A life in music: ICC's Christy Colburn Griffith nominated for Mississippi Humanities Teacher Award
Jan. 11—The summer before Christy Colburn Griffith's sixth-grade year, her dad transferred to a job in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and she became "the new kid" in a small-town middle school — never an easy position.
Shortly after the move, Griffith made a new friend who was joining the school band. She tagged along, even though she wasn't really supposed to be there, since students tested into band in fifth grade.
At that first band assembly, everything was new to Griffith. Her family wasn't creatively involved in music. They listened to music casually, as many people do, but she didn't know a bassoon from a baritone, let alone how to play.
As the band teacher went around the room, asking which instrument each student wanted to play, Griffith turned to her friend for advice. When the band teacher got to her, Griffith gave him the same answer her friend had given her:
"I'm going to play the saxohorn!" she said. "And they all laughed at me, because it's the saxophone."
Embarrassing as that was, Griffith did go on to play the saxophone in the school band. And that hobby, chosen largely by chance, became a lifelong passion and career.
Now in her 25th year as a music educator, Griffith still plays the sax and is the woodwind professor and associate band director at Itawamba Community College. She conducts the concert band, applied woodwind studio, mixed woodwind ensemble, Rush Hour Saxophone Quartet, and CenterStage show choir. She also directors and choreographs the color guard and teaches music appreciation, and she coaches the Indianettes and the spring pom squad as needed.
Griffith has also been selected as ICC's Mississippi Humanities Teacher Award nominee for 2024. Because of this, she'll be giving a presentation titled "Music: A Uniquely Human Experience" on Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. in the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Center auditorium at the ICC Fulton Campus — the public is welcome to attend.
She'll also be "among those honored at the Mississippi Humanities Council Awards Ceremony in March 2024 at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson," according to an ICC press release. "The event pays tribute to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields at each of the state's institutions of higher learning."
The journey
But before she became an award-winning music professor, she was that new kid hoping to play the saxophone.
Griffith's parents didn't really understand their daughter's interest in music, but when she came home from that first band assembly and told them she needed a saxophone, her mom was immediately supportive. And since Griffith was new in town and at school, with few friends, she had little to do besides play her instrument. And that's what she did.
She found that playing the sax felt like doing something worthwhile, something valuable. It gave her purpose. She was largely self-taught, and it felt good when she eventually began writing music. Griffith could express her emotions through music in a way that she couldn't with words, she said.
When she graduated from high school, Griffith headed to ICC on a music scholarship. She was playing in the band and in a jazz group, but she was on the physical therapy track — her dad wanted her to study something more practical than music. After her first year, though, she changed her major to music.
By then, she'd already gotten her start in choreography. When she graduated high school, another high school's band director asked whether she'd write some choreography for him, drawing from her experiences on the high school cheer and color guard squads. Soon, she was creating choreography for several high school bands and that would follow her into her professional life.
"Dancing and movement ... that's part of music," Griffith said. "I took that musical knowledge, and I put it into a visual representation of the music." And working on choreography strengthened her musical skills.
Griffith earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from Ole Miss, and in 1999 she began teaching band at Batesville Middle School, Pope School, and South Panola High School.
"I was very lucky to have three veteran music educators there that just took me under their wing," Griffith said. "If it weren't for those three men, I probably would've gotten out of teaching at Year 5."
It's hard to be a teacher, Griffith said, because you have to give so much. But it's worth it.
"Students constantly make withdrawals," Griffith said. "They're just taking, taking, taking, taking. But then, when you get that deposit, when you have that great experience with them on that stage, or just in the learning process day to day, or you learn that maybe you did something to help them stay encouraged, the deposits are so large that it's worth all the withdrawals."
After four years at South Panola, she spent two years teaching band at Tupelo Middle School and Tupelo High School. She was taking a year off when she got a job offer from ICC, and she's been there since.
Griffith had always wanted to teach on the community college level.
"I felt a strong connection to freshman/sophomore-aged students," she said. She loves working with young adults as they're just coming out from under their parents' wings. And her favorite things to teach are the small woodwind ensembles. In those small groups, people are able to connect through the music they play, Griffith said.
Being the only female faculty member in the band department, Griffith's become something of a department mom. Students come to her with their problems, even if the problems have nothing to do with music.
"I really enjoy being there for them in those situations," she said.
For everyone
Music has the power to bring people together, to help them express themselves, to change hearts. Those incredible capabilities make Griffith love what she does, and that's what she hopes to talk about in her February presentation.
"I've seen music change people and help them become more compassionate," Griffith said, adding that music has helped her understand who she is on a deeper level. "I do believe that music is God's gift to humans."
Regardless of technical knowledge or expertise, Griffith believes music is for everyone.
"You don't have to play an instrument, you don't have to sing to reap the benefits of what music offers," she said. And the importance of music to the human experience is evident in its ubiquity.
"There's not many things, places that we go to, that there's not music," Griffith said. "You sing to babies. ... You go to sporting events — there's music. You go to parties — there's music. Funerals, weddings. Background at restaurants, shops, events. Going to war, they would have a drummer and trumpets. Celebrations, church, dancing, driving in your car, relaxing. Music's everywhere."
Reflecting on this, Griffith quoted Billy Joel:
"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music."
Addie covers education and general news for the Daily Journal. Contact her at addie.davis@journalinc.com.
