A career of spreading appreciation, not just music

After 30 years leading the University of Idaho's Auditorium Chamber Music Series, Mary DuPree is ready to venture into something new - retirement.

But retirement doesn't mean DuPree is going to step away from community outreach. She now leads the Palouse chapter of the Citizen's Climate Lobby.

The 72-year-old first moved to Moscow in 1971 when she was offered a job to teach music at the UI. As a musicologist, she focuses on music through the lens of history, theory and aesthetics, she said.

"I look at how we understand music, as opposed to playing it," she said.

As a child, DuPree grew up in a musical family, she said. She and her siblings all sang, and her father was a self-described "Georgia hillbilly." But she had terrible stage fright, she said, which is why the history of music clicked more with her. She was able to be involved without performing on stage.

When she arrived at the UI, DuPree specialized in Renaissance music and later delved into American and contemporary styles. As she was teaching the history of Renaissance music, she wanted her students to hear the music in person.

With her musical background, she was able to perform on Renaissance wind instruments, but she wanted to do more than that for her students. Soon, she was connecting with chamber groups, driving them in and housing them for days at a time while they performed and interacted with her classes.

" And it became really popular," she said. "So I started bringing in other kinds of chamber groups. Pretty soon it was a four concert a season series."

DuPree said she was always looking for groups that were young and hungry, but already stellar. Those groups have a passion for developing new audiences, she said, and many of those she had in the early days are now world-renowned chamber groups.

Thirty years later the series is still going stronger than ever. DuPree credits a lot of the success to the board she is surrounded by and community support. Their last fundraiser raised more than $60,000 for their endowment, she said.

DuPree said the intimacy between the musicians and the audience is the biggest difference between chamber performances and the average concerts.

"You aren't just hearing music, but watching the act of music being made," she said. "All kinds of music can be chamber if performed this way."

As the series grew, DuPree was able to expand the experience outside UI classes to the community as a whole, with performances at K-12 schools throughout the region.

"When we started 30 years ago, it was just a concert, but 30 years later, now I think what we are doing is even more important," DuPree said. "Music is one of the most powerful forces for inspiration."

DuPree said bringing music to young students in Idaho is especially close to her heart, because funding for programs like music gets cut back or eliminated when schools lack funds.

Now that she is stepping away from the series, DuPree said she hopes it keeps going strong.

After retiring from teaching seven years ago, DuPree said she had been planning her retirement from the Auditorium Chamber Music Series for about five years.

"For me it was a challenge because it had been my baby for so long," she said.

Retirement hasn't slowed DuPree too much.

"I've always wanted to do something related to what I see as a crisis with global warming," she said.

Now that she has the time, DuPree has taken leadership of the Idaho side of the Palouse chapter of the Citizen's Climate Lobby, working to lobby Congress to pass legislation to combat climate change.

"We have to convince people it is not a political issue," she said.

She said it can be a very intense role trying to jump over those political versus scientific hurdles, but it is one she loves taking head-on. She realized she can use her talents constructively to persuade and organize on behalf of the group.

DuPree said she is also enjoying babysitting her 1-year-old grandson on weekdays.

Samantha Malott can be reached at (208) 883-4639, or by email to smalott@dnews.com.