After more than 25 years in the building, orchestra director Winifred Crock announced her retirement at the Masterworks concert on Feb. 9.

“There are so many things that I’ve been trying to do, this job is just enormous,” Crock said. “There’s no way to really do it less. We have such a quality program and we don’t want to do anything less. I want to do more things here, and yet there are all these other things I feel compelled to do.”

The Masterworks concert was Crock’s last opportunity to tell students herself, as her retirement was being announced at a board meeting the following day, which some of her students would be attending.

“I wanted to be the one to tell people,” Crock said. “I really didn’t have a choice because it was going to be public record as of the next day.”

Crock was anxious about telling her students, but her colleagues pushed her to make the announcement on that particular day.

“We insisted that she do that, and she protested, but we said it was the right thing to do,” choir director Ben Silvermintz said.

According to Crock, the most common reaction was tears. Junior Noah Larson, a member of the Symphonic Orchestra, had a similar response.

“We’ve heard about it before, but I never really thought of it as a reality until she said that she would be retiring,” Larson said. “I was, in a sense, heartbroken.”

Crock decided to retire this year in part because of her son’s upcoming graduation in May, her need to finish publishing projects, wanting to take advantage of more clinic and conducting opportunities, along with traveling more. Crock has published music instruction for students and teachers, and is working to finish more music and method books.

“That’s the first priority,” Crock said. “Also, I love to travel. I’d love to do a Pacific Rim tour. I lived in Japan, and I went to Hong Kong, and I’ve been to New Zealand, but I haven’t been to Australia, Bali, Indonesia or Thailand. I would like to finish the loop.”

Crock is looking forward to traveling, along with the opportunity to pass her knowledge onto more teachers and students.

“I really want to help other people and other teachers,” Crock said. “So many teachers have said, ‘Now you can come either work with my students, or share your materials,’ and I’ve had so little time.”
Silvermintz commented on Crock’s passion towards helping others.

“There is nobody who is less ‘all about herself’ than Mrs. Crock,” Silvermintz said.

According to Crock, other teachers notice the strength of her program, which she credits to hard work from both her and her students. Larson noted that she has contributed to his commitment to orchestra.

“Mrs. Crock is one of the largest reasons I was so excited for orchestra in middle school,” Larson said. “She has inspired me to stay with orchestra and to be really passionate about music.”

While inspiring him, Larson noted that Crock has also made him a better orchestra member.

“You don’t see it too often, but sometimes she just gives you these lessons on how to make your music meaningful, how to play literally with passion, how to make it not just notes on a page…to make it something worth listening to,” Larson said. “And once you add in that little factor, it turns into something incredible, which is something that Mrs. Crock is really good at. Without Mrs. Crock, I would still be playing the notes on the page.”

Crock said that she will miss the people at Central more than anything else.

“This place is not about the facility,” Crock said. “The people here are extraordinary. I go out and do clinics at fabulous facilities, but I don’t have the people there that I have here.”

Upon reviewing her teaching career at Parkway Central, Crock cites two large accomplishments.

“We have so many kids involved who have had this amazing experience at the high school and that’s enormous,” Crock said. “The other thing is just to let people know what’s possible. Yes, we have all these talented kids, but we work our tails off in order to get that. I think people have all these excuses rather than do all the millions of things it takes to be really excellent at anything.”