Dr. Nancy Walker teaches at Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities

From May 6 through June 14, 2012, Dr. Nancy Walker, a voice area professor in the UNCG Music Program, and her husband, Dr. Timothy Lindeman, professor of music (theory and piano) and Department Chair of the Music Program at Guilford College, taught for four weeks at the Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities (IMUN) in Tongliao, China.  The couple was invited to teach voice and piano to selected music students at the university through a partnership recently forged between UNCG and IMUN. About 18,000 undergraduate students are enrolled at IMUN, and available programs include a strong teacher education program as well as studies in traditional Mongolian arts and sciences.

Drs. Walker and Lindeman each taught twenty hours a week of individual lessons.  These lessons were open to the university community and usually had an audience of ten to twenty other students, faculty, and administrators.  Walker taught students who were studying Italian and some German operatic and art song literature.  The students were well-prepared, talented, and possessed a strong work ethic. Because few of the students spoke English, a translator was used for every lesson.

Walker and Lindeman also attended several campus events, including a “Welcome Banquet” with several Music School faculty and administration, including the  IMUN Vice President and other university leaders, as well as several student and faculty performances, some of which featured traditional singing, dancing, and traditional instruments such as the Er-Hu (two-stringed violin) and the Matouqin (Mongolian "horsehead fiddle").

Walker and Lindeman concluded their stay at IMU by giving a recital, which featured performances by both professors as well as eight student singers and three student pianists chosen by Walker and Lindeman to perform pieces they had been preparing over the course of the four-week period. The concert hall was filled to capacity and was attended by the university President.