High School, I got his job. I’m starting my 8th year here.

Luke and Lin Warren

Elisabeth: What surprised you about coming home to teach at Hastings? 

Luke: I knew there would be challenges and discoveries about teaching at the place I went to high school. I became colleagues with some of my former teachers. Luckily, I was a well-behaved kid in high school for the most part, which helped! Many people in my orbit now knew me at different points of my life and don’t know me as a professional educator. I teach a number of kids whose parents had my dad as a teacher. Some of those parents babysat me and I idolized them when I was a kid at my dad’s rehearsals. I’m getting to the point where I have students who are children of my former classmates. It can be weird at parent/teacher conferences when we see each in these different roles.

Elisabeth: What has changed since you were a student in Hastings? How is it a different place?

Luke: Hastings is a unique community. We have a white-collar population, a lot of people that are commuting to the cities. We also have a rural population; folks who live south of town in some of the townships. The high school opened in 2001 when I was a junior. Hastings was booming at that time, and there were about 2,000 kids in the building. At that time, we graduated classes of 450 to 500 students. This year we have 1,300 enrolled in the high school and there’s been a shift in demographics since I attended. That’s not good or bad, it’s just different.

When I was attending high school here, my dad had 600 to 700 kids in the choir program. I mean, goofy, high numbers. If we were to have 600 kids in choir right now, that would be 50% of our student body. I’ve had to adjust from what it used to be to what it is.

While there have been some shifts in numbers, there are fundamental aspects of the program that remain the same. We’re a program of inclusivity. My dad and I both believe that if you want to sing, you can be here and we’ll give you a top-level experience. You can be in our top groups, and it might be the best thing that you’re ever a part of.

And, I have had to carve out my own niche. I’m my dad’s son, but I do things differently and that has had some challenges. I sometimes hear, “Well, your dad did it this way,” and I know that because I was a part of it. But I’m my own person and teacher, and times have changed.

From a program standpoint the differences are little things. I make different programming choices; we have different tastes; the way we teach singing is a little different; he’s very Type A, and I’m not. I learned a lot from him and I’ve learned from other experiences, too. Our approaches to getting a beautiful tone from the students are different. We probably have a similar result but the path we take to get there is different. I’ve become more comfortable with embracing that.

Luke conducting HHS choir

Elisabeth Cherland: Have there been any particular gifts about teaching in your home program?

Luke: When someone’s been teaching in a program for a long time it can be really rough on the next person. But when I started at Hastings the transition was really simple and smooth. They didn’t have to change the nameplate on the door, and I didn’t struggle to earn trust. That’s a credit to my colleagues and my principal at the time, and also to the students. I know the people in this community. I know generally what to expect. I’m comfortable in my surroundings.

Another gift is having people and parents who deeply understand the backbone of this program and can talk to their children firsthand about their own experiences in it. My mom and dad did such a good job at creating impactful experiences through music education that clearly shaped people. And parents now want their own kids to have those experiences.

Broadly speaking, I think parents are hesitant to insist on their kids having experiences that they think are important, more now than when I was young. Maybe that’s good, maybe it’s not. But there’s a built-in advantage when parents say, “You’re going to do choir because this is what we do in our family. We were all in choir, and you’re going to do it, too.” When you have that support and we all team up together, we can get the kids in the door. And if we can get them in the door, I know we’ll keep them.

Elisabeth Cherland: Do you have any advice for somebody who’s coming home to teach in their own program, as you did?

Luke Warren: You can’t be afraid to dig in and be your own person. When you go home you will encounter people who knew you at a different time in your life. That can be challenging. Maybe they knew the 16-year-old or the 8-year-old version of you, and they don’t know the 30 or 40-year-old version of you. It’s incumbent on you to reintroduce yourself in the way that you are, and in the way you want to be. It’s an opportunity to build trust. Forge your own path. Don’t let people hold you to an old standard of yourself that no longer exists.

Elisabeth Cherland

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Dr. Elisabeth Cherland is a fourth-generation choral conductor as well as professor, singer, song leader, violinist, and Lutheran church musician. As Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato, she teaches courses in choral methods, conducting, private voice, and conducts the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. She lives with her partner Kent and their two children in St. Peter. She loves storytelling and story-hearing, doughnuts, bubble tea, running (when the temperature is perfect and the course is flat), and sunshine when it’s available.

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