Choir Director Lisa Utecht is planning on retiring at the end of the year, and to take her place has found a co-teacher to assist her in her classes. The new Choir Director Abbe Lane started on Jan. 12, right before second semester, and has been working with Utecht since. Lane is using this semester as training to take Utechts place.
“I interviewed for this position to co-teach with Mrs. Utecht after doing a mock interview with Principal Bednarek to just practice doing interviews. Then he asked if I wanted to interview with him and Principal Pariso and the other music department staff to see if I would be a good fit. It turns out I was a good fit, and now I co-teach every day with Mrs. Utecht,” Lane said.
Lane graduated from Ripon College in May of 2022, where she received both a music education degree and a theater arts degree.
“I wanted to be a teacher to help music students understand that they are good at what they do and they deserve to be doing it. I believe that all students are capable of making music, and I want to give them a supportive, happy place to do that,” Lane said.
Utecht said she finds Lane’s assistance very relieving, and her positive attitude is well received by their students. The choir has quite a bit of work to do making Lane a massive help.
“She shares all five choirs with me, three at the middle school and two at the high school. She also shares doing voice lessons with the high school students, our homeroom and working a bit with the extracurricular groups. We have a rotating schedule where she does two days of middle school while I do two days of high school and then we switch the next two days – she does two days of high school while I do two days of middle school. When it gets to the week before our concerts, we will probably both do all five choirs each day, but only part of the hour,” Utecht said.
Lane says she is happy to be teaching here at the school and is enjoying her time. In her freetime, she enjoys going on walks, going to coffee shops, and watching “Grey’s Anatomy” and football. She also has two playful kittens.
“I’m really excited to be working with the middle school and high school. I’m not sure where the future will take me, but I am happy to be working in Berlin and living back in my college town right now,” Lane said.