Kathleen Lamkin For many professors, the line between profession and hobby may be blurred. For Kathleen Lamkin, the line just doesn’t exist. “My job is connected with music,” said the musicologist and ULV professor of music, who frequently blasts her classical pieces at home, much to the chagrin of her neighbors. “I get to teach what I would do anyway. For me, it’s all tied in.” This unabashed lover of music and culture spends every waking hour thinking about, studying and enjoying music. She holds season tickets to the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Opera. She loves it all. “My favorite piece is the piece I’m listening to at the time,” she said. It is her innate passion. If she worked any other job, it would simply get in the way. As a professor of music, she gets paid to pursue her hobby. And this hobby has taken her abroad numerous times. As she calls traveling one of her main hobbies, it is actually a byproduct of – surprise, surprise – her pursuit of music. “Travel is high up there on my list,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever traveled outside of the U.S. unless it’s something associated with music. Travel and music have always been connected.” With the exception of places like Mexico City and Acapulco, Lamkin generally ventures to central Europe – admittedly her favorite musical region – most frequently heading to a town called Eisenstadt in Austria, about 35 miles from Vienna. In fact, for the past 22 years, she has been associated with a Classical Music Festival to honor Haydn, who used to play at the Esterhazy Palace in Forchtenstein, Austria. Pictures of Haydn, admittedly her favorite classical musician, adorn her office walls, in addition to literature and brochures about his concerts and music. Lamkin has even taken a few ULV students to this two-week extravaganza, in which a choir and orchestra play a series of concerts throughout Europe. A pianist since age 9 and violinist since age 11, Lamkin even plays at the festival, one of her relatively few performances throughout the year. She prefers to focus much more on musicology than performance. And soon, with her sabbatical looming over the horizon, she will actually spend the entire semester in Eisenstadt, studying newly-discovered documents dealing with Esterhazy music. “I am so excited about this,” said Lamkin, her eyes wide and glowing, as they always do when she talks about music. “I’m really looking forward to being able to focus.” For many, the simple task of focusing may sound mundane, but not for Lamkin. Focusing is actually something she’s struggled with all her life. In fact, her lack of focus was part of the reason she strayed from performance into musicology. She simply becomes interested in too many things. “It’s always been hard for me to focus,” she said, “because I like everything. I’m more of a generalist.” For one, she loves languages, “learning the language so you know the culture better,” she said. She speaks conversational German, although she brings her dictionary with her when she visits Eisenstadt. “That’s really the only language I know well,” said Lamkin, who also speaks a bit of Czech, French and a few words in Hungarian. Then there’s the food. “I love food, and I love eating,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s a hobby. I like to eat better than I like to cook.” And reading. By choice, as if anyone would be surprised, Lamkin generally reads things inside her profession, rarely venturing out – including newspapers and news journals, among other things. Architecture: Particularly interested in music halls, Lamkin said she finds places like the Disney Hall, L.A. Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or the Vienna Opera House stunning. “It’s being in a particular place or seeing a particular space that I find fascinating,” she said. As a musician, she especially takes pleasure in the acoustics of music halls. Again unsurprisingly, she talks about Haydn Hall, a “small” hall that seats about 600. “The acoustics in there are some of the best,” she said. “For a musician, that’s everything. If I could do it again, I might study architecture. If you only had another lifetime to do all these things, it would be nice.” And then there’s football; wait, football? “This is kind of crazy, but I like football,” said the Texas native. “Everybody would support what the high school did. High school football was a big thing. And I still enjoy that.” Although she admits to enjoying collegiate sports as a whole more than professional, she still watches it all. But, as expected, it all comes back to music. “Maybe I like it because music is sort of the same way,” she said. “It’s the whole thing of getting together and producing something that brings people together.” RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:lamkink@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_1
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