Alex Wurl is a senior studying music education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He’s currently student teaching at Barrett’s Elementary in Manchester and recently landed a full-time job with St. Louis Children’s Choirs. (Photo courtesy of Alex Wurl)

Alex Wurl has lived in the St. Louis area his entire life and has been involved with music for almost as long, having fallen in love with it at age 10. But he hadn’t even heard of local organizations like Pianos for People or The St. Louis Children’s Choirs until he started working with the Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative as a music education major at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

“That astounds me as someone who’s been involved in music since I was 10,” he said. “If I had known about the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, I guarantee you I would have been a part of it, but it was just never brought to me. And when you’re a kid, you don’t really understand how to go out and look for opportunities like that.”

For the past year, Wurl has been working hard to expand opportunities for students across St. Louis to get involved with music and fine arts through the Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative. As president of the organization’s student cabinet, Wurl worked closely with his fellow committee members and Michael V. Smith, UMSL’s E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Music Education, to strengthen connections between the collaborative and its many partner organizations across St. Louis.

“(Michael) is really interested in spreading the word through public schools and private schools and getting all of these very critical musical experiences in front of kids so that they can make an educated choice of whether or not they want to join by knowing what opportunities are before them,” Wurl said. “I feel like if we can make these opportunities more accessible and visible to kids interested in music, it will absolutely strengthen the music scene in St. Louis and the desire to promote the arts.”

Wurl was first introduced to the world of musical performance when he took piano lessons as a kid for three years before he pivoted to concert band in middle school. Playing trumpet, he realized how much fun performing could be and how much he enjoyed connecting with people and being part of an ensemble. At Lindbergh High School in South County, he studied music theory and joined the choir during his senior year.

“It completely changed the idea of an ensemble being a family,” Wurl said. “I thought band was great; band was nothing compared to the community that choir built.”

After graduating high school in 2020, Wurl studied at Truman State University for a semester before transferring to UMSL to be closer to home. Upon starting at UMSL as a music education major, he quickly found a home in the tightknit Department of Music, and found being part of the university’s choirs to be a life-changing experience. He was not involved with the Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative until last fall, but it quickly opened doors and expanded his horizons.

“We all worked toward the same goal of bringing more attention to the Des Lee fine arts program, our collaborators, people we work with throughout St. Louis, and how we are trying to benefit music education from elementary all the way up to the collegiate level,” Wurl said.

Wurl, who is now in his final semester at UMSL, initially started working with The St. Louis Children’s Choirs as a floating ensemble assistant and was quickly asked to take on some office hours to help with behind-the-scenes work. Knowing administrative work, including data collection and analysis, would be an important skillset to have as a music educator, he jumped at the chance.

When another ensemble assistant position opened up, Wurl increased his office hours yet again and, not long after, was offered a full-time job as enrollment manager in June. Wurl, who will officially move into his full range of duties when his student teaching wraps up next year, helps compile data for auditions, greets families on audition days and stays in touch with them to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

“What I love so much about The St. Louis Children’s Choirs is you’re meeting kids outside of your school,” he said. “And for young kids that are maybe shy and don’t want to go to these huge carnival events, these opportunities are so important. I grew up in St. Louis my whole life and I don’t think I really knew anyone outside of my neighbors or the people I went to school with at Lindbergh.”

Wurl has enjoyed getting to know so many students and their families through The St. Louis Children’s Choirs – he even sees multiple SLCC singers this semester at his student teaching placement, Barretts Elementary in Manchester. He’s seen many music educators struggle with classroom management, so he felt it was important to get early childcare experience and work on his classroom management skills.

At Barretts, he’s student teaching alongside Bridget Zimmermann, who has been the school’s general music teacher since 1999. Wurl has enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look into the classroom and dipping his toe into the water, learning how Zimmermann organizes lesson plans and gradually taking over the teaching process.

“I really thought I would be more nervous, but my work with SLCC and being an ensemble assistant, being in front of kids every day, has made me so comfortable,” Wurl said. “I can get in front of them to teach a lesson. Bridget sees these kids from the ages of 6, sometimes even 5, through 11, and she has authority over what they learn in music. It’s a very intimidating task, but when you get it right and when you can actually see how these kids have grown over six years, it’s one of the most rewarding feelings. I cannot wait to watch it myself over these next five months.”

Wurl sees his work at SLCC and Barretts dovetailing nicely, as he’s gaining experience both on the education side in a public school and in an extracurricular program. He’s excited to spend more time in a traditional classroom environment to help him decide if he can see himself working as a music teacher or a choral director – or both.

“Being a director is very different from a music teacher,” he said. “When you are a music teacher you are exposing them to the entire world of music. Nothing is off limits. They need to be shown just how big the world is and how different music is across it. But when you’re a choral director, you have a process and an end goal. The end goal for all choral directors that are phenomenal is the process; it’s not the concert. What they want to do is instruct choral techniques and critical thinking skills when it comes to music analysis, emoting and using proper voice techniques. An elementary music classroom is very expository – showing them the world – but for choral directors, it’s much more precision-based.”

As he gains more experience as a music educator, Wurl also hopes to build on his work with the Des Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative to continue to help kids across St. Louis get more involved in music by immersing them in concerts and other experiences outside the classroom.

“I think the world is way too divided nowadays, and changing music education will strengthen our social ability,” he said. “Seeing these young singers at the Children’s Choirs bridge the gap – you have people from Illinois coming into St. Louis just for the choirs. They’re crossing state lines. I lived in Sunset Hills, and I didn’t even go to Kirkwood – like 10 minutes away – but it felt a world away when I was a kid. To bridge these gaps is the most critical thing we can do for connecting the world and getting more kids interested in the performing arts.”