Daniel Heslink

This issue of Who Makes Millersville Special features Dr. Daniel Heslink, associate professor of music. Dr. Heslink retired at the end of this year after completing 28 years at Millersville University.

Q: Why did you decide to choose Millersville?
A: I was teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay before coming to Millersville. My wife and I are both from upstate New York and decided we wanted to move back east.

Q: What were some of your responsibilities at the University?
A: I directed the wind ensemble and percussion ensemble and taught percussion, composition, orchestration and international music.

Q: What was your favorite class to teach?
A: My favorite class was international music, for it allowed me to introduce the students to a wide variety of repertoire and skills.

Q: What is your favorite memory about Millersville?
A: My favorite memories have to do with the performances of my students. These are capstone experiences for the students, and I feel much pride in their achievements.

Q: What did you like the most about your job?
A: I enjoy conducting the wind ensemble. This is an accomplished organization and the artistic rewards are plentiful.

Q: How many years have you conducted at commencement ceremonies? How do you feel about conducting each one; did it ever get boring or were you able to keep it exciting?
A: I conducted the commencement band for the last 16 years. I confess that playing “Pomp and Circumstance” 30 to 40 times to get all our graduates into the stadium can seem tedious. On the other hand, I enjoy watching the students be conferred, and it is the last time I see the band members before the summer break.

Q: What is your main instrument?
A: I play all instruments of percussion.

Q: When did you first start playing?
A: I started playing drums at age six. When I was that young, my parents took me to a performance given by jazz drumming legend, Gene Krupa; after that, I began studying immediately.

Q: When did you know you wanted to do music for the rest of your life?
A: This is the earliest of my childhood memories. I recall as a toddler hearing music on the radio and thinking it was the most beautiful experience one could have.

Q: Tell us about your involvement with the Lancaster Marimba Ensemble?
A: The Lancaster Marimba Ensemble is a semi-professional organization that is dedicated to the continuation of live marimba performance in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I formed the group in 1991, and it is comprised of my former students who have stayed within the region after graduation. We perform a varied repertoire of classical, Latin, jazz and spiritual music at regional arts festivals and concert venues.

Q: Are you involved with any other projects or groups?
A:  I also belong to a professional group titled, “Overdekte Brug Percussietrio.” This translates as “Covered Bridge Percussion Trio,” but we use the Pennsylvania Dutch designation as a way to create some regional identity when we perform in national venues.

Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Buffalo, New York, at the time that Lukas Foss was organizing his new music series at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. This was a big influence in my early musical development.

Q: What college/university did you attend? Major?
A: I majored in music education during my bachelor’s degree at SUNY Fredonia, music performance in my master’s degree at SUNY and Ithaca College, and percussion pedagogy and performance in my doctoral degree at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

Q: What was your very first job?
A: In my first job I taught music in a maximum security prison in upstate New York and played percussion with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Q: What did you want to be when you were younger?
A: I always wanted to be a musician, but I did have a strong interest in music’s related discipline, mathematics.

Q: What is the best concert you have ever been to?
A: The finest performing I ever witnessed was the London Symphony playing Berlioz’s “Requiem.”

Q: How do you like to spend your free time?
A: I compose music, mostly for collegiate-level percussionists and bands.

Q: What is your ideal vacation?
A: I like to travel through Europe, visiting the concert halls were the European master musicians worked and hearing a lot of fine music.

Q: What is your greatest accomplishment?
A: My greatest accomplishment so far is a summer residency program for high school musicians that came from disadvantaged backgrounds that we called, “Music As a Vehicle for Success.”

Q: Do you have a favorite song lyric or quote?
A: “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent” – Victor Hugo

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
A: I also served the University in a variety of capacities including chairperson of the music department (four years), interim associate dean for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (two years) and chairperson of the University Planning Council (four years).